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NEW YORK and NEEDHAM, Mass. (May 18, 2020) – 91��Ƶ-Hill, the leading learning science company, and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), a higher education community dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences, today announced a new joint program to train and certify a team of 91��Ƶ-Hill faculty consultants and employees in online teaching and learning. The training program will help 91��Ƶ-Hill better support, mentor and provide virtual coaching to faculty on effective practices of quality online learning, including course design, facilitation and assessment.

The program, called the 91��Ƶ-Hill / OLC Quality in Online Learning Certification, is an outgrowth of 91��Ƶ-Hill’s response to strong demand from college administrators and faculty for support in transitioning from in-person to online course delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the weeks following campus shutdowns due to COVID-19, thousands of instructors reached out to 91��Ƶ-Hill looking for help to quickly transition their courses online. 91��Ƶ-Hill supported more than 7,000 instructors at 1,500 colleges as they went through this process. And with the future still unknown, administrators are planning for scenarios where instructors need to continue to deliver courses virtually, as well as  to be prepared for interruptions in the on-campus experience.

91��Ƶ-Hill, which delivers its trusted content on sophisticated online learning platforms Connect, ALEKS and others, already serves millions of students and thousands of faculty with its digital products. Through the partnership with OLC, 91��Ƶ-Hill will bring even more expertise to institutions looking to ensure their online learning programs are designed, facilitated and evaluated according to best practices.

In addition, 91��Ƶ-Hill and OLC will provide free on-demand toolkits by course discipline to instructors and administrators guiding them through the process of designing and facilitating online courses and assessing student learning.

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“91��Ƶ-Hill has been investing heavily in high quality digital content and learning tools over the last decade, and our teams have worked with thousands of instructors to effectively bring those tools into the classroom,” said Michael Ryan, President of 91��Ƶ-Hill’s Higher Education division. “With the focus now on making sure online courses provide a rich and engaging learning experience, we are excited to be partnering with the experts at OLC in our effort to provide high quality ‘out of the box’ online course solutions according to their rubric. These courses, coupled with the instructor training, coaching and technical support we provide, will allow us to play a meaningful role in helping higher ed instructors and institutions maintain the quality of their academic programs.”

As part of the partnership, OLC will consult and offer feedback on 91��Ƶ-Hill’s prebuilt online courses, based on the OLC Quality Scorecard Suite. The comprehensive scorecard suite provides institutions with the necessary criteria and benchmarking tools to ensure online learning excellence for an entire institution across its online and blending learning programs, its instructional practices, and more. 91��Ƶ-Hill employees and Digital Faculty Consultants will also be able to leverage these scorecards with faculty.

“Higher education is in a unique place right now where administrators and faculty are seeking relevant solutions for both the short and long-term,” said Jennifer Mathes, Chief Executive Officer of the Online Learning Consortium.�� “With the Online Learning Consortium’s historical focus on online and digital learning, we are able to leverage our expertise in developing quality curriculum based on research-based best practices to support partners like 91��Ƶ-Hill in meeting the needs of the academic community.”