In addition to grants to institutions to support the initiation or expansion of course and full degree programs that extend education via Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) to new populations of learners or that generate additional enrollments in existing ALN programs, the Foundation's ALN program also makes grants to disseminate knowledge to faculty about how best to begin using ALNs in courses, advance faculty development in state-of-the-art ALN teaching methodology, and enlist the interest of college and university administrators in ALN course and program development. This grant supports activities to promote quality in online education with breadth and scale of the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments at Olin and Babson Colleges, many focused on the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) and its member institutions. The Consortium has well over 1000 institutional members and continues to grow. Examples of ongoing activities that will be continued under this grant include: publication of the prestigious refereed scholarly journal JALN and the newsletters Sloan-C Views and Sloan-C Today; operation of the Sloan-C website (www.sloan-c.org); oversight of an active set of listservs featuring animated, interesting daily discussions; and organizing and conducting well-attended workshops for faculty and administrators who wish to acquire or improve their knowledge and skills for ALN teaching. Last year, the Olin group led by Professor Bourne assumed responsibility for the SloanSemester website that included registration information and a catalog of courses open to students in the tuition-free semester quickly made available to undergraduates impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They also handled the complex matter of accounting and payments to the 160 or so academic institutions participating in this special project. It is expected that the group would play a key role in any other special opportunities to advance the ALN program that may arise during the period of this new grant. Project Director: John Bourne, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

This grant supports a project to make ALN education a reality for American Indian learners at pueblos in New Mexico, by means of course offerings at New Mexico State University (NMSU) together with a partnership with a tribal college, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI). In addition to a continued need for traditional skills in law enforcement and land and tribal management, increased tourism and hotel and gaming activities have created new jobs for American Indians to be filled in management, sales, finance, and floor-level activities like cashiering and security. Some new ALN courses will be developed and a number of existing NMSU courses and degree programs, at the bachelor and master level, will be converted into ALN format for the American Indian population in the state. Certificate programs, such as Tribal Management, Criminal Justice, Public Health, and Hotel Management, will also be offered. SIPI, a tribal college in Albuquerque funded through the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, will also develop ALN courses and two-year programs that will enable graduates to transfer to NMSU for completion of upper division courses and bachelor and higher degrees. NMSU will assist SIPI in establishing ALN expertise. A council of tribal leaders has been organized to advise on needs and to publicize the program in their communities. The grant also supports the employment of a network of mentors who can assist learners with course and program selection, career information, and issues relating to online education. Success with this project, by encouraging replication in a number of Western states with large American Indian populations and one or more tribal colleges, and where ALN expertise and experience reside at larger state universities, has the potential for making a real difference in improving educational opportunities for American Indians. Project Director: Carmen L. Gonzales, Dean, Distance Education and External Learning.

Pace University, with locations in New York City and Westchester County, will greatly increase its focus on education for learners in the Greater New York area by means of enhanced online content in its information sciences courses (which Pace will fund) and through a set of approaches (to be funded with this grant) for providing new services to the local population and making more potential learners aware of these new opportunities. Pace's program in Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) has a well-developed set of ALN and blended (mixed ALN and traditional) courses that will be the basis for its local offerings: a DPS or doctorate in Professional Studies and 3 master's and 2 bachelor degrees. Reducing the number of trips to campus for local learners will be one benefit of increasing online content and courses. To increase local awareness of these degree programs, Pace will conduct seminars, workshops, and special events at local high schools; upgrade its website; and improve articulation agreements with most of the community colleges in the NYC metropolitan area. Enhanced services and best practices (in advising learners, communicating about registration, billing, bookstore access, graduation information, etc.) will be implemented for all CSIS students in online and blended courses. Pace regards this development as an important step towards a broad-based approach to substantially improving its service for the local learner community. The goal is to add many new online and blended courses and modify content of existing online CSIS courses so at least 50% of the curriculum is available online within three years, thereby significantly increasing access for many more in the NYC area to acquire and upgrade their education in computer and information sciences. Project Director: David Sachs, Associate Dean.

