For Immediate Release
UMass Lowell's Online Programs Receive Three Prestigious National Awards from the Sloan Consortium

Lowell, Mass., October 10, 2005 –
The University of Massachusetts Lowell Division of Continuing Studies received notice this past month that it had won three prestigious national awards for its innovative online education programs from The Sloan Consortium – an association of more than 1,000 institutions and organizations of higher education engaged in online learning.

“This recognition is one of the highest honors we could receive” said Jacqueline Moloney, Dean of Continuing Studies and Corporate Education, who launched UMass Lowell’s online program ten years ago. “It’s tremendously rewarding to have our faculty, staff and administration be nationally recognized as leaders in this field.”

In total, UMass Lowell received three awards from The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) including “Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Teaching and Learning Programming,” “Excellence in Faculty Development for Online Teaching,” and “Excellence in Online Teaching.”

“The Institution-Wide award speaks to the high quality of the online programs at UMass Lowell,” said Chancellor William T. Hogan. “We’re very proud of the accomplishments of all of the administrators and faculty involved.” UMass Lowell’s programs are offered through the highly-regarded UMassOnline system initiative headed by CEO David Gray who says, “UMassOnline proudly acknowledges the contributions of UMass Lowell to the greater whole and its work in developing its own programs and those of the whole system.”

UMass Lowell offers a broad range of online degrees and certificate programs in disciplines such as Criminal Justice, Education, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Liberal Arts, Management, Psychology.

The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their offerings 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. Membership is open to academic institutions, government and corporate agencies, and organizations that support quality in higher education.

Online learning has greatly progressed since 1992 when the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began giving grants to institutions for online learning initiatives. “Quality online education continues to show vigor and strength. Every year we see advances in the important matters of quality, scale and breadth within this still fledgling community” says Frank Mayadas, President of Sloan-C. "The individuals and institutions honored this year are as before, exceptional, and we honor them for demonstrating exceptional leadership in advancing online education along these dimensions."

Details about the Sloan-C Awards are available at http://www.sloan-c.org/aboutus/awards.asp