Prometheus Selected to Deliver Online Course Management For United States Open University
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prometheus — a community-based, open architecture software platform that meets the online infrastructure needs of educational institutions and is backed by George Washington University — announced today that it has partnered with United States Open University to continue the expansion of the highly successful Open University UK distance-learning program into the United States. United States Open University is the sister institution of UK-based Open University.
“We are living in the information age and, as such, students have increasingly grown to expect higher education to be delivered to them via technology. As a result, non-traditional forms of higher education have become more and more important,” said Sir John Daniel, Vice-Chancellor, The Open University, and President, United States Open University.
“In this environment, US Open University has partnered with Prometheus and has successfully adapted much of our core-curriculum of distance-learning courses to the United States through an online venue that reinforces quality,” added Richard Jarvis, Chancellor, United States Open University.
The new platform enables United States Open University’s curriculum subject specialists to design courses along with instructional designers and content specialists so that multiple faculty members can teach identical courses to their students simultaneously. This differs from a traditional distance-learning model, in which the individual faculty member generates the course and teaches it to his or her students.
Through the United States Open University partnership, Prometheus will be creating a unique eLearning platform customized specifically for the continuing education model.
“We selected Prometheus because its easy-to-use, scalable platform allows us to expand our market and enhance our students’ experience while still preserving the hallmarks of an Open University education, such as mentoring, quality content and student interaction,” said Jarvis.
“We have worked with US Open University to customize our technology to match the unique learning delivery needs of this very significant and visible institution,” said Bo Davis, Managing Director, Prometheus. “US Open University’s decision to select us demonstrates our technology platform’s flexibility to support any eLearning model and, for this reason, it has become the custom learning platform of choice for top-level education institutions.”
About US Open University
United States Open University is the sister institution of The Open University chartered over 30 years ago in the United Kingdom. Recognized as the world’s leader in part-time education and training for working adults, The Open University has become a model for distance learning programs throughout the world. Currently, more than 200,000 students in over 41 countries study with The Open University.
For more information on United States Open University visit http://www.open.edu.
About Prometheus
Located in Washington D.C., Prometheus is a community-based, open architecture software platform that meets the online infrastructure needs of educational institutions and is backed by George Washington University. In 1997, a team at GWU began to develop their own online learning software because the available software was not as easy to use, flexible, or scalable as faculty and students at a major university needed. As a result, the team created Prometheus, a scalable software based on proven technologies such as leading databases from Oracle and Microsoft as well as an open source code application built with Cold Fusion. Other leading institutions that have adopted this proven, scalable technology include Columbia Business School, Columbia Teachers College, The Wharton School of Business, the University of Wisconsin’s Learning Innovations, New York University and Vanderbilt University.
For more information on Prometheus, visit http://www.prometheus.com or call 202-994-9384.
Contact Information:
Chris Milligan
212-931-6161
Justyna Bronk
212-931-6141
both of PepperCom for Prometheus
