UPCEA, the online and professional education association, has honored University of Illinois Springfield Emeritus Professor Raymond Schroeder with the inaugural UPCEA Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning. The association also announced in future years the award will be known as the Raymond Schroeder Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning.
Schroeder helped to establish UIS as a national leader in online learning. The award recognizes his quarter century of initiating and leading online learning at UIS and reflects on his leadership in the field.
“This is a singular honor,” Schroeder said. “It stands out in my long career more than any other because it will live on beyond my career. The Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning is one of those rare forever-after awards that will challenge others in our field. I am humbled and deeply honored by this very kind recognition and the support over the years.”
The award was presented during the Distance Teaching & Learning (DT&L) Conference and Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable (SOLA+R) in Madison, Wisconsin, on July 26, 2023.
In 1997, Schroeder took a leadership role in the emerging field of online learning, establishing the UIS Office of Technology Enhanced Learning (OTEL). Beginning as a tiny unit, OTEL launched servers, software and assembled expertise to support the delivery of online classes at UIS.
The strength and reputation of the UIS online programs grew quickly through the 1990s and into the 21st century. Schroeder was honored nationally with the 2002 Sloan-C Most Outstanding Achievement in Asynchronous Learning Networks. Further, he received the 2002-2003 Sloan-C Distinguished Scholar in Online Learning award. In 2010, he was named a Sloan-C Inaugural Fellow. Also, in 2010, he received the Sloan-C Inaugural A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award. The following year, he received the University of Illinois Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award.
In 2016, the American Journal of Distance Education and the University of Wisconsin, Madison awarded Schroeder the prestigious Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Practitioner in Distance Education, and also that year he received, the United States Distance Teaching and Learning Association (USDLA) Hall of Fame Award for “significant contributions to the field of distance learning through leadership, technology, research and teaching.”
In 2023, Schroeder was honored with an honorary doctorate of humane letters during the 52nd annual UIS Commencement. He continues his highly-productive career as a senior fellow of UPCEA. In that capacity, he publishes nationally and internationally, daily curated reading lists on professional, continuing and online education as well as the popular bi-weekly column “Online: Trending Now” column in Inside Higher Education.
UPCEA is the online and professional education association, with approximately 15,000 individual members and more than 400 institutional members. For more than 100 years, UPCEA has served most of the leading public and private colleges and universities in North America.