Awards

President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Technology - 2022

About Lamia Scherzinger

An early pioneer of online instruction, Lamia Scherzinger has created engaging virtual experiences and mentored faculty at IU, and other institutions, on how to leverage and integrate technology into their curricula. Scherzinger started at IUPUI in 2006 and has been teaching online at the School of Health and Human Sciences exclusively since 2011. She has served as the course coordinator for KINE-N200 (Nutrition for Health) since 2017.

She was the first person to have a Quality Matters certified course at IUPUI—a certification that demonstrates a faculty member’s commitment to creating an excellent online learning environment. Since then, she has advanced to becoming a national Quality Matters reviewer, mentoring colleagues in developing high-quality hybrid and online courses. During 2020, she volunteered to support many IU faculty members needing to convert their courses to online formats by sharing her expertise and resources.

With a wide range of learning technologies, Scherzinger has established an engaging space that encourages her students to think critically about fitness, health, and nutrition. One of the most innovative opportunities she created was a Virtual Study Abroad Experience for her students during the pandemic. Since study abroad experiences were canceled in 2020, and recognizing that students felt isolated, Scherzinger identified the need for a high-impact practice that offered similar outcomes. She created the virtual exchange—an approach that would engage students with peers in other countries to discuss how eating and nutrition can be affected by many external factors. Over several semesters, she set up exchanges with schools in the United Kingdom, Venezuela, and the Netherlands. With each country, she offered different experiences tailored to the partnering nation.

Scherzinger is the recipient of a Trustees Teaching Award, Emerging Excellence in Teaching Award, and several Favorite Professor Awards