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WVU Grad Wins Best ETD Award
West Virginia University doctoral graduate Rachel Gurvitch has been declared one of the winners of the "Innovative ETD Award" in an international competition presented by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), a consortium of over 200 Universities worldwide.
According to NDLTD Board member and WVU ETD Program Coordinator John H. Hagen,
"Electronic theses and dissertations submitted for this award represent student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of ETDs. This award recognizes innovative use of software to create "cutting edge" ETDs. Use of renderings, photos and other multimedia objects that are included in the document were considered as part of the innovation of the work. The award includes a $400 cash prize (sponsored by Adobe, Inc.) and an honorable mention at the ETD 2005 Symposium, to be held this year at the University of New South Wales, Australia, September 28th - 30th. We are very proud that a WVU Alum has again received this considerable recognition; last year WVU graduate Hilary Attfield received this award."
Gurvitch, a graduate of the WVU School of Physical Education program, developed a multimedia dissertation which represents the first attempt ever at developing Computer Mediated Simulation (CMS) application training for preservice physical education teachers.
Her dissertation titled The Development and Validation of a Computer Mediated Simulation (CMS) Training Application Designed to Enhance Task Modification Decisions among Preservice Physical Education Teachers involved the development of (CMS) application training for the purpose of enhancing decision making skills development. The purpose of this study was to develop the CMS training application designed to enhance appropriate interactive decisions among preservice physical education teachers, and to validate the CMS training application for this purpose. Throughout a series of three rounds of video clips and interactive questionnaires, each of the three CMS modules was validated on organization, layout and content. Gurvitch is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology And Health at Georgia State University.
Access to Gurvitch's electronic dissertation is available online at: https://eidr.wvu.edu/etd/documentdata.eTD?documentid=3524
A video recording of Gurvitch's acceptance speech is also available online at www.wvu.edu/~thesis/News/etd_award_gurvitch.wmv
Other winners of the ETD 2005 Awards program are listed at http://www.ndltd.org/news/etd_award_winners_2005
WVU was the 2nd institution in the world to require ETD submission in 1998. WVU graduate research is now are accessed on the Web millions of times per year by academia, industry, government and the public from over 100 countries worldwide. ETDs are part of a growing trend of technological development that is transforming economies by providing access to research results to the world while bringing reciprocal investment back to the local level.
For more information contact John Hagen at (304) 293-4040, ext. 4025 or see www.wvu.edu/~thesis.
3 August 2005 / Morgantown, WV