Diane Nolan, information technology associate in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, will retire Sept. 4 after a 20-year department career at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Nolan will be honored at a retirement celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 3 at the Goodding Learning Center in Plant Sciences Hall. Snacks and refreshments will be served. Anyone who wants to share thoughts, stories, best wishes or photos to celebrate her retirement can sign Nolan’s online guest book.
From student to technology pioneer
Lincoln is Nolan’s hometown, but she left in 1969 to attend Northwestern University, where she met and married her husband, Michael. The couple later returned to Lincoln where Nolan not only raised her two sons but also earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Nebraska in 1982. In 1995, she earned a teaching certificate in mathematics, followed by a Master of Education in 2000, both from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Nolan played an important role in the university’s early computer-assisted instruction. While earning her master’s degree, she co-authored the second edition of “Web-Teaching: A Guide for Designing Interactive Teaching for the World Wide Web” with Nebraska professor David W. Brooks. The book was published in 2001 and explains how to use internet tools for classroom instruction.
Helping faculty navigate a changing classroom
In 2006, when Nolan’s husband saw an ad in the Lincoln Journal Star seeking a computer information assistant for the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, his immediate reaction was, “Diane, I think they wrote this ad for you!”
As the full-time supervisor of the department’s computer lab in the Goodding Learning Center — which, at the time, included 15 desktop computers and 30 laptops — Nolan supported educational efforts by helping faculty, staff and students expand their use of software applications.
“Diane Nolan joined our department as we were all starting to learn how to use course management systems,” Donald J. Lee, professor emeritus, said. “I wanted to give some quizzes in Blackboard a try, so in Diane’s first week, I gave her a floppy disk with several multiple-choice quizzes. I expected it to take a few weeks for her to explore how to build quizzes and then enter the questions and answers.
“The next day, when I stopped by her Goodding Learning Center workstation, she said: ‘I got all your quizzes in, Don; go in and check them out. Let me know when you have more work.’ I immediately sent an email to other teachers to share that we had a new team member who was going to help us navigate this new world of teaching technology.”
Faculty worked with Nolan to use Blackboard and later Canvas as they incorporated more technology into their courses. She helped expand the Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary, and in recent years, she spent a great deal of time working with both experienced and new professors to make the most of their courses.
“Diane’s work on PASSeL has directly contributed to the consistent delivery of resources to learners around the world,” Leah Sandall, distance education coordinator, said. “Her willingness to work through questions and challenges over the years has helped us create a better product.”
Her work also included printing, proofreading textbooks and articles, editing department seminar and student defense videos, assisting the department’s office professionals, and computerizing routine tasks for faculty, such as grading, to reduce their workloads.
A career rooted in service
In 2009, Nolan received the CASNR Week Outstanding Staff Member Award, selected by students. In 2017, Nolan was honored by the university’s Horticulture Club and the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Pi Alpha Xi with the President’s Citation.
“I’m most proud of helping so many people in our agronomy and horticulture community and finding answers for students, faculty and staff, even when I didn’t know the answer myself,” Nolan said. “I just enjoyed helping others with anything to do with computers, except the hardware!”
Nolan’s connection to agriculture runs deep. Her great-grandfather operated a greenhouse and nursery, and her maternal grandfather was a farmer. Nolan and her siblings also grew victory gardens in the 1950’s, and her family’s love of gardening continues today.
In retirement, Nolan said she looks forward to gardening, tutoring math, celebrating her 54th wedding anniversary in September and traveling to her husband’s 60th high school reunion in 2027 in Hanover, Illinois.
