ALISON Welcomes Obama's Investment in Free Learning
Galway (IE), August 2009 - ALISON, a free online learning service, welcomes the Obama administration's announcement that it is to invest $500 million in the provision of free online learning content. The announcement was made by President Obama on his visit to Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan and is part of a $10 billion education bill for community colleges and skills training.
Commenting on the announcement, ALISON CEO Mike Feerick states that the opportunity and potential of free learning was now being accepted by the White House, and this policy step is likely to have implications around the world and not for the US.
The investment creates the possibility that all basic education and training will eventually be accessible worldwide for free. According to Feerick, the Obama announcement "clearly indicated willingness in the US to innovate and return to leading the world in workforce training initiatives through the 21st Century".
A total of $500 million will be awarded to create online instructional materials that will be available free to community colleges and their students. The Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor will work with one or more community colleges and the Pentagon's learning network to find ways to award credit "based on achievement rather than class hours" and to "rigorously evaluate the results", according to the White House briefing materials on the program.
In his remarks, Obama talked about how this effort could both create courses where they aren't offered and create educational materials for existing courses. "We're going to support the creation of a new online open source clearinghouse of courses so that community colleges across the country can offer more classes without building more classrooms. And this will make a big difference especially for rural campuses that frequently have struggled to attract students and faculty."
An early draft of the Obama plan released in 'Inside Higher Ed' reported that the funds to create online courses would be open to institutions beyond community colleges, including for-profit colleges. Robert Shireman, Deputy Under-Secretary of Education, said, "Online course development would be by any type of entity, and the courses would be in the public domain and therefore could be used by anyone. We will work with a community college to make sure there is a place that offers credit for the courses, but it would not be exclusive."
