Alberta’s Athabasca Univer-sity has been honoured with an international award for its online and distance learning programs.
The educational institute was one of only three recipients – and the only North American winner – of the Award of Excellence for Institutional Achievement from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).
The COL – an intergovernmental agency that promotes distance education – issued the award earlier this month at the Pan-Commonwealth Forum of Open Learning in Durban, South Africa. Also honoured were the BBC World Service in England and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University of India.
The award citation praises Athabasca for being “at the forefront of the development of distance education in Canada . . . It has worked tirelessly to promote the cause and ideals of distance education around the world.”
The award honours “significant achievements in the innovative and effective application of appropriate learning technologies to reach students who might otherwise not have participated in the learning or training experience.”
Also honoured was Athabasca president Dominique Abrioux, who was named an honourary fellow of the Vancouver-based COL. “Having joined that university as a lecturer in 1979, he has served in a number of academic and senior administrative positions . . . Dr. Abrioux was a pioneer in the development of distance education courses in French, one of Canada’s two official languages,” the award notes.
