The Rothenberger Institute (RI) has received a 2015 Effective Practice Award  from the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) for its online peer course facilitator training. 

OLC’s Effective Practice Awards  “recognize effective techniques, strategies and practices that are shared by members of the OLC community to advance quality and access to online programs.” Effective practices are peer reviewed and focus on five pillars of quality: access, learning effectiveness, faculty satisfaction, student satisfaction, and scale. 

RI’s Effective Practice award recognizes the design, development, and implementation of its innovative solution addressing the complex training needs of an increased number of teaching assistants. With a small staff and projections of more than three times the number of teaching assistants coming on board to address increased student enrollment, RI’s shift to this partly online training alleviated scheduling challenges, leveraged what RI does best—design online curriculum—and provided its peer educator teaching assistants a learning experience very similar to that of the students who take RI’s online courses. 

Formerly known as the Sloan Consortium, OLC serves as a leader around the world in advancing quality online learning through relevant and timely publications examining technology trends in education and conferences focusing on innovation in teaching and learning, and is the go-to source for professionals in K-12 and higher education dedicated to online and blended learning. 

For more information about the Rothenberger Institute, visit www.ri.umn.edu