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| Saylor Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Name | Saylor Foundation |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Michael J. Saylor |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Saylor Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to provide free and open online educational resources and courses. It supports a digital learning initiative aimed at increasing access to higher education materials and credentialing pathways. The foundation operates an online platform that publishes open textbooks, course outlines, and pathways aligned with college-level learning outcomes.
The foundation was founded in 2008 by Michael J. Saylor, who previously founded MicroStrategy and was involved in the Nasdaq technology sector and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Early activities intersected with initiatives led by William J. Clinton-era digital policy advocates and nonprofits such as Creative Commons and the Khan Academy, while contemporaneous projects included efforts by MIT OpenCourseWare and the OpenCourseWare Consortium. The foundation's timeline parallels developments in open access movements involving figures and institutions like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Open Society Foundations. Throughout the 2010s its work responded to changes in higher education linked to events like the rise of Massive Open Online Course providers including Coursera, edX, and Udacity.
The foundation's stated mission centers on expanding access to affordable learning through openly licensed materials, certificates, and credit-recommendation resources similar to programs at American Council on Education and competency-based initiatives at institutions like Western Governors University. Programmatically it produces open textbooks akin to projects at OpenStax and aligns course maps with accreditation frameworks used by regional accreditors such as the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The foundation’s portfolio includes self-paced courses, exam-preparation content comparable to offerings from ETS and College Board, and pathways that echo credit-transfer policies seen in the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Saylor Academy is the foundation’s online learning arm offering free courses, syllabi, and curated reading lists. Course development draws on canonical texts by authors such as Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Charles Darwin and mirrors pedagogical choices found in syllabi at institutions like Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and Oxford University. The Academy provides assessment tools and digital badges influenced by standards from the IMS Global Learning Consortium and evidence-based practices cited in research from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Pew Research Center. Its catalog covers disciplines that map to degree programs at universities including University of Phoenix, Southern New Hampshire University, and Arizona State University.
The foundation has collaborated with educational and philanthropic organizations such as Creative Commons, Open Education Consortium, and Common Core State Standards Initiative-aligned groups, while engaging with entities in publishing and credentialing like Pearson, Cengage, and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. It has sought articulation agreements and recognition with colleges including Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State University, and community college systems such as the California Community Colleges System. International collaborations referenced models from institutions like the University of London International Programmes and initiatives in countries connected to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Initial funding was underwritten by Michael J. Saylor and philanthropic mechanisms similar to donations by figures linked to Gates Foundation-style giving; governance comprises a board model resembling structures at nonprofits such as The Wikimedia Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. Financial oversight and nonprofit registration aligned with regulatory practices overseen by the Internal Revenue Service and reporting standards paralleling those used by GuideStar and Charity Navigator. The foundation’s management team has included professionals with backgrounds at technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google and higher education administration with ties to institutions like New York University and University of Michigan.
Observers have compared the foundation’s open content output to MIT OpenCourseWare and OpenStax in expanding access to course materials and lowering costs for learners engaged with platforms like GitHub and Internet Archive. Evaluations in higher education forums and media outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and mainstream outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have noted its role in the broader open educational resources movement alongside initiatives from Khan Academy and Coursera. Studies by organizations like the Brookings Institution and EDUCAUSE have cited the foundation as part of a network affecting student affordability and nontraditional pathways to credentialing.
Critics have raised questions about the depth of pedagogical support compared with degree-granting programs at Harvard Extension School or University of London and the recognition of noncredit certificates relative to credentials issued by Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. Concerns voiced in policy debates and commentary in outlets like Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education include reliance on volunteer faculty, potential alignment with commercial publishers such as Elsevier and disputes over credit-transferability with traditional institutions including State University of New York and University of California campuses. Discussions have also touched on governance transparency compared to standards advocated by Independent Sector and philanthropic accountability norms practiced by Ford Foundation.