Online University Consortium Announces U Share - U Learn; Challenges Corporations to Raise Bar on Online Education Programs, Degrees

TOLEDO, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2004--At today's LearnShare conference in Toledo, Online University Consortium, the nation's largest network of accredited universities and online degree programs, announced its U Share - U Learn initiative, a corporate alliance program for organizations with online learning programs. U Share - U Learn provides relevant solutions for human resource and corporate learning officers by benchmarking peer companies and using the benchmarks to create online education standards and university-to-business alliance programs that benefit participating organizations and employees.

"Organizations face a myriad of employment and education challenges in isolation, without the benefit of peer exchange," explains Greg Eisenbarth, executive director of the Consortium. "U Share - U Learn enables companies to participate in a resource network for sharing internal know-how and learning from outside perspective and expertise."

“Organizations face a myriad of employment and education challenges in isolation, without the benefit of peer exchange”

The Consortium recognizes a number of issues facing organizations that would benefit from peer exchange. This in turn sets the stage for important corporate solutions such as university-to-business alliance programs, which according to Matt Franks, LearnShare's VIP Coordinator, have considerable merit. Notes Franks, "A significant value Online UC delivers to our corporate members is in identifying the nation's best online degree-granting schools."

Participating companies agree that the key applications and outcomes of this program will help their organizations underscore their commitment to retaining employees through quality online education and development programs.

During the unveiling of U Share - U Learn at this week's LearnShare Conference in Toledo, Ohio, Online UC challenged the nation's top corporate learning officers to use this new initiative to uphold standards for quality education, and to set the bar for those education practices, program qualifications, and credentials that are deemed acceptable in the market.

Companies who would like to participate in U Learn - U Share's Benchmark Study for Online Degrees should contact the Online UC immediately for qualification. Membership details are available by contacting Greg Eisenbarth at [e-mail].

About Online University Consortium

Online UC uses the industry's highest quality education standards and most accepted learning practices to evaluate online degree programs from education providers. To date, twenty-eight of the world's largest corporate learning departments, representing in excess of 2.5 million employees, now employ these standards of education. For more information, call 435.649.2190 or visit http://www.onlineuc.net.