The Saylor Academy, formerly known as the Saylor Foundation, is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

headquartered in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. It was established in 1999 by its sole trustee,

Michael J. Saylor Michael J. Saylor (born February 4, 1965) is an American entrepreneur and billionaire business executive. He is the executive chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy, a company that provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-ba ...

. Since 2008, the focus of the foundation has been its Free Education Initiative which has led to the creation of 241 courses representing 10 of the highest enrollment majors in the US. The Saylor Academy assembles courses from openly available texts and resources. The foundation also funds the creation of new materials when needed, which are then openly licensed for use by other organizations and individuals. In March 2018 Edovo partnered with Saylor Academy.

Courses

On its website, the foundation offers 317 free, college-level courses, which are selected as typical courses in high enrollment majors at traditional U.S. colleges. Content is accessible without needing to register or log into the website; however an account is required to gain access to final exams and a free certificate of completion. The foundation works with consultants to design the courses, typically university and college faculty members or subject experts. The consultants develop a blueprint for the course, then research

open educational resources Open educational resources (OER) are Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descr ...

(OER) to supply the course with lectures, texts, and other resources. If suitable texts and documents are not found, the foundation works with faculty to compile new materials which it releases to the OER community under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

license. Each course is accompanied by an assessment.

Credentialing

The Saylor Academy offers some courses with college credit recommendations from the National College Credit Recommendation Service, a program of the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state governmental umbrella organization that oversees all educational institutions, including schools, libraries, and museums in New York State. It is governed by the Board of Regents. D ...

, and through the ACE National Guide, a program of the

American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,600 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educati ...

. According to the Saylor Academy, they have experimented with

digital badge Digital badges (also known as ebadges, or singularly as ebadge) are a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in various learning environments. Origin and development Traditional physical badges have ...

s through the

Open Badge Infrastructure Image files that contain verifiable information about learning achievements, Open Badges are based on a group of specifications and open technical standards originally developed by the Mozilla Foundation with funding from the MacArthur Foundati ...

. Saylor Academy courses can be transferred for credit towards undergraduate degrees. However, Saylor Academy is not accredited to award degrees itself and not all accredited higher educational institutions accept credit earned for courses at Saylor Academy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saylor Academy Educational organizations based in the United States Foundations based in Washington, D.C. Educational publishing companies of the United States Creative Commons-licensed books American educational websites Online nonprofit organizations Open educational resources Education companies established in 1999 Organizations established in 1999 1999 establishments in the United States