Engineering online program honored

An association of more than 900 institutions and organizations of higher education that offer online learning, The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), has named the Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP) program at the UW’s College of Engineering as the 2004 Most Outstanding Online Teaching and Learning Program.

“We are honored,” says Wayne Pferdehirt, program director. “Coming from a group of experienced online educators, MEPP’s selection for this highly competitive award is a strong affirmation of what our program’s faculty, students and staff have achieved together.”

Sloan-C judges selected MEPP for the award based on its demonstrated performance in achieving Sloan’s five “pillars of quality” for online learning: learning effectiveness, student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction, cost effectiveness and access.

MEPP has won five top national and international awards for excellence in distance learning and continuing education. These honors include two awards from the University Continuing Education Association, as well as awards from the Sloan Consortium, the U.S. Distance Learning Association and the American Distance Education Consortium.

MEPP is a cross-disciplinary program that gives engineers the tools and capabilities to be more effective leaders in the 21st century. The program targets technical proficiency in project management, business operations, communications, quality management, statistics, computer applications and international engineering practice.

Location, job responsibilities, travel demands and family needs often stand in the way of pursuing graduate education. To overcome these barriers, MEPP designed its program to allow the earning of a top-quality master’s degree from virtually any location at any time. The program features courses designed and tested for distance delivery that are interactive, engaging and group-based.

The purpose of The Sloan-C, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is to help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale and breadth according to their distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life – accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a variety of disciplines.

“Every year we see advances in the important matters of quality, scale and breadth,” says Frank Mayadas, president of Sloan-C. “The individuals and institutions honored this year are recognized for showing exceptional leadership in advancing online education along these dimensions.”