UIS founded New Century Learning Consortium adds Hampton University as ninth member

The New Century Learning Consortium (NCLC), founded at the University of Illinois Springfield has added Hampton University as its ninth member. The Consortium is designed to assist universities in implementing high quality, large-scale online and blended learning programs.

“We are delighted to have Hampton University join the consortium. Hampton University has a long history of academic excellence and is one of the top historically black universities in the world. The university’s Hampton U Online program offers a growing number of doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s degrees fully online.” said Shari McCurdy Smith, NCLC director and associate director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service (COLRS) at UIS.

The Consortium plans to expand to 14 institutions by May of 2010. Consortium activities include developing a clearinghouse of online classes where there is excess capacity; shared research projects; shared IT expertise to support building infrastructure capacity; and peer support at the upper administration, dean, and faculty member levels. NCLC was founded utilizing a grant from the Sloan Consortium, who is also providing funding for the expansion.

"We are most excited about our newest member of the consortium, Hampton University. They are a university with a 150-year-long tradition of excellence in academics and one of the emerging leaders in online learning in the U.S. We are looking forward to establishing close working relationships with Hampton University as part of the New Century Learning Consortium." said Ray Schroeder, director of COLRS and founder of NCLC.

The member institutions are dedicated to developing vigorous online and blended learning initiatives to expand and stabilize student enrollments.

Current members are University of Illinois Springfield; California State University Easy Bay, Hayward; Southern Oregon University, Ashland; Chicago State University; Oakland University, Rochester Hills, Michigan; University of Southern Maine, Portland; Louisiana Tech University, Ruston; SUNY Empire State College, Saratoga Springs.

For more information about the Consortium, contact Shari McCurdy Smith at 217-206-7360 or email smccu1@uis.edu.