Assiniboine professor, Richard Little, receives 2022 ACBSP Teaching Excellence Award

Assiniboine Community College instructor, Richard Little, has been named a regional recipient of the 2022 ACBSP Teaching Excellence Award. The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) recognizes individuals each year who exemplify teaching excellence in the classroom.

“I have worked with Richard for roughly ten years and feel he is worthy of this award. Rich came from industry and with that background has brought a lot of real-life cases and expectations to his classes. He is a firm believer in experiential learning and has incorporated that philosophy in all his classes. Students aren’t sitting around listening to him talk, they’re up moving around, working in groups, taking part in engaging activities, and ultimately having fun,” said Geoff Milne, Chairperson School of Business at Assiniboine.

“Having fun doesn’t mean sacrificing academic rigor, but it does mean that students will have more engaging and fulfilling experiences,” said Little. “To me, excellence is a process requiring as much failure as it does success. Finding joy in the daily grind of what we do; developing courses, creating learning activities, giving feedback—that’s teaching excellence”

Little will be honored, along with other regional recipients, at the ACBSP Conference 2022, June 17-20 in Washington, D.C. He will receive a crystal medallion and a $500 cheque. Two International Teaching Excellence Award recipients will be announced at the ACBSP Accreditation and Awards Gala, one from a baccalaureate/graduate degree-granting institution and one from an associate degree-granting institution. As a regional recipient, Little is now a candidate for the international award.

“It is more important than ever for business programs to produce graduates who are ready to enter the global marketplace,” said Jeffrey Alderman, ACBSP President and CEO. “ACBSP has a mission to develop, promote and recognize best practices that contribute to continuous improvement of business education. Recognition of teaching excellence is one way we achieve this goal.”

The ACBSP Associate Degree Commission established the International Teaching Excellence Award in 1995 to recognize outstanding classroom teachers. In 2002, the Baccalaureate Degree Commission created a similar award to recognize excellence in teaching at the baccalaureate/graduate degree level. ACBSP is the only specialized body for business schools that presents an award recognizing excellence in teaching, open to application by the entire membership.

“The quest to find different ways to reach learners, or delivering a new learning activity, knowing it just might fail, that’s teaching excellence. When students use what they’ve learned to help make some sense out of their complex lives, or tell you how much they enjoyed your course, that’s teaching excellence. Excellence in teaching is all those things and more, but its not a destination, it’s a process,” said Little.

(ACC News)