Seven Faculty Research Projects from Five Universities to Study the Impact and Effectiveness of Online Learning

DALLAS (May 22, 2015) – Academic Partnerships (AP), one of the world’s largest representatives of online learning, today announced that it has awarded seven grants to researchers from five universities to study the impact and effectiveness of online learning. These grants are part of AP’s commitment to supporting the research conducted by partner university faculty members and increasing our collective understanding about the effect of online learning.

The research conducted by the AP grantees will provide important data relating to student interaction (tools and strategies for increasing student-to-student interaction and/or student-to-faculty interaction; best practices for evaluating the quality and impact of student-to-student interaction and/or student-to-faculty interaction) and open educational resources (integrating open educational resources and learning technologies to increase student interaction; using open educational resources to facilitate self-guided learning and sharing among faculty and students).

“The faculty members at our partner universities are ideally positioned to provide new insight into the rapidly developing field of online learning,” said Vice President of Academic Services Dr. Judy Zimny. “We are pleased to support their important research and look forward to sharing the results later this year.”

Grants were awarded to the following individuals:

Arkansas State University:

· Dr. Thillainatarajan Sivakumaran, Executive Director of Global Initiatives

• Dr. Holly Hall, Associate Professor
• Dr. Annette Hux, Professor

Louisiana State University

• Dr. Charity Bryan, Associate Dean for Distance Learning and Professional Education

University of Cincinnati

• Karen Manning, Assistant Professor

• Angela Robbins, Instructional Designer

University of North Carolina-Wilmington

• Dr. Nancy Ahern, Associate Professor

• Dr. Susan Crawford, Assistant Professor

• Dr. C. Elise Thompson

• Dr. Jennifer McCall, Lecturer

• Dr. Amanda Dickens, Lecturer

University of Texas at Arlington:

• Dr. Martha Mann, Associate Professor
• Dr. Peggy Semingson, Assistant Professor
• Dr. Jodi Tommerdahl, Associate Professor