« στις: Μαΐου 09, 2013, 02:02:39 »
http://education-portal.com/pages/About_Us.html#aboutCommitment
THE BEGINNING OF A JOURNEY
After feeling the financial pinch of rising college textbook costs, Adrian Ridner and Ben Wilson, two classmates at Cal Poly State University---San Luis Obispo, knew there had to be a way to relieve the financial burden being placed on students.
In 2002, Adrian and Ben helped launch an online book exchange that allowed students to bypass campus bookstores and save money on textbooks. Within months, thousands of students began using the free service, and word began spreading beyond Cal Poly.
Adrian and Ben were thrilled to be reducing textbook costs, but both realized there was a much larger problem at hand: it wasn't just barriers to books that confronted students but barriers to all kinds of education resources. Solving the problem of education access became their cause and signaled the start of Education-Portal.com.
OUR MISSION & THE DREAM THAT DRIVES US
As a true self-funded start up, Education Portal began with one dream, one garage-based office and one mission: making education accessible to everyone, everywhere. With the help of a handful of talented contributors, Adrian and Ben worked relentlessly to turn this dream into a profitable, 50-person company known today as Remilon, LLC.
Education Portal is now a true collaboration of the best minds in education, with more than 200 instructors, subject experts and editors contributing to it every day.
WHAT WE DO
Educating You… One Free Course at a Time
The cost of college education is skyrocketing, rising faster than inflation — faster even than health care costs. We're building the solution: free, online courses that lead to real college credit — credit that is already accepted at over 2,900 colleges and universities.
Other websites just repurpose existing college materials and throw them up on the web. We think this model leads to a poor learning experience and are doing something very different.
We're completely re-imagining online education as a visually stimulating, engaging, multi-media experience made specifically for the web user, and we're building our courses from the ground up. Over 50 world-class educators, video editors, and animators are working to create the fun and engaging 10-minute video lessons that make up each course. More than 1 million students have flocked to our courses, and both students and instructors alike are hungry for more.
Soon our courses will cover all the material that is taught in the first two years of college… and we don't plan to stop there. We already have several courses completed, so we invite you to explore our course catalog and start learning now. Once you've mastered the material, sign up for your exam and earn credit that transfers.
Our courses offer students a real solution to the rising cost of college — a solution that they can take advantage of right now to avoid student debt.
Read our FAQs to learn more.
Making Open Education Work for You
Every year, millions of students learn from top universities without paying a dime. As the PR platform for the open education movement, our Education Portal Insider brings you the best open education resources through projects like the Education Portal People's Choice Awards, which received over 18,000 votes from our community. We've been recognized by top publications like CNN Money for our contribution in helping students learn about free, open courses.
"Education Portal is really helping to spread the word about the availability of OpenCourseWare and open educational resources. Thanks for making these valuable open resources known to a wide audience of learners!"
—Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OCW Consortium
Helping You Make Life-Shaping Decisions
Choosing the right degree program is the first step to a successful career. We've published thousands of unbiased, professionally reviewed articles that have helped millions of students make informed, life-shaping decisions. Thanks to our Perfect Search Guarantee, we promise that our free library of articles and videos can help you choose a career path and find the education you need. And if you can't find what you're looking for, just ask! Message us on Facebook for personalized answers to your questions.
FUNDING YOUR EDUCATION
Providing You Financial Support
We know college costs are rising, and want to help make your education more affordable. We're providing funding from every angle imaginable. In addition to offering $10,000 a month to students who earn credit through the CLEP exam, we also offer eleven annual academic scholarships, which helped fund the education of college students like Casey Horrigan and Bonnie Rickenbach.
Supporting Public Universities
We know that public universities are one of the most affordable options for students, but budgets cuts are endangering this valuable resource. As the lead sponsor of a state-of-the-art computer lab at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California, we're helping public universities provide world-class education at affordable prices.
SOCIAL COMMITMENT IN ACTION
We're committed to fighting poverty with education.
In 2009, we partnered with the The Riecken Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to building sustainable libraries in rural Central America.
For the vast majority of these rural communities, the Riecken libraries are the only source of educational programming, books, computers and Internet, and they serve as critical settings to increase literacy and community independence.
We have donated $30,000 to directly support Riecken's 64 libraries and have pledged an additional $30,000 to be donated over the next two years. Join us on the front lines to bridge the digital divide and close the gap between the world's richest and poorest communities.
A message from Riecken Foundation's CEO
"Beyond being generous, Education Portal has shown it is truly interested in our cause. The donations provided have kept rural communities in Guatemala and Honduras connected to technology and the Internet. Thanks to Education Portal's support, a group of thirty teenage Chorti Mayan teenagers from the Honduras region of Copan were recently able to receive three days of computer and Internet training. The teens live in very poor villages in an isolated region of Honduras. The teens aspire to continue studies after primary school, and this training, their first ever with computers, inspired many to continue studying. Thank you, Education Portal."
— Bill Cartwright, Tegucigalpa Honduras; Antigua, Guatemala
Other education charities we financially support include:
First Book
Minds Matter
Posse Foundation
Pride Foundation
Room to Read
Special Operations Warrior Foundation
FOUNDING TEAM
Ben Wilson
President and Founder
Ben brings over nine years of Web media experience to Education Portal and leads our team of educators and content developers. Ben has been a driving force in making Education Portal a leader in the open education movement and the largest free educational resource provider on the Web. Ben holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. In his spare time, Ben enjoys watching basketball, going bass fishing and spending time with his wife and children.
Adrian Ridner
CEO and Founder
With over nine years of experience in Web engineering, Adrian leads Education Portal's team of developers and engineers to integrate our content with the latest technologies. His team works to make our resources simple to use, easy to navigate and enjoyable to engage. Adrian earned a master's degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He was born in Argentina and spent a large part of his childhood in Venezuela and Brazil. Adrian is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.
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