The Ralph E. Gomory Award is named for Dr. Ralph E. Gomory, President Emeritus of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  Dr. Gomory has had an illustrious career that includes Chairman of IBM Research’s Mathematical Sciences Department from 1965-67 and eventually IBM’s Senior Vice President for Science and Technology, the position from which he retired from IBM in 1989.  After his tenure at IBM, Dr. Gomory became President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation where he became a pioneer in the field of online education.  Dr. Gomory has served as a Trustee of Hampshire College (1977-1986) and of Princeton University (1985-1989).  He served as a board member of the Washington Post Company.  He also served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) from 1984 until 1992.  In 2007, after nearly two decades as President of the Sloan Foundation, Dr. Gomory became President Emeritus and continues to play an integral role in the development and improvement of online learning programs.

APUS’ assessment mechanisms are among the most well-developed in the country.  Since 2004, we have publicly posted our outcome assessment results on our website.  Our Learning Outcomes Assessment process, for example, produces invaluable feedback to academic programs on the performance of educational processes so that each program may continue to improve the quality of the APUS experience for each of our more than 50,000 students.  Through the process, APUS is able to gauge what students are learning and continuously improve on the student learning environment through enhanced courses and academic programs.

APUS uses five questions outlined by the Higher Learning Commission in 2005 to guide the learning outcomes assessment process:
• How are your student learning outcomes appropriate to your mission, program, and degrees?
• What evidence do you have that students achieve your stated learning outcomes?
• In what ways do you analyze and use evidence of student learning?
• How do you ensure shared responsibility for assessment of student learning?
• How do you evaluate and improve the effectiveness of your efforts to assess and improve student learning?

APUS utilizes two tests that various students must take depending on their program level and field of study.  The Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP) test serves as an evaluation of overall academic knowledge and skill.  All undergraduate students at APUS must complete the MAPP test during their senior year.  APUS examines student scores on the Major Field Test (MFT) as the second component to its Learning Outcomes Assessment process.  The MFT is a subject-specific test that examines the student’s basic knowledge and understanding of the core curriculum in specific disciplines.  In addition to completing the MAPP test, undergraduate students in the fields of Business Administration, Criminal Justice, History, English, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology will complete the MFT.  Graduate students seeking the Master of Business Administration degree also complete the MFT. 

APUS has grown substantially in less than two decades because of its continuing goal of improving the quality and outcomes of the learning experience for its students.  APUS is dedicated to providing access to respected programs at an affordable price, tenants that many policymakers have recently embraced.    Through evaluative processes like our Learning Outcomes Assessment, we have been able to continually improve our programs.  I will be in Orlando today with several other APUS deans, faculty and staff to receive this distinguished award.  I am very proud of receiving this recognition and am even prouder of the countless hours spent by our faculty and staff in measuring, monitoring, evaluating, and implementing improvements in online learning for our students.

Because the companies I worked for standardized on the MS-DOS/Windows platforms initiated by IBM, I didn’t go back to Apple for years.  Around 1997, my wife and I purchased the first iMac for home use.  Alas, the product didn’t meet our needs for power surfing on the internet, so we gifted it to a local school and purchased another Windows compatible machine for home use.

A year ago, we purchased two MacBook laptops for our daughters.  The girls had been using Macs at school for simple applications involving digital pictures and digital books and we thought that the product (now with an Intel dual processor chip) was superior to a Windows machine for its user interface.  After debating the issue for a while, I purchased a Powerbook Mac for my personal use when my Windows machine at home started generating problems in managing my collection of digital photos (over 12,000 the last time I counted).  After a couple of months, I asked my wife, Sharon, if she wanted to convert from her 2002 Windows-based PC to a Mac.  Her answer was “no.”

I am not sure what the eureka moment was, but recently Sharon informed me that she would convert to a Mac if I could guarantee her that she could open all of her original PC-based files on the Mac.  I checked with a friend of mine who uses the dual processor function on his Macs (note: since I have a PC at work, I had not attempted to use Windows on my Powerbook), and he convinced me that this was an easy switch.  We switched over the weekend.  The first part of the conversion (email, Microsoft Office files, etc.) went smoothly.  Partitioning the hard drive for loading Windows and Boot Camp (Apple’s program that controls the switch in processors) was lengthy, but in the end, it worked and I did not have to call in the Geek Squad (thank goodness I followed the directions and printed out the Boot Camp manual before I started the partition process).

While over twenty years have elapsed between my first experience with Apple and my most recent conversion, I am pleased with the decision to switch.  Apple’s focus on design and functionality has been a huge plus.  I can drag a song, picture, or video from the hard drive to a DVD/CD and make a copy much easier than on my old Windows machine.  Even the packaging is fully integrated, whether it’s an iMac, iPhone, or iPod, Apple’s designers have attempted to keep the design efficient, modern, and integrated.

The most pleasant surprise of my recent purchase was an email that I received from Apple after I returned home from the Apple store.  In the email was a bar code and a note from Apple stating that they would pick up the FedEx charges for up to two cartons containing my old computer and a printer if I wanted to dispose of them in an environmentally sound way.  Given that many landfills won’t accept computer hardware, I thought that this was an excellent example of a corporation trying to be an environmentally-conscious good citizen.  It did not influence my purchase decision since I did not know about it until after I returned home, but it might influence my future purchases – I even checked out Apple’s stock price over the weekend!

Welcome back, Apple!