Kelley Wins UCEA Community of Practice Award

Kim Kelley

By Chip Cassano

At the 2004 annual meeting of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), Kim Kelley, UMUC’s associate provost, Information and Library Services, received the Community of Practice Award for Excellence and Service in information resources management. The award, from one of the oldest college and university associations in the United States, served as a fitting tribute to an individual who plays an important role both at UMUC and in the broader academic community.

Kelley came to the University 13 years ago from the Smithsonian Institution. Initially, she served as UMUC’s director of Information and Library Services (ILS) and has since seen her role expand. She now oversees ILS, the Center for Intellectual Property (CIP), and the Career and Cooperative Education Center, as well as serving as co-chair of the steering committee that oversees UMUC’s preparation for the upcoming decennial accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Although the vitally important Middle States review looms large on Kelley’s horizon, it doesn’t overshadow her other priorities—working on the upcoming workshop and seminar series for CIP, continuing her own scholarship, and revitalizing the career center.

“We’re working to establish virtual career services that will be available 24-by-7, regardless of time or place,” said Kelley of UMUC’s “virtual” career center. “That’s certainly one of my all-consuming goals. We plan to make it possible for students to arrange for one-on-one or collaborative counseling as well as allowing them to put résumés online; just as important, we’re working to ensure that we attract employers, so that the material students post will get the attention of the right people. I think we can create a model for service that will be something that the University can be very proud of.”

At the same time, Kelley is putting the finishing touches on an article that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. The article addresses issues of academic integrity in online classrooms—an important concern and potential obstacle as online education becomes increasingly prevalent and popular—and draws on research Kelley conducted on perceptions of faculty who teach online.

“We surveyed faculty nationwide to find out their perceptions of why some students choose to cheat, and whether studying online or using digital texts are major contributing factors,” said Kelley. “We learned that [the faculty] don’t think they are contributing factors. They believe that certain students cheat for much the same reason that certain students have always cheated.”

A Maryland native, Kelley isn’t alone in her commitment to higher education. Her husband, Todd, serves as chief information officer for the University of the South—and, in fact, was instrumental in bringing her “back home” to Maryland.

“I tried to run far, far away at first,” said Kelley, who was born in Bethesda, Maryland. She did her undergraduate studies in Atlanta, Georgia, then moved to New York City. Eventually, though, she returned to Maryland, earning a PhD in education leadership policy and administration from the University of Maryland, College Park. “My husband got a job here, and he made me,” she said, laughing.