Carnegie Mellon University has been providing free open
and online education since 2001 when it began the Open Learning Initiative
(OLI). The institution has now created Acrobatiq, a subsidiary company
focused on improving course quality and learning outcomes.
The new venture will offer customizable online
courseware, consulting services, and learning analytics for educators. The
company will continue to offer OLI courses and work to create new ones.
“Through Acrobatiq, we will be able to scale up
capacity to serve more learners and institutions, accelerate innovation, and
ensure financial sustainability from revenue versus a reliance on grant
funding,” Eric Frank, the company’s CEO, said in a blog post.
Acrobatiq will begin offering its services in the fall
and will not interrupt any agreements with OLI, according to Frank. It will
maintain a catalog of free courses and continue the OLI approach of making its
tools available to educational researchers at no cost.