American Military University to Offer New Online Courses to Students

Eight new online courses will be created for the American Military University (AMU) through a joint partnership with McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Archimedes Laboratory, LLC.

Under the agreement, McGraw-Hill Higher Education will work in cooperation with Archimedes to provide print and electronic versions of reference textbooks for the courses, which will be offered in university-level core curricula subject areas, including algebra, trigonometry, American history, physics, biology, American literature and economics. The AMU courses will be rolled out over the next twelve months and will set a new standard in higher education online courseware, featuring a rich and engaging presentation with high interactivity, while maintaining rigorous academics.

“Brick and mortar no longer define classroom learning in the 21st century,” said Ed Stanford, president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education. “Distance education programs enable learners all over the world to use the power of technology to connect to high quality educational resources. McGraw-Hill Higher Education looks forward to working with Archimedes to meet the needs and desire of all adult learners who wish to obtain a varied and rich educational experience regardless of where they live or how busy their schedules.”

McGraw-Hill Higher Education will offer its textbooks for the new AMU courses, in both print and electronic versions. The first of the eight initial courses will be developed within the next four months, four of the courses will be completed within eight months, and all eight will be available within the next year.

“These courses will allow military personnel and the other adult learners enrolled at AMU to work toward a degree anytime, anywhere,” said Craig Beytien, vice-president of eMarket Development for McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education.

AMU currently has over 7000 students enrolled in online courses. The school hopes to continue growing its enrollment over the next eighteen months so that each of these new core curricula courses supports 1,000 students. This growth will enable the eight new core courses to deliver content to more than 10,000 students. In addition, AMU, in cooperation with Archimedes, hopes to eventually create a total of at least twenty new online courses.

“At the American Military University, we pride ourselves on our work to continuously improve and expand our courses and curricular offerings,” said Michael Hillyard, AMU Provost. “McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Archimedes will provide the highest-quality content and user-friendly course designs that suit the needs of our students.”

“We are excited to have the opportunity to develop the American Military University courses, said Jim Dailey, president of Archimedes. “We look forward to continuing this partnership with McGraw-Hill Higher Education in order to bring distance learning solutions to other colleges in the future.”

Archimedes Laboratory, LLC is an eLearning company focused on providing high-quality content that clearly sets a new standard in online education. Archimedes provides eLearning for University, K-12, and business education purposes that is content rich, engaging, and interactive, yet academically rigorous. The content is designed to deliver complete asynchronous online curricula, yet is equally powerful as a classroom supplement. Archimedes Laboratory is based in Alexandria, Virginia. Additional Archimedes information is available at www.archimedeslaboratory.com.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education is part of McGraw-Hill Education, a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor’s and Business Week. Founded in 1888, the Corporation has more than 300 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2000 were $4.3 billion. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com.