New York State to offer undergraduate online degrees

WNYF (2014) ‘Open SUNY’ offers online programs, Fox News, January 18

The State University of New York has just launched a program called ‘Open SUNY’, which offers ‘a seamless way … to access the courses, degrees, professors, and rich academics of all 64 SUNY campuses flexibly‘. In addition to housing nearly 400 online-enabled degrees and 12,000 course sections, Open SUNY features eight fully online undergraduate degrees, with plans to add more. The goal is to enroll 100,000 new students over the next three years, focusing mainly on the adult education market. Empire State College is taking a leading role in this initiative.

Features of Open SUNY include:

• Personal Concierge: One point of contact for all questions from students about their program, throughout their degree
• 24/7 Help Desk and Tutoring
• Experiential Learning: Access to real-life experiences to position students for employment, providing opportunities with a wide variety of New York State employers
• High-Need Areas: Degrees in fields recognized as “high need” in New York State and beyond, meaning high employer demand and attractive employment opportunities after graduation.

It also offers an integrated student portal and an open textbook initiative.

Comment

This follows the University of Florida Online initiative announced recently. Expect to see more announcements of this kind, as states and provinces seek to leverage scale and cohesion in online learning across their higher education systems, with a particular focus on the lifelong learning market and/or adding capacity to the system through online learning rather than more bricks and mortar.