Past grants and support of the U.S. Department of Labor have enabled Rutgers to lead the way in making online education an important option for low-wage workers who are eligible for government training vouchers. The initial pilot project was carried out at labor department offices in five New Jersey counties with a group of low-wage, single working mothers, some recent immigrants. The women accessed office software training materials online and a computer professional at each office provided telephone support for computer set-up, internet connectivity, and trouble shooting. Nearly all successfully completed the online courses they started, some earned Microsoft certifications, and the cohort received a 14% average wage increase. There was general agreement that absent the online option and given the participants' personal and family circumstances, taking traditional classroom courses would have been impossible. The project has been expanded with a trustee grant to the Center for Women and Work to build on the New Jersey success by consulting with Labor Department and other officials in various states. The online option has already been institutionalized statewide in both New Jersey and Texas. Start-up or pilot efforts now exist in at least 14 states. Where results have become available for those enrolled in the program, they have generally demonstrated both career and salary improvements. This grant will enable the Center to continue this work by supporting state efforts to establish online training as a "business as usual" practice, starting a community of practitioners across the states in order to share effective practices, and by publishing a handbook on navigating Federal laws that govern aid to workers. Project Director: Mary L. Gatta, Director of Workforce Development and Research, Center for Women and Work.

A series of Foundation grants in the 1990s enabled State University of New York (SUNY) to achieve its current dominant position in online learning, including nearly 60 degree offerings from about as many different campuses. Operating through its SUNY Learning Network, it is one of the largest providers of online education in the country with about 120,000 current enrollments. The School of Education at the Albany campus of SUNY contributes three online master's degree and one graduate certificate program. This grant supports a special effort by SUNY at Albany to reach out to teachers from New York's Capital District, which includes the cities of Albany, Schenectady, Utica, Troy, and Saratoga Springs. Three new programs, two graduate certificates and a master's degree, involving 30 blended courses, will be created by Albany for teachers wishing to learn and gain expertise in teaching with new technologies. Such courses will significantly reduce the need for campus visits. This fact and the high demand for these credentials lead to the expectation that students will be willing to commute considerable distances for the on-campus part of the program. Albany will work directly with teacher associations, school districts, community colleges, and individual schools to stimulate awareness of the new programs. SUNY Albany's School of Education will then use other non-Sloan funds to trigger a larger effort for the faculty to convert additional courses into ALN or blended format. The aim is to have online availability for 50% of all content directed toward local learners from the School, thus reducing by about 50% the number of campus visits for the average student. Project Director: Assistant Professor Peter Shea, Department of Educational Theory and Practice, School of Education.

Stevens has had extraordinary success with ALN graduate programs, offering 279 fully online courses supporting 12 master's degree and 33 certificate programs via its WebCampus. This grant will enable Stevens to combine ALN synchronous and traditional classroom education (plus improved services) to produce a high-quality "blended" learning environment and then take steps to make this known in the NYC metropolitan area. The new emphasis to create an initiative within WebCampus for local learners will involve offering some 40 new courses and 6 degrees, incorporating elements of traditional classroom and other synchronous education (such as webcasting) together with ALN features. The new elements serve local learners and are not feasible for learners separated by large distances and time-zone differences. Services for local learners will also be upgraded by incorporating some face-to-face features within predominant electronic service delivery. With the high tuition costs characteristic of private institutions, Stevens' WebCampus programs and this new local initiative are primarily directed at employees at such local companies as Consolidated Edison, Johnson and Johnson, Verizon, and IBM. A special effort will be made to make the program more widely known in the NYC metropolitan areas, to both large and smaller companies, by means of personal visits and use of local media. Under this grant, Stevens will also work directly with one Midwestern engineering school and one Southern school to assist in establishing more regions where academic institutions offer rich arrays of both ALN and "blended" education. Project Director: Robert N. Ubell, Dean, Online Learning.

