Today we are pleased to introduce three authorities in open education who will inaugurate our new Advisory Board at Saylor Academy: Dr. Marie Cini, Dr. Rory McGreal, and Marc Singer.

In each case, the role on our advisory board formalizes a long exchange of ideas. Each Advisor brings significant experience in OER, open education, online learning, and credentialing. Collectively, the board members will be instrumental in helping Saylor Academy determine our strategy for 2018 and beyond.

An examination of the backgrounds of our new advisors should be sufficient to convince our students, partners, and friends of the exciting opportunities now before us.

Please take a few moments to become acquainted with Dr. Cini, Dr. McGreal, and Mr. Singer below and welcome them to our community!

About our advisors

Portrait of Marie CiniDr. Marie Cini is Provost Emeritus, having spent almost 10 years leading academic innovation initiatives at University of Maryland University College. She is an adult higher education and curriculum expert, who led one of the largest open education initiatives in the US, when UMUC adopted OER for all of its undergraduate and graduate courses.

Dr. Cini currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Online Learning Consortium. She was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2016.

Professional headshot of Rory McGrealDr. Rory McGreal is the UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning Chairholder in Open Educational Resources. He is a professor in the Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada’s open online university.

He is also the director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute, a co-Editor of the journal International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, and founder of the OER Knowledge Cloud.

Portrait of Marc SingerMarc Singer serves as the Vice Provost for the Center for the Assessment of Learning at Thomas Edison State University. He manages TESU’s Prior Learning Assessment, credit-by-exam, and alternative credit pathway programs and has led initiatives on Open Educational Resources and Competency-Based Education.

Marc also serves as Director of the National Institute on the Assessment of Adult Learning and is active in cross-border credential recognition.

We are thrilled to have such experienced educators lend their talents to our mission as we push the open education movement forward to driving down the cost of meaningful credentials for learners around the world.


Photos courtesy of their subjects.