Of value to practitioners in the full range of educational contexts, the sixteen wisdom papers in this collection include perspectives ranging from programs and institutions to effective practices to insights about the future of higher education as new models emerge that will improve learning effectiveness, cost effectiveness, access, faculty satisfaction and student satisfaction.

Each year, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation invites practitioners to a workshop to confer and share their practical research on specific challenges of importance to quality online education. These summer research workshops result in the publication of annual volumes in the Sloan Consortium quality series and in online workshops that use the annual volumes as a starting point for disseminating information and building knowledge with a wider audience. The 2003 Summer Research Workshop produced volume 5 in the Sloan-C series on quality education: Elements of Quality Online Education: Into the Mainstream—focusing on student satisfaction, learning effectiveness, blended environments, and assessment—and in online research workshops that have engaged more than 500 practitioners from many schools, organizations, and nations in exploring new models for excellence in online education.

In 2003, summer research workshop participants were also invited to do something new—to provide brief perspectives on topics of their own, relating their own experiences and perspectives that are useful to other practitioners.The sixteen wisdom papers in this collection represent views ranging from programs and institutions, to effective practices, and to insights that will affect the future of learning.

Introduction

Janet C. Moore, John Bourne, and Frank Mayadas

I. Institutional and Program Perspectives

1. The Value of Online Learning: Perspectives from the University of Illinois at Springfield
   Burks Oakley II
2. Lessons from the ALN Home Front: Pace University’s 2003 NACTEL Graduates and Educational Learning Theory
   David A. Sachs
3. A Viable Opportunity for Deaf Results in Effective Strategies for All
   Joeann Humbert and Karen Vignare
4. Year-Round College Instruction and ALN
   Victor Kobayashi
5. A Systems Approach to Effective Online Teaching and Learning: A Preliminary Examination of Linkages Between Student and Faculty Satisfaction
   Tana Bishop and Claudine SchWeber

II. Effective Practices

1. Increasing Design and Development Productivity for Computer-Aided Online Learning
   Olin Campbell
2. Assisting Students with Self-Directed Learning Skills
   Lynn Hunter and Susan Nesbitt
3. The Virtues of Teaching Literature Online
   Razak Dahmane
4. The Liberal Arts Ideal in an Asynchronous Age
   Cornell J. Reinhart
5. The Delphi Process as a Collaborative Learning Method
   Murray Turoff, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Zheng Li, Yuanqiong Wang, and Hee Kyung Cho

III. The Future

1. Online Learning Has Come of Age: Four New Frames of Reference
   John Sener
2. Second-Generation Faculty Development for Online Learning: Community-Building and Resource-Sharing
   George Otte
3. At the Crossroads: “The Long Now,” A Future of Possibilities
   Janet K. Poley
4. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the Breakthrough Series Model (BTS) for Collaborative Improvement
   Penny Carver
5. Online Education in the Mainstream: Missing Markets, Digital Immigrants, and Variable Costs
   Gregory W. Hislop
6. Increasing Adult Access to E-Learning: Five Strategies for Overcoming Policy Barriers
   Bruce Chaloux