Empire State College/New York's open university joins forces with the OERu

Empire State College (ESC) of the State University of New York (SUNY) joins the OER Foundation as a gold-level anchor partner. “Open institutions around the world serve millions of learners” said Dr. Alan Davis, President of New York's open university, “and the importance of open education resources is rapidly growing.”

Empire State College continues to build on its global leadership role in open education.

“The OER university is privileged to benefit from the foresight and experience of an open education and distance learning pioneer” said Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, Director of the OER Foundation. Building on the vision of Ernest Boyer, former Commissioner of Education for the United States and creator of the College, Empire State exemplifies the implementation of an open curriculum. Empire State College has developed a unique model whereby students can design customised and individual degree programmes. “The open curriculum is a key component of the OER university logic model” said Mackintosh “and our international innovation partnership could not have wished for a better partner to guide us through an OER reincarnation of the open curriculum.”

Sir John Daniel, president of the Commonwealth of Learning who delivered the Boyer lecture at ESC on the occasion of their 40th Anniversary, suggested that the organisations best equipped to make a success of the Open Education Resource University are institutions in the public sector who already operate successfully in parts of this space awarding reputable credentials. Empire State College certainly qualifies to collaborate on the establishment of the OERu but more importantly, has the unique skills for the task of supporting OER learners in an open curriculum setting.

Judging from past performance, Empire State College is predestined to lead university futures. By joining the OER university innovation partnership, Empire State College sends a clear signal that a new era of post-secondary education is now possible with open education approaches. Empire State College joins Athabasca University, the University of Southern Queensland and Otago Polytechnic as founding anchor partners thus enabling future accreditation for OER learners in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Posted: 25 August 2011

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