Professional Recognition

  • Recipient of the Sloan-Consortium’s National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Education by an Individual. (2010).
  • Elected to the Inaugural Class of the Sloan Consortium’s Fellows in recognition of “outstanding publications that have advanced the field of online learning”. (2010)
  • Co-recipient of The Annual Mike Ribaudo Award for Excellence in Information Technology. (November 2007)
  • Appointed to the faculty in the Interdisciplinary Program in Communication and Culture in the School of Professional Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center in Spring 2006.
  • Member of the planning committee to develop CUNY’s first fully online BA degree. The degree, an Interdisciplinary Program in Communication and Culture, is designed to give college dropouts a chance to complete their undergraduate programs. (2006-2007)
  • My article (Picciano, A.G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence, and performance in an online course) which was published in the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), 6(1) was the most read JALN article of the year 2005 and generated approximately 350,000 downloads.
  • Chair of the Planning Committee to develop a new specialization (Education Leadership and Higher Education) in the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. (2003-2004).
  • Appointed to the faculty in the doctoral program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the CUNY Graduate Center in Spring 2004.
  • Appointed to the faculty in the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center in Spring 2003. Elected to be member of the Executive Committee for this program (2003-2005) (2005-2008).
  • Member of the planning committee for the 10th Sino-American Conference on Education held in New York. The purpose of this Conference was to share information, ideas, and strategies on education issues with colleagues from the People's Republic of China. (2005).
  • Appointed to the New York State United Teachers Taskforce on Technology (2003-2005) (2005-2008).
  • Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for the 8th Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the American distance Education Consortium, Penn State University, and the University of Central Florida in November 2002.
  • Invited to be a member of the American delegation to the 9th Sino-American Conference on Education held in Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. The purpose of this Conference was to share information, ideas, and strategies on education issues. I was one of thirty six Americans invited to participate. (June 2001).
  • Founding member of the Board of Directors of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) of Colleges and Universities which is dedicated and committed to online learning as a way to enable greater access to quality education to students anytime and anyplace. See www.sloan-c.org. (2000 - present).
  • Chair of the Steering Committee for the 7th Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Penn State University, and the University of Central Florida in November 2001.
  • Named a Sloan-C Distinguished Scholar in Online Learning by the Alfred P. Sloan Consortium of Colleges. (2001-2002).
  • Faculty Fellow at the City University of New York Open Systems Center to continue my work in designing multimedia and distance learning teaching models and to advise faculty on advanced educational technologies. As part of this appointment, I made approximately twenty presentations per year to educators, public administrators, and businesspersons in the greater New York City Metropolitan area. Also as part of my work with this Center, I was an advisor to NetTech and the New York City Urban Systemic Initiative Program. (1994-2002).
  • Recipient of a scholarship award ($7,500.) from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the writing of a book on distance learning. (1999).
  • Recipient of the George M. Schuster Scholarship Award (Hunter College). (1998).
  • Recipient of a Hunter College Presidential Award for my work in developing distance learning models. (1997).
  • Honoree at the 75th Anniversary Convocation of the Commission of Higher Education Middle States Association of Colleges and Universities in recognition of ten years of outstanding service to the Commission. (September 1994).