SUNY Expands Open SUNY+ Online Programs
The State University of New York
has expanded its enhanced online degree program,
Open SUNY+,
adding 56 degree and certificate programs from 17 campuses across the state.
Open SUNY is the university system's
online education platform, which launched in 2013 and offers nearly 400
online-enabled degrees and 12,000 course sections. Select programs are available
through Open SUNY+, which offers additional support services for students and
faculty and is intended to provide online students and faculty with the same
level of support available to their traditional, on-campus counterparts. With
this announcement, Open SUNY now offers a total of 64 Open SUNY+ programs from
19 campuses. Eventually, SUNY plans to migrate all of its online courses to the
Open SUNY+ platform.
Additional support services available for students in Open SUNY+ programs
include:
- 24/7 help desk and tutoring services;
- Personal concierge, a single point of contact for student questions
about their degree program; and
- Access to real-life work experience opportunities in the student's field
of study prior to graduation.
To support its online faculty, SUNY has created a professional development
community called the Center for Online Teaching Excellence (COTE), where they
can learn about new online teaching practices and share ideas and techniques
with colleagues.
According to information released by the
University at Buffalo, which is one of the SUNY universities that has joined
Open SUNY+, more than 750 faculty members from throughout the SUNY system are
using COTE, and SUNY expects as many as 6,000 additional students to access
courses through Open SUNY+ next semester.
Further information about Open SUNY+ is available on the
Open SUNY
site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].