eCampusOntario representing the 45 Ontario colleges and universities, is pleased to announce the recipients of its New Program Development and Open Education Content call for proposals.
In July 2016, eCampusOntario issued the call across Ontario for education professionals to submit research and development proposals that would encourage cross-institution collaboration while focusing on areas of high labour market demand.
With a total of $21,050,000 available over two fiscal years (2016-17 and 2017-18) to fund these two significant strategic project areas, eCampusOntario received 174 proposal submissions from colleges and universities across Ontario.
After a thorough evaluation process, a total of 61 submissions were selected for funding with 76% of proposals featuring collaborations between Ontario colleges and universities.
According to Deb Matthews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development "By fostering innovation in online education, eCampusOntario is helping to make high quality education more accessible for our students. With new programs, better content and transferrable credits from our public colleges and universities, eCampusOntario makes it easier for all Ontarians to get the education they need."
In total, 38% of winning proposals are for Open Education Initiatives, 37% for New Program Development and the remaining 25% of proposals dedicated to converting existing face-to-face programs to online delivery.
"We are grateful to the Ontario Government for the significant investment they have made in supporting innovation in the teaching and learning process in post-secondary education. We are very pleased by the quality and creativity demonstrated in the submissions made from across the post-secondary sector," says Judith Morris, Co-Chair of eCampusOntario board of directors.
