United States Open University

From Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education

The United States Open University (US Open University, USOU) supported distance and online education degrees. It was closed in 2002.

The USOU was founded by the UK Open University (UKOU) in 1999. Its main office was near Denver, Colorado, US. Some of the reasons cited for its closure three years after opening include:

• Difficulty adapting UK courses for the US market
• Challenges unique to the US marketplace
• Flaws in the business plan
• Lack of US accreditation upon opening

The USOU web site was at http://www.open.edu/ (this now resolves to the UK OU's web site at http://www.open.ac.uk/

Reports

See http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/TheClosingoftheUSOpenUniversit/157394 for an interesting Educause article about the closure of the USOU.

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