04-25-07

Media Release

OSU’s Extended Campus, Former Dean Honored with National Awards

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University’s Extended Campus won several national awards from the University Continuing Education Association at its recent national conference in Vancouver, B.C.

Bill McCaughan, who retired as dean of Extended Campus in December 2006, was one of two people awarded the Walton S. Bittner Citation for outstanding service to the association.

Under McCaughan’s watch, the Extended Campus online degree program’s enrollment more than tripled, growing from 14,000-plus total student credit hours in 2001-02 to more than 45,000 in 2006-07.

“Dean McCaughan has succeeded in transforming Oregon State University’s adaptation to and acceptance of distance education in ways that have changed how we serve non-resident students – and lifelong learners,” said Sabah Randhawa, OSU’s provost and executive vice president.

Extended Campus was honored with the distinguished “Distance Learning Non-Credit Course Award” for the online course Human Resource Skills for Pharmacists, a collaboration with OSU’s College of Pharmacy.

Ecampus also won three marketing/publication awards. The statewide campaign to community colleges was awarded a silver in the Mixed-Media Campaign under 25,000 category. The Ecampus newsletter “E-News” received two bronze awards, for “Electronic Marketing and Communication: E-Communication under 25,000” and “Most Improved under 25,000.”

Earlier this month, Extended Campus aligned with OSU’s Extension Service to form a single comprehensive unit designed to broaden OSU’s reach throughout the state. That new alignment is University Outreach and Engagement.

The University Continuing Education Association’s members include public and private accredited colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations with a significant commitment to continuing higher education.