National Recognition for Excellence in Online Education

Winner of Several Sloan-C Awards for
Excellence in Online Programs

Over the past decade, the University of Massachusetts Lowell's Division of Online and Continuing Education has received several 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, Executive Vice Chancellor, who launched UMass Lowell’s online program back in 1996. "It's tremendously rewarding to have our faculty, staff and administration be nationally recognized as leaders in this field."

In total, UMass Lowell has received six 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" to name a few.

"These awards testify to the high quality of our online programs at UMass Lowell," said Catherine A. Kendrick, Executive Director of Distance Market Development and Corporate Outreach. "We're very proud of the accomplishments of all of the UMass Lowell faculty and administrators who have been involved in growing the University's online programs."

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.

About UMass Lowell's Division of Online and Continuing Education

UMass Lowell Division of Online and Continuing Education 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. An early pioneer in online education, the Division has been supporting the traditional academic programs accessible through the online format since 1996.

About the Sloan Consortium

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."