5/9/97 Contact: Richard Moffitt, 614/593-2910

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University's Independent Study Program received two awards at the University Continuing Education Association's annual conference in Louisville, Ky., in April, winning meritorious awards for its catalog and its first Internet-delivered course, Advanced Composition Online (English 308J).

Ohio University's program, a part of the Division of Lifelong Learning, competed with more than 70 collegiate correspondence and distance education programs in the United States and Canada. Only distinguished and meritorious awards were presented at the conference.

"We are delighted with the recognition given to Ohio University's Independent Study Program with these two awards, especially since we have worked very hard to bring all our materials, in print and online, into a strong, identifiable and student-focused format," said Director of Independent Study Richard Moffitt.

The Independent Study Bulletin 1996-97, in competition with catalogs of college-level independent study programs with 4,000-10,000 annual enrollments, was praised for its strong visual links to the Ohio University campus and its well-organized, user-friendly format. Liddy Duddling, senior word processing specialist in Independent Study, was the catalog designer. Elizabeth Houdek, instructional design specialist, was the editor.

The Internet version of English 308J was judged against 22 other courses and received one of three meritorious awards in the college-credit category. The judges praised its use of Simeon IMAP e-mail software that uses shared folders to allow students to see and react to each other's work, and lesson assignments with workshop" elements that allow students to interact with others working on different lessons. The course was written by English Instructor David Sharpe, with technical assistance from John Robinson, instructional design specialist in Independent Study.