Royal Oak Professor Receives Annual Online Distinguished Faculty Award

From Oakland University: Bill Solomonson, Ph.D., an Oakland University (OU) associate professor of organizational leadership, received the Keith A. Pretty 2016 Distinguished Online Faculty Member of the Year award from the Alliance for Excellence in Online Education.

Solomonson, a resident of Royal Oak, Michigan, accepted the award at the Alliance’s 14th annual symposium at Walsh College in November. The group of educational institutions, vendors and corporate partners advances the quality of online education for faculty, staff and students. The award is named for Keith Pretty, former Walsh College president and creator of the College’s online learning division.

Recipients “enthusiastically demonstrate excellence in distance learning best practices and transition their discipline into the medium of online education,” said Alliance President Patrick G. Callaghan, Ph.D.

One of Solomonson’s OU students nominated his professor for the award, citing Solomonson’s innovative ways of teaching adult learning theory, instructional design processes and championing of online learning at OU.

As Solomonson noted, “We are past the point of arguing about the effectiveness of online education as a learning medium. We know it is just as effective as any other delivery method, provided the design is robust.

“What we need to focus on now is leveraging research to ensure consistent, measurable results,” he continued. “This isn’t just results at the knowledge level of learners, but also at the academic program level in terms of quality outcomes, as well as the impact that all of this has on society as a whole.”

Solomonson holds a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Oakland University and earned a master of arts degree in performance improvement and instructional design from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His doctoral degree in instructional technology/performance improvement and training is from Wayne State University. Solomonson also holds the Certified Performance Technologist designation from the International Society for Performance Improvement.

ONLINE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION REPORT CARD: KEY NATIONAL FINDINGS
“Online Report Card – Tracking Online Education in the United States,” a comprehensive survey of online learning in higher education, is considered the leading barometer of online learning in the United States. The 2015 annual report was conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and co-sponsored by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Pearson StudyPortals, WCET and Tyton Partners.

KEY FINDINGS

• Thirteenth consecutive year of growth in the number of students taking courses at a distance.
• Enrollments in online programs continued to increase while enrollments in higher education institutions decreased overall. Online professional degree programs experience strong growth as learners increasingly focus on employability and career advancement.
• The number of distance education students increased 3.9%, up from 3.7% in 2014.
• More than one in four students (28%) takes at least one distance education course. (A total of 5,828,826 students, a year-to-year increase of 217,275.)
• Public institutions command the largest portion of distance education students, with 72.7% of all undergraduate and 38.7% of all graduate-level students.
• A small segment (11.3%) of higher education institutions is experimenting with or plans Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Most have decided against (58.7%) MOOCs or remain undecided (27.8%).

The Alliance for Excellence in Online Education

The Alliance is a coalition of members from educational institutions, vendors and corporate partners dedicated to advancing the quality of online pedagogy by continuously upgrading online educational experiences for faculty, staff and students. The group’s founding institutions are:

• Jackson Community College
• Lansing Community College
• Macomb Community College
• Mott Community College
• Oakland Community College
• St. Clair Community College
• Schoolcraft College
• Walsh College

CONTACTS:
William Solomonson, Ph.D., associate professor of organizational leadership, Oakland University
solomons@oakland.edu
248.935.5894
Patrick G. Callaghan, Ph.D., Alliance for Excellence in Online Education
drpat@bignet.net
248.875.6009

Photo courtesy of Oakland University