... From the Editors
A letter from the editors of the Sloan-C View

This issue reviews some community initiatives that show progress towards the Sloan-C goal of quality learning any time anywhere.

Sally Gilbert, Director of Administration for the TLT Group, provides an overview of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Group. Roxanne Hiltz of the New Jersey Institute of Technology invites readers to join the Web Center for Learning Effectiveness Research. In Hot Off the Blog, Ray Schroeder of the University of Illinois Springfield cites some underserved groups being reached through online learning. George Lorenzo, Editor of Educational Pathways, provides marketing tips you can use right away.

Effective marketing tops the list of interests, according to a recent Sloan-C survey. Thus, the first in a Sloan-C series of 2-hour seminars, MARKETING ONLINE PROGRAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, is now open for registration with activities beginning October 11.

Sloan-C’s online workshops and seminars are a natural springboard for networking, communities of inquiry, special interest groups, and greater collaboration across courses, programs, schools and nations. As ALN and Sloan-C grow, there are many interests that, when organized, can leverage our collective brain power.

For these purposes, Sloan-C researcher/practitioners identified hot topics for inter-institutional research. To see the topics and to add your own, please take a 2-minute online Sloan-C survey at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/sig-survey/survey.htm.

We look forward to seeing you online, and in person at the 10th Sloan-C International Conference on ALN: The Power of Online Learning—From Innovation to the Mainstream in Orlando, Florida, November 12-14, 2004. Please register early to save your place at a pre-conference workshop, Building the Sloan-C Communities of Inquiry on Friday, November 12 from 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. and at the ALN 2004 Interest Roundtables on Saturday, November 13, 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m. We will work on topics that include:  (1) what special interest groups should do, (2) what funding is needed, (3) types of deliverables: e.g., books, workshops, conference sessions and more. We want to create taxonomy of online learning and frame a common language that will help widen access to learning.

For details about the conference, see http://www.sloan-c.org/
conference/info/septcon04.asp.

We hope you will visit Sloan-C soon and often.

… for the Sloan Consortium

Frank Mayadas, John Bourne and Janet Moore

The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive missions, 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. You are welcome to join Sloan-C:
http://www.sloan-c.org