Sloan-C Honors Effective Practices in Online Learning

Needham, MA -- The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), an association of more than 400 institutions and organizations of higher education engaged in online learning, will present the 2003 awards for effective practices in online learning at the 9th Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida, November 15, 2003. Sloan-C is based at Olin and Babson Colleges.

Online learning has greatly progressed since 1992 when the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began giving grants to institutions for online learning initiatives. "In the past decade we've gone from several hundred students enrolled in online education courses to two million," said Frank Mayadas, President of Sloan-C. "This is in no small part, due to the efforts of the individuals who have advanced the field and the institutions that are leading the way."

The Sloan-C 2003 award for LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS will be awarded to Dr. Jeremy Dunning, of Indiana University Bloomington who designed a set of learning objects to be sharable and adaptable for various teaching styles. A move toward the next generation of learning objects, this practice is elegant in its simplicity and potential for multiple uses.

Dr. J. Olin Campbell, associate professor in instructional performance and technology at Brigham Young University, will receive the award for COST EFFECTIVENESS for sharing an outstanding project that uses simulated electronics laboratories to increase access and decrease trips to a physical lab, while achieving learning equivalent outcomes.

The award for ACCESS will be presented to Dr. Jimmy Reeves, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Dr. Doris Kimbrough, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Colorado at Denver for their development of home-based science laboratories which have enabled students to complete lab-based science courses in online.

Dr. Melody Thompson, Director of the American Center for the Study of Distance Education will receive the award for FACULTY SATISFACTION for a self-study research project that she and colleagues conducted at the Pennsylvania State University World Campus to help faculty and administrators better understand faculty workload.

The award for STUDENT SATISFACTION will be presented to Dr. James Theroux of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for sharing the practice of a Real-Time Case Method that provides access to real-time, real-world cases for students at several universities.

The 2003 Sloan-C Awards will be presented at the 9th Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida, on November 15, 2001. Effective Practices were nominated by the Sloan-C editors: Dr. Meg Benke of Empire State College, Dr. Tana Bishop of the University of Maryland University College, Dr. Melody Thompson of The Pennsylvania State University World Campus, Mr. John Sener of Sener Learning Services, and Dr. Karen Swan of Kent State University. Awardees were selected by were selected by an invited panel of judges: Dr. Bruce N. Chaloux, Director of the Electronic Campus of the Southern Regional Education Board; Dr. Jacqueline Moloney, Dean of Continuing, Corporate and Distance Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Dr. George Otte, Director of Instructional Technology, City University of New York; Dr. Cornell Reinhart, Director of University without Walls, Skidmore College; Ms. Carol Scarafiotti, Dean of Instruction, Rio Salado College; Dr. Peter Shea, Director, State University of New York Learning Network; and Dr. Janet Moore, Chief Learning Officer, The Sloan Consortium at the Sloan Center for OnLine Learning at Olin and Babson Colleges in Needham, MA (non-voting chair).

The purpose of Sloan-C is to help continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of online learning so that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines. Created with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sloan-C encourages the collaborative sharing of knowledge and effective practices. Membership is open to academic institutions, government and corporate agencies, and organizations that support quality in higher education. See www.sloan-c.org for more information.