University of Massachusetts is a multi-campus system with sites in Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and Worcester. The UMass Online unit is the means by which online courses and degree and certificate programs originating at the individual campuses are marketed and distributed to learners nationally. In 2006-07, about 300 courses and 20 degree and certificate programs are available through UMass Online, with enrollment at about 25,000. With this grant (and matching funds), the University will develop and offer 10 new programs that combine existing ALN courses with some 80 new blended courses in which learning content is about half online and half in traditional classroom style. Each campus will be responsible for courses and programs identified as "high need" for its local area. For example, Amherst will develop a BS with Health and Human Services emphasis, Boston a BS for Registered Nurses already holding an AS degree, and Dartmouth a BS degree in Humanities and Social Sciences. UMass Online and the individual campuses will upgrade many services for local populations, such as orientation, advising, and ESL tutoring, and will mount a marketing campaign to make area residents more familiar with the new blended programs. They should be attractive to learners who find the new courses and degree programs identified as "high need" for their local communities of special practical value and also find it advantageous to be able to reduce the need for on-campus visits to participate. Project Director: Jacquie Moloney, Dean of Continuing Studies and Corporate Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell.

UW-Milwaukee is a doctoral institution primarily serving the population of over two million in the seven-county Milwaukee metropolitan area. Current enrollment is about 28,000 and the 93-acre campus is at capacity with no options for physical expansion. The possibility of adding new enrollments for its local population by offering classes through ALN and blended courses (ALN mixed with traditional classroom meetings) is therefore especially attractive. The opportunity to take such courses will also be a plus for many learners, especially the 10,000 or so who are older adult commuter students with job and family responsibilities. These students should welcome classes via ALN or blended courses, where attendance on campus may only be required for at most once or twice a week, as opposed to three or four times in a traditional class. They are likely to regard this as a significant advantage given the difficulties of traffic, limited campus parking, and high gasoline prices. With this grant, UW-Milwaukee will provide support for 45 new courses. Added to the blended ALN courses already developed, nine complete degree programs will be offered in this new Learning with Life initiative. Examples are an MS in Higher Education Administration, MS in Computer Science, and a BS in Criminal Justice. Within three years, the university expects the new initiative to have over 150 blended courses as well as a number of new degree programs, and to attract at least some "local" learners from as far away as 90 miles. Project Director: Robert Kaleta, Director, Learning Technology Center.

Support for an ALN workshop for regional historically Black colleges and universities. Project Director: Taylor Byrd, Director, Instructional Technology, Department of Agribusiness, School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Support to organize and host a regional workshop of historically Black colleges and universities. Project Director: William Booth, Director of Religious Studies.

Support for special sessions and other Sloan-C presence at conferences. Project Director: Professor Anthony Picciano, School of Education.

Support for the initial stage of a project to increase membership awareness of ALN as a possible strategic asset. Project Director: Howard Gobstein, Vice President of Science and Research.

Support for an ALN workshop for regional historically Black community colleges. Project Director: Gwendolyn A. Godard, Associate Director, Center for Distance Learning.

Support for a conference on blended education. Project Director: Mary P. Niemiee, Executive Director, External Education.

Support to develop and deliver self-paced, self-learning educational modules for nurses. Project Director: Robbie K. Melton, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Educational Technology, Tennessee Board of Regents.

Support for a study of persistence to degree in industry ALN programs. Project Director: Karen Steinberg, Executive Vice President.

Support for the LSU annual education conference at which the Sloan/Katrina ALN project will be a highlight. Project Director: Barbara Danos, Conference Coordinator, Centers for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

Support for small ALN projects with the U.S. Department of Labor. Project Director: Gary Miller, Associate Vice President for Outreach.

To organize three sessions at Chief Learning Officer magazine's executive conferences. Project Director: Robert N. Ubell, Dean, Online Learning.

A first-pass assessment of student satisfaction in ALN programs. Project Director: Charles D. Dziuban, Director, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness.

Support for a workshop on academic institutional disaster preparedness and recovery. Project Director: Ray Schroeder, Director, Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning.

Support for planning for an ALN "localness" project. Project Director: Jacqueline Moloney, Dean, Continuing Studies, Corporate and Distance Education.

Support to complete a chemical operator ALN certificate program. Project Director: John J. Walsh, Executive Director of Workforce Development.