Levy and CU awarded top honor by distance learning association

For the second time in less than two years, Cornell has been awarded a top honor from the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), this time capturing first place in a juried competition for visionary leadership in the development of high quality distance-learning programs.

The award for "Most Outstanding Achievement By An Individual In Higher Education" was awarded to Jonathon D. Levy, executive director of Cornell's Office of Distance Learning (ODL), at the USDLA's International Distance Learning Conference in Washington, D.C., March 18.

Levy placed first in a field of several dozen nominees from universities with established distance-learning programs. The nominations were judged by a jury of leading educators and business-sector distance-learning executives. The conference, attended by about 4,500 educators from universities and corporations throughout the world, culminated in the awards dinner at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel where Levy was honored.

Levy credits the ODL staff and Cornell's administration for the honor.

"Our staff is the most dedicated group of people with whom I have been associated, and this award is more theirs than mine," Levy said.

He credited ODL's director, David Lipsky, and Cornell Provost Don Randel for their "courage and foresight in the creation and support of the office at a time when distance learning was an uncertain undertaking," he said.

"This award is the result of a great deal of team effort by a small but incredibly creative group of specialists working with a group of extraordinarily talented faculty. I am pleased to accept this award on their behalf," Levy said.

A 20-year veteran of Cornell, Levy has been involved in video production since 1961 and was instrumental in the development of distributed computing at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations during the 1980s.

In 1991, while serving as assistant dean of the ILR School, he innovated the use of compressed video teleconferencing for a graduate program in New York City and a year later was one of the first in the country to use that technology in a international executive development program, which linked Cambridge University in the United Kingdom with the Ithaca campus. He was largely responsible for the design of the new distance learning amphitheaters in the ILR complex, and he has championed the integration of Internet-based distance learning technologies with ISDN video conferencing in support of a growing global presence for Cornell.

In total, ODL has pioneered 35 distance-learning applications since its creation in the fall of 1998, most recently merging several unique technologies in support of Cornell courses and programs taught to students throughout the world and in some instances by distant faculty teaching to students on the Ithaca campus.

"It is the pedagogy that drives the technology selection," Levy said, "not the other way around. Our goal is not to merely replicate the traditional classroom experience; rather, we try to improve on it."

In November of 1998, Cornell won its first award from the USDLA for "Outstanding Achievement" in the design and development of its state-of-the-art distance-learning classrooms. The rooms allow faculty and students throughout the world to interact seamlessly through video and audio links in an otherwise traditional class setting.