New and Noteworthy in Effective Practices... on Learning Effectiveness

Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory
University of Maryland University College's Center for Intellectual Property shares resources to support and enforce academic integrity in the 21st Century. — more...

Online Testing in Distance Ed
Pace University/NACTEL Program has designed a proctoring service to assure security for testing of online learners. — more...

Integrated Honor Code: Online and Face to Face
Florida State University employs an integrated academic honor code, online and face to face. The code appears on the web-pages and in the syllabuses so that everyone is aware of this shared value. — more...

To see details about these practices and to contribute your own effective, replicable and innovative practices, visit http://www.sloan-c.org/effective.

Submitted by John Sener, Sloan-C Effective Practice Editor, Access

Opportunities: Certified Proctor Network
Gary Matkin, University of California Irvine

Protecting the security of exams and confirming the identity of the person taking an exam have generally been addressed through informal systems in which trusted intermediaries—other colleges and universities, libraries, school districts—located near a student's home conduct proctored face-to-face exams. Typically, the student is asked to identify a local intermediary proctor, and then the offering institution contacts the intermediary to schedule the exam.

The process can be time consuming, and as distance learning expands, the informal process, which depends upon the goodwill of the intermediary, is burdensome. At the same time that institutions work to achieve and maintain the legitimacy of elearning with traditional faculty members, the logistical difficulty of the process may mean that institutions adopt less secure means of authenticating student learning outcomes. Or, compelled by their own standards, institu-tions are investing heavily in staff resources to handle cumbersome logistics. The University of Texas, at Austin, for instance, arranges about 24,000 proctored exams per year. Boston University, which is just starting its online program, projects over 2,500 proctored exams in its first year.

Thus, the idea of a Certified Proctor Network (CPN) is being explored as a way of creating a network of cooperating institutions linked by a centralized scheduling technology. A CPN could offer worldwide testing services, proctoring, scheduling, operational management and delivery technology, including academically oriented tests as the GRE, GMAT, and TOEFL. We believe that a CPN would attract not only those institutions that are compelled by their own rules to do proctored exams, but also those, including for-profit online programs, that desire to gain higher levels of quality and legitimacy.

If your institution would benefit by participating in a CPN, please respond to this interest survey.

The Ninth Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN)
November 14-16, 2003
Orlando, Florida

The Ninth Sloan-C International Conference's theme will be "The Power of Online Learning: Implications for Teaching and Learning." It will be held on November 14 - 16, 2003, in Orlando, FL at the Rosen Centre Hotel. It will feature over 100 presentations in five different tracks: Implications for Faculty and Faculty Support, Implications for Learner Satisfaction and Support, Learning Effectiveness and Outcomes, Institutional Mainstreaming, and Enhancing Access and Inclusion.

This year's Keynote Speaker will be Dr. John Hitt, President, University of Central Florida, and the Plenary Speaker will be Ms. Susan Metros, Deputy CIO and Executive Director for e-Learning, Ohio State University.

The conference is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in conjunction with The University of Central Florida, The Pennsylvania State University, the Sloan Consortium, and ADEC.

Register by October 17, 2003 to receive the Early Bird discount of $350!

For more information and to register please visit http://www.sloan-c.org/
conference/con03.asp or call
1-866-232-5834 (Toll Free), or email aln@mail.ucf.edu.