2014 is upon us, and as the tradition goes, we’re thinking up our resolutions. Here’s what we have so far:

  1. Lots of tweaks to courses, resources, links…from good to great and from great to greater.
  2. More (and more clear) college credit options
  3. Badges?
  4. More ways for students and friends of the foundation to collaborate with us and set our direction
  5. A brand new look…and a new name? Just wait and see…
  6. ???

What do you think? Got any ideas to help complete our list? What’s on your list for the new year?

Photo credit: danielmoyle via photopin CC BY 2.0

6 thoughts on “Happy New Year! Here are our resolutions…

  1. Happy New Year to all the Saylor team and my fellow students around the world. May we all achieve more than we expect and do more than we believe possible.

    But… a name change?

  2. Happy New Year!

    More promises, indeed. How about answering to students’ e-mails and correcting exam errors?…

  3. So proud of being a Saylor student!

    – More collaborations such as the one with Nasa to elevate the “brand name” and make it more solid at the eyes of employers around the world.

    – A certificate for those who compete an entire Major, a sort of degree (not official but always a degree with its transcript)

    – Identify old students with Saylor studies and talk about their actual career and how Saylor helped them in succeeding in their job/life

    1. Awesome, and thank you. For your suggestions…you’re reading our minds! There is a lot of energy around our offices, as as well as a serious drive toward bringing the student front and center. Changes will roll out over time, but you will start to see things happening quite soon.

      P.S. – We got a tweet for the Space Systems Engineering course from @NASA, and our enrollment has shot up. Very cool, and we’re excited to have a chance to prove ourselves to a whole host of new community members.

  4. I am a recent studemt with Saylor and cannot believe the quality of the education offering. While I enjoy reading your resolutions, I hope that the emphasis will be placed on:

    – extending college credit options for more courses, especially obtaining NCCRS exam options for more offering.
    – I also agree that it would be nice to receive a certificate of achievement for completing a “Field of Study”.
    – adding a chat forum for each course to allow students to discuss info/questions while engaged in a course.
    – add a post course evaluation form to provide students with a means to offer feedback.
    – add more information systems (microsoft & linux desktop, server, services) with same content as CompTIA standards (as most of those certs are accepted as PLAR).
    – add more project management courses to ehance Business area of study.
    – add an information systems area of study.

    IMHO I think that Saylor has great brand recognition and very positive reviews in Google and Bing searches. Changing the name may not be advantageous. Adding “Badges” is adding eye candy and has no real affect on Improving the quality of the course offerings.

    1. Hi Gordon — very good feedback, and I’ll make sure the teams see it. Some quick replies:

      • extending college credit & NCCRS recommendations — definitely a major priority.
      • field of study certificates — good to know, thanks!
      • chat forums — do you mean something less “formal” and more immediate than the discussion forums attached to each course? Something embedded or immediately accessible vs. a link to a separate forums page?
      • evaluations — good idea; we had done this briefly in the past and then stopped, but I’m not sure why that was.
      • info systems — will pass along for consideration
      • project management — also will pass along; the NASA Space Systems Engineering course has some PM content in it
      • info systems — I think we had contemplated, then tabled, a masters in info systems program; we continue to think about more flexible and modular programs, too, in which a collection of courses/units/materials across areas of study hits specific competencies
      • name change — is a subtle change, and does indeed present some challenges with brand, but it is on the way regardless!
      • badges — definitely should not be a substitute for quality or a cover for lack thereof; for many, though certainly not all, they will help to motivate. Their signifying/certification value is low if done poorly, but (I feel) has good potential. Badges do have a kind of brand problem, which will be up to the newly-announced Badge Alliance, in part, to help solve

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