American Sentinel University GIS Program Chair Awarded Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate
Aurora, CO (PRWEB) October 15, 2013 -- American Sentinel University today announced that Stephen McElroy, geographic information systems (GIS) program chair has been awarded the Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate – Specialization in Online Management. This recognition acknowledges Dr. McElroy as a progressive online educator that has mastered Sloan-C’s best practices in online education.
The Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate prepares educators, like Dr. McElroy and numerous other accomplished faculty members at American Sentinel, to teach and improve online courses using Sloan-C’s pillars of quality in online education-learning effectiveness, scale, faculty and student satisfaction and access. The program consists of a 9-week foundation course and three electives that focus on improving overall competency within a specific area of academic focus while working with expert mentors.
“Earning the Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate is a significant accomplishment for American Sentinel University. As a GIS educator, I seek proven tools, techniques and methods that I can apply to all aspects of professional activities,” says Dr. McElroy.
As part of the certificate program’s foundation course, Dr. McElroy revised course content for Principles of Cartography, which included updated lecture notes, better linkage between the readings and assignments and the addition of extra learning resources: tutorial exercises, multimedia resources associated with the textbook, access to a companion website, supplemental readings from GIS technical blog posts, GIS mapping websites and hands-on exercises using both open source and proprietary software.
“Exposure to the professional literature and best practices for online education provided me the resources to make improvements on an ongoing basis as I continue to build the undergraduate and graduate GIS programs at American Sentinel University,” says Dr. McElroy.
Dr. McElroy credits the Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate Program for having a significant impact on the ways in which he approaches online teaching, course development and student learning. He believes that the integration of established online education pedagogy with cutting-edge geospatial technologies is a perfect match for preparing students to be successful GIS professionals.
“The Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate speaks toward the quality knowledge and expertise we provide our student body,” says Kurt Linberg, provost at American Sentinel University. “Dr. McElroy’s professional and academic accomplishments are validated by this acknowledgement. His activities and success to-date has brought American Sentinel to a much higher standard of online education – setting the standard for others to follow. This recognition will truly add a progressive push forward for our GIS suite of programs,” says Dr. Linberg.
Learn more about American Sentinel University’s GIS degrees at http://www.americansentinel.edu/information-technology/b-s-geographic-information-systems.
About American Sentinel University
American Sentinel University delivers the competitive advantages of accredited associate, bachelor's and master's online degree programs focused on the needs of high-growth sectors, including information technology, computer science, GIS masters programs, online GIS certificates, computer information systems and business intelligence degrees. The university is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), which is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency and is a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
Renee Hewitt, American Sentinel University, http://www.americansentinel.edu/, +1 (845) 382-9152, [email protected]
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