Landmark College Awarded $200,000 Grant for Online Learning
Landmark College has received a $200,000 grant award from the Roger I. and Ruth B. MacFarlane Foundation to grow its online learning division. This award will fund a web-based program director position at the College, and it will support new LD-friendly online coursework at the undergraduate, graduate, and high school level. “The MacFarlane family understands the need to move forward with technology in education and business,” said Dr. Peter Eden, president of Landmark College. “The grant enables us to redouble efforts in this critically important area.”
Eden commented on the growing role of online education. He said, “Like every other college and university in higher education, Landmark College needs to continue to ‘go global’ and ‘go online’ in order to reach the students we need, and thus to reach the students who need us.”
We are in the enviable situation of being able to identify and develop standards for best practices in online instruction for students who learn differently.—Dr. Monika Bissell
The award will be used to develop online courses for students who learn differently due to dyslexia, ADHD, ASD, or another form of neurodiversity. These conditions affect an estimated one in six American students, and 88 to 99 percent of colleges and universities report enrolling students with disabilities. With funding from the grant, Landmark College will advance the use of universal design and adaptive technology in online learning—two elements that are expected to make online education more effective for myriad learning profiles.
"Landmark College is uniquely positioned as a result of our recognized expertise in meeting the needs of neuro-diverse learners," said Dr. Monika Bissell, vice president for academic affairs at Landmark College. "We are in the enviable situation of being able to identify and develop standards for best practices in online instruction for students who learn differently. I am incredibly excited about the opportunities that we will begin pursuing because of the generosity of the MacFarlane Foundation."
The connection between Landmark College and the MacFarlanes began in 1998, when Nicole Goodner MacFarlane attended the College. Based in Palos Verdes Estate in California, the MacFarlane Foundation is a family-run charitable entity supporting organizations that “enhance the quality of life and opportunity for individuals, communities, and the environment.” In addition to supporting efforts in online learning, the MacFarlane Foundation guided Landmark College in securing a $2 million grant from the Tambour Foundation to construct the Nicole Goodner MacFarlane Science, Technology & Innovation Center, the first new academic building in the history of the campus.