Category:Online Education

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Environmental Studies Online ---- Higher Education / Continuing Education / Distance Learning

Western Governor's University

Education without boundaries.™

https://www.wgu.edu/

Four online colleges. 60+ flexible degree programs.

The first university where all bachelor’s and master’s degrees are competency-based, with online courses designed in partnership with leading employers. We’re nonprofit, driven entirely by a mission to serve students—in fact, it’s right there in our name. We’re called Western Governors University because we were created by a group of U.S. governors, an innovative solution to their states’ demand for high-quality, outcomes-oriented higher education.

SJS / GreenPolicy360 siterunner: I was asked by the Governor of New Mexico in 1996 to represent our state in the creation of the "Virtual University". In the 1990s, as a member of New Mexico's State Board of Education, I could see future opportunities more clearly in my roles on the state's technology council and with educational technology. At the time I was responsible for oversight of bringing the Internet into some 900 schools and I welcomed the role to create a new educational vision -- an online, accredited university. In my travels in 1969/70 I had become impressed by the new UK "Open University" and realized in the 1990s that online networks could provide new media access to top-level professors and educators and be made available to every student geographically. The idea of bringing 'remote learning/distance learning' to all students in our state and states around the country and world was immensely appealing. My goal, also, was to make higher education affordable and in New Mexico I worked to propose a full-tuition college scholarship, which was funded with a state lottery scholarship program. The combination of access and funding came to be. Each of the original Virtual University founding states appointed a member to serve on the work group and we set in motion what was formally announced in 1997 -- the new Western Governor's University.

The WGU and NM lottery scholarship are well into their second decade of success now in 2019. Education is the key to opening doors for every student and lifelong learning is an opportunity all of us deserve. It is a torch we are all passing forward, eye opening education and all that education brings with it.

Salud to the WGU and OU !

https://www.wgu.edu/about/our-story.html

http://www.open.ac.uk/

(Via Wikipedia)

The Western Governors University is a private, nonprofit, online university based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The university was founded by 19 U.S. governors in 1997 after the idea was formulated at a 1995 meeting of the Western Governors Association.

In January 1997, 13 governors were on hand to sign the articles of incorporation formally beginning the new university.

In 2001, the United States Department of Education awarded $10 million to found the Teachers College, and the first programs were offered in Information Technology.

US Department of Education ... "the innovative student-first model used by this school and others like it has garnered bipartisan support over the last decade." In January 2019, the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid (FSA) office issued their final audit determining that WGU was indeed eligible to participate in federal student aid... The news editor for Inside Higher Ed, said the "much anticipated high-stakes audit" had begun more than four years earlier and the findings were "not a surprise to most observers", due to their reliance on a 1992 law that defines aid eligibility for distance education programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University

(Social Media)

https://twitter.com/wgu

https://www.linkedin.com/school/western-governors-university/

https://www.facebook.com/wgu.edu/

https://www.wgu.edu/newsroom.html

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In the tradition of the UK's Open University

SJS / Surrounded by ideas and knowledge, a virtual feast of plenty. A Tip of the GreenPolicy360 hat to the OU on the 50th anniversary of the Open University / March 2019

https://50.open.ac.uk/

https://youtu.be/TrKIImWQejI

https://twitter.com/BBC/status/1106888124796469248

Where you start in life shouldn't limit where you go

We are a movement... We are disruptors, occasional troublemakers, game changers

We are the fuel of imagination

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(2018)

Via The Report by Class Central

https://www.classcentral.com/report/mooc-stats-2018/

Now in its seventh year, the modern MOOC movement crossed 100 million learners to achieve a total of 101 million. At the same time, we are seeing a decrease in the number of new learners signing up.

In 2018, 20 million new learners signed up for at least one MOOC, down from 23 million the year before. Despite the slowdown, the number of paying users may have increased. MOOC providers’ constant tweaking of the model seems to be paying off, given providers such as Coursera are hitting record revenues ($140 million in 2018 for Coursera).

Here is a list of the top five MOOC providers by registered users: