Online Learning Pioneer, Sir John Daniel, Joins Academic Partnerships as Senior Advisor

DALLAS, Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Academic Partnerships announces today that international online learning pioneer Sir John Daniel has joined the company as a Senior Advisor. Sir John Daniel will support Academic Partnerships' mission of assisting top universities worldwide to increase access to higher education through technology. Sir John Daniel is one of the world's eminent practitioners and thought leaders in open, distance and technology-mediated learning. He has had a profound influence on distance learning in higher education and received recognition on all continents for his accomplishments in the field, particularly as related to the use of technology to expand the scope, scale and quality of human learning.

"We are pleased that Sir John Daniel will contribute his unrivalled accumulation of more than 40 years of international expertise to help our partner universities make excellent online education accessible to everyone, everywhere," said Randy Best, chairman and founder of Academic Partnerships.

"Online teaching and learning is a wonderfully liberating development that is increasing access to education dramatically," said Sir John Daniel. "However, students want success as well as access so good online learning must be supported by online contact between students and teachers. Academic Partnerships provides this, which explains why it is has good completion rates compared to the horrendous drop-out rates in the first round of massive open online courses that assume all teaching and learning can be automated."

Sir John's recent acclaimed paper, "Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility," evaluates the impact and value of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). He concludes that it is not their scale that is the real revolution in higher education, but rather that universities with scarcity at the heart of their business models are embracing openness.

Most recently, Sir John was the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning. Prior to this role, he served as UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education. He also headed the British Open University for 11 years and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his service in higher education. He holds 31 honorary doctorates from universities in 17 countries and is responsible for 330 publications and books, including Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education and Mega-Schools, Technology and Teaching: Achieving Education for All.

About Academic Partnerships 
Dallas-based Academic Partnerships partners with universities to deliver students full degree programs online. The company was founded by social entrepreneur, Randy Best, an 18-year veteran of developing innovative learning solutions to improve education. Academic Partnerships helps universities increase access to high-quality education by providing the technology, student recruitment and faculty support necessary to serve online students. Academic Partnerships is guided by the principle that the opportunities presented through distance learning make higher education more accessible and achievable for students in the U.S. and globally. For more information, please visit http://www.academicpartnerships.com.

SOURCE Academic Partnerships