| Founder(s) | Michael J. Saylor |
|---|---|
| Type | Operating private foundation (IRS exemption status): 501(c)(3) |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Focus | Free education |
| Website | www.saylor.org |
The Saylor Foundation (under its legal name, The Constitution Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was established in 1999 by its sole trustee, Michael J. Saylor, who is Chairman, CEO, and President of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy.[1] Since 2008, the focus of the foundation has been its Free Education Initiative.
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The mission of the foundation is to make education freely available to all. Guided by the belief that technology has the potential to circumvent barriers that prevent many individuals from participating in traditional schooling models, the foundation is committed to developing and advancing inventive and effective ways of harnessing technology in order to drive the cost of education down to zero.[2]
On its website, Saylor.org, the foundation offers over 200 free, college-level courses, which are selected as typical courses in high enrollment majors at traditional U.S. colleges.[2]
The foundation works with consultants to design the courses. .. The course design process begins with a college faculty member developing a blueprint for the course. The consultant then researches Open educational resources )OER) for the lecture, text, and resources. If suitable texts and documents are not found, the foundation works with faculty to compile new materials.[3]
After OER materials are assembled into the course format, the material is peer-reviewed to ensure accuracy and quality.[4] Each peer-review is completed by a group of consultants, usually consisting of two professors and a graduate student.[2]
The Saylor Foundation has been known for organizing comprehensive curriculum for popular subject areas, and licensing the resources under the Creative Commons Attribution license whenever possible.[4] Now with the launch of its "Open Textbook Challenge", the foundation aims to expand the amount of openly licensed course materials by offering a $20,000 award for open textbooks.[5]