New York, NJ (USA), August 2007 - McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a leading provider of electronic and print learning materials, and Multimedia Educational Resource for Online Learning and Teaching (MERLOT), an international higher-education consortium, have announced a strategic alliance to support MERLOT's Accelerating Development of Quality Hybrid and Online Courses initiative. The goals: to explore and evaluate strategies for blending publisher and open-education resources, improve learning outcomes, and reduce the costs of course materials for students.
Through this relationship, instructional designers from McGraw-Hill Higher Education's Learning Solutions team and MERLOT will work closely together to:
Additionally, McGraw-Hill Higher Education's online course library will be accessible through a sponsored portal on the MERLOT website. Furthermore, McGraw-Hill Higher Education's Learning Solutions team will integrate MERLOT peer-reviewed learning materials throughout their online course offerings, providing higher-education institutions with a "MERLOT Enhanced" online course library.
"We are excited about our collaboration with MERLOT and making a contribution to efforts that enhance instruction and help drive student achievement nationwide," said Jeff Schultz, vice president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education's Learning Solutions. "This alliance demonstrates the commitment shared by MERLOT and McGraw-Hill to improve the quality of online teaching and learning. Our mutual effort also underscores the fact that the convergence of technology and learning continues to hold great promise for higher-education institutions."
"McGraw-Hill and MERLOT will be providing faculty with tools that facilitate customization of their online course curricula so they can better serve the learning needs of their students and more successfully achieve the learning outcomes of their courses," said Gerry Hanley, executive director of MERLOT and senior director of Academic Technology Services for California State University's Office of the Chancellor.
