eLearning Today

Bridging the Academic-Industry Gap

Frank Mayadas, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

“eLearning” in corporations has evolved in quite different ways from “online learning” in universities, with self-learning modules, most widely practiced in industry, while instructor-led virtual classrooms are the mode of choice in academia. This talk, by one of the nation’s most knowledgeable leaders in virtual education, will cover the exciting early days when computer networks in education and training were first introduced in the 1990s. 

Dr. Mayadas will focus on how successfully the early imagined outcomes in business and academic spheres have been met and where things stand today. Since this is an unfinished story, Dr. Mayadas welcomes your participation.
 


Dr. Frank Mayadas

At Sloan, Dr. Mayadas launched Sloan’s Anytime, Anyplace Learning program, an initiative that supports online learning education at universities in the US with more than $80 million over 17 years.  He is founding president of the Sloan Consortium, also known as Sloan-C (see www.sloan-c.org), the premier online education professional society. Prior to his work at Sloan, Mayadas spent nearly 30 years at IBM, where he held key posts in research, technology, development, and other divisions. Toward the end of his career at IBM, he was secretary of IBM’s Management Board and eventually director of the acclaimed Almaden Research Center.



The author of more than 40 papers in systems, devices, and solid-state physics, Mayadas holds several patents and awards from IBM. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of the American Physical Society, and a past Director of the Society of Engineering Science. He has served as a member of the National Advisory Board for Georgia Tech and the Advisory Board of the College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering, University of Florida, and a board member of e-Cornell. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell and his B.S. from the Colorado School of Mines.

Chair: Robert Ubell
Vice President, Enterprise Learning

NYU Polytechnic Institute