"Basically we provide all the things that a campus would need to offer a course or program completely online," says Eric Fredericksen, SUNY’s assistant provost for advanced learning technology. "SLN is also a program that is respectful of campus autonomy, with an understanding that academic authority rests with each campus."

As a genuine testament to how online teaching and learning has gained wide acceptance, in general, SLN has grown from only two campuses and 119 enrollments in 1995 to 53 SUNY campuses and about 39,000 enrollments, all served by a grand total of 15 geographically dispersed SLN employees.

A big part of the reason for this phenomenal growth rests with the generosity of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Learning Outside the Classroom Program, which has awarded SLN approximately $4 million since that first fall term in 1995. The Sloan program’s goal, as stated on its website, "is to create a world in which quality higher education and training, anytime and anywhere, are available at reasonable cost and in a wide range of disciplines, for those motivated to seek it. Grants have gone to institutions of higher education to encourage application of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs), i.e. Internet access at any time to remote learning resources such as instructors, fellow students, text and software."

"We are very grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation," says Fredericksen. "They have been very generous both financially and in their advice and council over the years. They have helped us through a number of different phases of the SLN program."

Over six years, SLN has received 3 grants, each in the $1.3 million range, representing three phases. The first phase was a proof-of-concept phase started in 1995, whereby "we proved, conceptually, that we could step up as a system and scale up to a larger number of campuses and online courses," says Fredericksen. The second phase, which took place between 1997 and 1999, "was a proof of scale as we grew to 37 campuses and 460 courses. It got us to say that not only can we do this, but we can do it at a much bigger scale." The third phase, from 1999 through 2001, is "what we consider proof of sustainability. The spirit of the third phase was to implement a model that would allow us to institutionalize the program so that it was not so reliant on external funding. It allowed us to continue to grow the program, working with campus leadership and the business officers on our campuses to implement a financial model to have our campuses contribute financially to the program."

Frederickson adds that the SLN program is completely voluntary, with no SUNY mandate compelling institutions to participate. "We implemented a program where campuses must contribute financially (based on a percentage of online credit hours), and it hasn’t slowed us down; we continue to grow dramatically. I think it means we are doing something right."