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The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth 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. Created with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sloan-C encourages the collaborative sharing of knowledge and effective practices to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access, affordability for learners and providers, and student and faculty satisfaction. Sloan-C maintains a catalog of degree and certificate programs offered by a wide range of regionally accredited member institutions, consortia, and industry partners; provides speakers and consultants to help institutions learn about online methodologies; hosts conferences and workshops to help implement and improve online programs; publishes a newsletter, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), and annual volumes of applied research studies; and conducts research, surveys and forums to inform academic, government and private sector audiences. Sloan-C also offers services such as awards, conferences and workshops, an effective practices database, and listing in the Sloan-C catalog for members with online degree and certificate programs.
Since its inception just 10 years ago the Sloan Consortium has sought to enlighten the academic community by making the case for asynchronous learning on traditional "turf" and in traditional terms. Sloan-C's five "pillars" focus on what matters most to stakeholders (students, faculty and administrators): learning and cost effectiveness, faculty and student satisfaction, and access. By highlighting "best practices" and empirical research findings, and furthermore, through its workshops, seminars and support of numerous projects, Sloan-C has become a true academic forum for learning what works and what doesn't work, in e-learning.
The Southern Regional Education Board has a similar, albeit shorter history, in its work involving technology in education. SREB’s seven year old Electronic Campus (www.electroniccampus.org), the South’s "electronic marketplace" of e-learning courses, programs and services, continues to grow. Early in 2004, an expanded Electronic Campus was launched, adding a variety of services, including online applications, financial aid, career services and campus tours to its listing of over 10,000 credit courses and 500 degree programs from 300 colleges and universities from it 16 member states*. The Electronic Campus now hosts a specialized portal for teachers (www.theteachercenter.org) to serve the needs of k-12 educators and administrators and is adding features focusing on the needs of adult learners. Much of the work of SREB focuses on addressing policy "barriers" in e-learning and has developed both an agenda of the barriers and suggested approaches to overcoming them. In its report "Technology Can Extend Access to Postsecondary Education: An Action Agenda for the South" (endorsed by the Executive Committee and the Board as the region's agenda), four broad areas are targeted:
SREB’s efforts now focus on promoting initiatives to achieve these ends.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (www.sloan.org), a philanthropic nonprofit institution, was established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr., then President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation. For many years Mr. Sloan had devoted the largest share of his time and energy to philanthropic activities, both as a private donor to many causes and organizations and through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Mr. Sloan, as a realist as well as a humanist and philanthropist, looked upon the Foundation as an extension of his own life and work. Although he recognized the inevitability of change that might dictate a different course, he expected the Foundation would "continue as an operating facility indefinitely into the future...to represent my accomplishments in this life." His accomplishments during his lifetime were of the highest order, and in themselves provide the most dramatic and lasting tribute to his extraordinary talent. Through the Foundation, his accomplishments have been extended and expanded.
The Foundation's programs and interests are divided into five main areas outlined as follows:
* Member states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Co-Chairs: Burks Oakley II, Ph.D., Sloan-C, Board of Directors Member; Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois John Bourne, Sloan-C, Executive Director; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Olin College, Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship at Babson College
Members: Frank Mayadas, Ph.D., Sloan-C, President; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Program Director Bruce Chaloux, Ph.D., Sloan-C Board of Directors; Southern Regional Education Board, Director of the Electronic Campus Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus, Director, Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning, University of Illinois at Springfield
Staff: Mary Larson, Southern Regional Education Board, Associate Director of the Electronic Campus Janet Moore, Sloan-C, Chief Learning Officer Martine Dawant, Sloan-C, Director of Technical Operations Jeff Seaman, Ph.D., Sloan-C, Chief Information Officer and Survey Director Keith Bourne, Sloan-C, Chief Operations Officer
Press Contact: Patti Giglio, PSG Communications, Media Relations Specialist
List as of September 26, 2005
