Academic Affairs Office of the Provost
1201 S. State Street
Timme Center, CSS 310
Big Rapids, MI 49307
(231) 591-2300
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The Excellence in Course Assessment Award recognizes a member of the academic community based on excellence in the use of assessment data in a course to improve student learning. Sarah Hinkley, Professor in the Michigan College of Optometry, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Course Assessment Award.
Hinkley is Chief of Vision Rehabilitation Services. She completed her undergraduate education at Ferris State University as a member of the Honors Program in its first year of inception. After graduating from the Michigan College of Optometry in 2004, she began a position in a large private practice in Maumee, Ohio, concentrating on contact lenses, pediatrics, vision therapy, and learning-related vision disorders.
“Dr. Hinkley has done an outstanding job of tying her course outcomes to her assessment method and then making changes to her courses based on that assessment,” says Robert Buckingham. “For example, [she] noticed that her students rated their case history ability very high. So, Dr. Hinkley cut back on the lecture time on case history taking and focused more time on what is different with a low vision case history versus a typical case history.”
Roberta Teahen says Hinkley, “Has identified multiple methods for assessment, including course evaluations and pre-post test results… [Hinkley’s] assessment approach takes advantage of embedded methods and reports succinctly and quantitatively on learning success.”
Hinkley is the recipient of many national, state, and local research and program grants focusing on sports eyewear protection for children, low vision rehabilitation, school-based eye examinations, glaucoma awareness, and interdisciplinary vision rehabilitation, among others.
She serves as the Alumni Coordinator for the Michigan College of Optometry where she works to enhance communication with alumni and enhance relationships between alumni and the college and the University. Hinkley was awarded the 2009 Michigan Young Optometrist of the Year and Outstanding Professor of the Year for the Third Year Class in 2008-2009.