The winner of the 2025 Quality Impact Award is Tina Calandrino. Since joining the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) as an instructional designer, she has completed over 70 reviews resulting in 49 Quality/High Quality Online designations and 14 Quality/High Quality Blended designations. By combining data-informed strategies, long-term faculty partnerships, and sustained support, her work has helped to contribute to UCF’s broader goals of academic excellence and student success in online learning environments.
Beginning with her instructional design roots, her work started as early as faculty going through IDL6543 training where she introduced the Quality and High Quality standards as part of best practices. Once a faculty member was assigned to her caseload, she then continued to collaborate and work with them beyond foundational training and provided individualized support through the course development and review process.
In Tina’s narrative, one such example she provided was her work with Dr. Daniel Eadens and his EDF7471: Program Evaluation for Educational Leaders course. They worked together through a multi-phase improvement process – from an undesignated version to achieving the Quality designation to eventually earning the High Quality designation. Through intentional alignment of learning objectives, content, and assessment, Tina and Dr. Eadens improved clarity, accessibility, and engagement within the course. Following these enhancements, student success outcomes significantly improved, with final course grade distributions showing a 7% increase in overall student achievement. This is only one example of how the close collaboration between a faculty member and their instructional designer can enhance a great course to make it even better.
Across multiple departments, I’ve supported courses in Education, Health Sciences, and interdisciplinary programs, many of which are now designated Quality or High Quality. These efforts collectively impact hundreds of students each semester and ensure a more equitable, engaging, and outcomes-focused learning experience.
To help support the efforts of the Quality Initiative, Tina’s strategic approach included identifying high-enrollment, GEP, and major-required courses that would benefit from review and enhancement. She also is dedicated to regular communication with her faculty to not only provide resources or inquire about a review, but as well as to consistently follow-up with them during the review process. Another large part of her efforts is dedicated to ensuring accessibility within the courses, which is a growing standard and priority across the university.
Tina’s careful dedication to building a relationship with her faculty and partnering to better the experience of their students, as well as continually promoting the work of the Quality and High Quality review process to faculty, undeniably shows her dedication towards the Quality Initiative. She is a well-deserved recipient for this award. Congratulations!
Review Committee Members:
Anastasia Bojanowski, FCTL
Gail Humiston, 2024 Dziuban Award Recipient
Charlotte Jones-Roberts, CDL Instructional Designer and the 2024 Award Winner
Debra Luken, CDL Instructional Designer
Tracey Morrison, Continuing Education
Nafije Prishtina, CDL iDev
Nicole Stahl, iLab (Committee Facilitator)