by Beth Gray
Last week, several American Public University System (APUS) staff members from the school’s Instructional Design and Development office and the Office of the President presented at the 16th Annual Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida. The Sloan Consortium (often called simply “Sloan-Câ€) “is an institutional and professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, helping institutions and individual educators improve the quality, scale, and breadth of education.†More than 1,400 individuals attended (some virtually via Sloan’s live streaming feature) this year’s conference. Attendees included representatives from other fully online institutions, ground-based colleges and universities, and schools with blended programs.Â
The presentation, titled “Going Green Online,†detailed the ways in which APUS has capitalized on its online format to make significant progress in mitigating its carbon footprint. The theme for this year’s conference was “The Power of Online Learning: Stimulating New Possibilities†and the group discussed the ways in which online universities can make a tremendous impact in combating climate change, a practice that is still relatively new to the online learning community. To date, APUS is the only fully online school to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Stressing the effectiveness of online instruction in helping to reduce a school’s carbon footprint, the presenting group provided best practices to help interested schools of all formats (online, blended, or on-ground) get started with their own sustainability programs.  The unique session topic was well-attended and was a great fit for the conference theme of “stimulating new possibilities.”
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As mentioned in a recent article on this blog, the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Our previous article explores the background of the ACUPCC and the progress the commitment has made in gaining support and membership. Beginning with only twelve founding members, the ACUPCC now boasts nearly 700 signatories from across the country. At the ACUPCC’s 6th Annual Climate Leadership Summit held in Washington, DC last month, participants were treated to a chronicling of the tangible progress made by those nearly 700 schools to date. The quantitative progress made is significant and worth noting.… Read the rest
