panOpen Paves the Way for Widespread Adoption of Open Educational Resources
Scottsdale, AZ, and New York, NY (PRWEB) April 22, 2014 -- Today, panOpen officially launched its next generation platform to support Open Educational Resources (OER), providing a framework for educators around the world to discover, edit, and share educational content. The company announced the launch at the ASU + GSV Summit in Scottsdale, AZ.
panOpen’s new platform provides access to a curated set of high-quality, peer-reviewed open educational resources, making it possible for faculty to replace commercial textbooks. The platform provides interactivity, assessment, analytics, and seamless integration with learning management systems. Instructors have unparalleled flexibility to rearrange, edit, or even add their own content to start building custom course libraries on the panOpen platform. Free from commercial copyright constraints, instructors are able to share their panOpen content libraries with their peers and other faculty around the world.
Open Educational Resources have long been seen as a solution to skyrocketing textbooks prices but there have been lingering impediments to widespread adoption. The launch of panOpen’s platform is the first to offer a practical solution that satisfies all stakeholders. panOpen provides a set of tools and services to align the economic and operational interests of all stakeholders—faculty, administrators, and students—to finally enable OER to realize its potential as a truly disruptive force in the market for educational content.
According to panOpen Founder and CEO Brian Jacobs, “Much like open source software, OERs that are set within the right framework and embedded properly in the institutional ecosystem have the capacity to fundamentally change how educational content is produced and shared. Our new platform is paving the way for widespread OER adoption.”
To date, panOpen has partnered with nearly 900 subject matter experts to curate and review content in five areas of study, including business, chemistry, biology, psychology, and physics. Over 50% of the participating instructors plan to pilot the platform this summer and fall, while panOpen continues to build content libraries to serve all academic disciplines.
Dr. Erastus C. Dudley, Chair of the Academic Services Committee and Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Huntingdon College, plans to adopt panOpen’s platform in the fall. “The advantage of the panOpen platform is that it brings together educational resources such as online videos, online learning centers, and open source content, which benefits both faculty and students alike.”
To learn how panOpen is helping colleges and universities adopt OERs, visit http://www.panopen.com or contact Alejandro Sucre at asucre(at)panopen(dot)com to schedule a demo.
About panOpen
panOpen provides the tools and services that higher educational institutions require to adopt open educational resources (OERs). Its platform provides universal access to OERs, aligns the economic and operational interests of stakeholders (faculty, administrators, and students), and creates a foundation for increasing student academic success while significantly reducing costs. For ongoing news, visit http://panOpen.com.
Nina Dietrich, Nina Dietrich LLC, +1 (201) 493-8944, [email protected]
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