About the Project

What is FVSUOL4ed?

Twenty-first century high education institutions will have to rely not only on adaptable physical infrastructure and qualified human resources, but also on a reliable and scalable digital infrastructure.

The Fort Valley State University (FVSU) has partnered with California State University's MERLOT for the design and deployment of Fort Valley State University's Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) Initiative, and to create the Fort Valley State University Open Online Library for Education (FVSUOL4Ed). MERLOT is a free and open online community and collection of teaching and learning resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education. MERLOT's open educational services enables teachers and learners from around the world to freely share their instructional resources and pedagogy. MERLOT's library (www.merlot.org) provides a collection of peer reviewed online learning materials, including almost 5,000 free and open etextbooks, catalogued by registered MERLOT members. MERLOT also provides a wide range of faculty development and student support services.

This partnership will enable the FVSU System's institutions and higher education in Georgia to create a digital infrastructure that will improves college affordability for students with free etextbooks and educational resources. Having free and immediate access to instructional resources can enable more students to enroll and succeed in more courses as they progress toward graduation in a more timely manner.

FVSUOL4ED will enable FVSU faculty to develop online courses and programs using free and quality Open Education Resources (OER). It will also help faculty develop educational multimedia resources and open textbooks to contribute back to the OER and Open Access (OA) global movements.