The American Association of University Administrators has voted BPCC’s Open Campus open educational resource program as this year’s recipient of its 2018 Nikolai Khaladjan International Award for Innovation in Higher Education. In the history of the Khaladjan award, BPCC is the first community college to be awarded the honor. The award will be presented June 8 at AAUA’s annual Leadership Seminar in Philadelphia.
The Khaladjan International Award recognizes innovation and achievement in higher education worldwide. Named for the founder and former president of the Moscow External University of the Humanities, the award is given for work that is both innovative and has wide potential for application or impact on the international dimensions of post-secondary education.
The Khaladjan recognizes
- innovative teaching methods
- methods which widen access to education
- efficient use of teaching resources
- wide use of learning technology
- efforts that accelerate or deepen student learning
Open Campus is a cross-disciplinary developmental series of free, online non-credit courses, offering developmental courses ahead of placement testing and for those enrolled in credit-bearing coursework. The courses are actual BPCC instructors who are videoed teaching actual modules.
BPCC’s Open Campus courses premiered in 2013, and, to-date, more than 30,000 students have enjoyed free access to extended learning opportunities targeting their needs and guiding them through unfamiliar terrain. BPCC was the first community college in the nation to provide these courses to anyone at any time for no cost. Open Campus learning materials have now touched students in 200 countries/territories worldwide. Here at home, Open Campus has helped students across Louisiana effectively reduce their time to degree completion.
“On average, every minute of every hour of everyday, someone, somewhere around the world is accessing Open Campus learning resources, created and produced at Bossier Parish Community College,” said Allison Martin, BPCC’s Director of Institutional Effectiveness Initiatives who spearheaded the initiative. “What we’ve learned since then is that our “anytime, anywhere” model has met the same needs for students in all 50 states and in 200 countries and territories worldwide—a truly astonishing scale which we never expected.”
For more information on BPCC’s Open Campus initiative, visit www.bpcc.edu/opencampus or contact Allison Martin at amartin@bpcc.edu.
For more information on the American Association of University Administrators or the Nikolai Khaladjan International Award for Innovation in Higher Education, visit www.aaua.org or http://www.aaua.org/awards/awards_recipients.htm.
