The Sloan Consortium to Present APUS with the 2009 Ralph E. Gomory
Award for Quality Online Education at Annual Conference
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 29, 2009--
In recognition of outstanding quality in online learning, The Sloan
Consortium (Sloan-C) will present American
Public University System (APUS) with the 2009 Ralph E. Gomory Award
for Quality Online Education at the 15th Sloan-C Annual
International Conference in October. APUS is a regionally and nationally
accredited online institution of higher education operating through two
universities, American
Military University and American
Public University, which educate more than 53,000 adult learners
worldwide.
The Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education honors the
institution that best demonstrates its commitment to assessing and
improving the quality of its online education programs through
quantitative application of the Sloan-C Quality Pillars; specific
characteristics that exemplify best practices in online higher
education. The five interdependent pillars, upon which quality online
education practices are based, include: access, learning effectiveness,
scale, student satisfaction and faculty satisfaction.
“The consortium recognized American Public University System primarily
for its excellence in collecting analytics across the enterprise – from
managing enrollment and retention to assessing outcomes in student
learning and faculty satisfaction,” said Dr. Burks Oakley III of
Sloan-C. “APUS has designed and implemented a sound and effective
data-driven approach to managing all aspects of the learning enterprise
in a manner that is exemplary of the world’s best online educational
practices.”
The Sloan Consortium is an organization of universities, colleges and
institutions committed to advancing effective practices in online
education and expanding the quality of online higher education.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by this prestigious community
of higher education institutions,” said Dr. Frank McCluskey, Provost of
APUS. “We shaped our institutional practices around the Sloan-C Quality
Pillars and they have become an integral part of our institution and
mission. We believe that they accurately represent the foundation by
which online students are best served and through their application,
learning is most effective.”
“The heart of our university’s approach to academic quality is
data-driven decision-making to measure learning. Each day we utilize our
data warehouse, graphical dashboards, standard statistical measures,
semantic analysis engines and other tools to help us analyze, manage and
improve student learning,” added Dr. McCluskey.
APUS embraces the Community of Inquiry Framework survey as an end
of course survey to measure student engagement and learning, as part of
its daily effort to improve learning. In addition, the institution uses
many nationally benchmarked tools such as the Measure of Academic
Proficiency and Progress (MAPP), National Survey of Student Engagement
(NSSE) and the Major Field Test—a comprehensive outcomes assessment
designed to measure the critical knowledge in a particular field—to
benchmark students against national norms for continuous improvement.
Dr. Phil Ice, the Director of Course Design, Research & Development for
American Public University System, will also be awarded the 2009 Sloan-C
Effective Practice Award for Using the Community of Inquiry Framework
Survey for Multi-Level Institutional Evaluation and Continuous Quality
Improvement.
Wallace E. Boston, Jr., President of APUS, stated, “Congratulations to
our faculty and staff who continually apply best practices to the
classroom and remain dedicated to providing the best possible higher
education to students. Our university community is grateful for their
hard work and unyielding commitment to student success.”
“I respect and appreciate the Sloan Consortium’s leadership in
researching and promoting best practices in online higher education and
I am grateful that our university has been recognized by this talented
community of higher education leaders,” added Mr. Boston.
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C)
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is an institutional and professional
leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into
the mainstream of higher education, helping institutions and individual
educators improve the quality, scale, and breadth of online education.
Sloan-C supports the collaborative sharing of knowledge and effective
practices to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access,
affordability for learning and providers, and students and faculty
satisfaction. For more information, visit www.sloan-c.org.
About American Public University System
American Public University System (APUS) includes American Public
University and American Military University and educates more than
53,000 adult learners worldwide. APUS’s relevant curriculum,
affordability and flexibility helps working adults pursue degrees in
subjects ranging from homeland security to management and liberal arts.
A university book grant supplies textbooks at no cost for eligible
undergraduate students. For more information, visit www.apus.edu.
Source: American Public University System (APUS)
American
Public University System
Renée Hockaday, 703-334-3868
rhockaday@apus.edu