The Open Learning Agency (OLA) was a

Crown Agency A crown agency was an administrative body of the British Empire, distinct from the Civil Service Commission of Great Britain or the government administration of the national entity in which it operated. These enterprises were overseen from 1833 ...

of the province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. Its primary function was the management of the

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown co ...

, a public television station in British Columbia, and the Open Learning Institute. It once played a larger role in education and a university function, before being scaled back by the provincial government in 2004. As of April 1, 2005, British Columbia Open University (BCOU) in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

, that was a service of the Open Learning Agency became a part of the newly created

Thompson Rivers University Thompson Rivers University (commonly referred to as TRU) is a public teaching and research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees and vocational training. Its main campus is in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, and its name c ...

(TRU), located in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

. From this date, BCOU is known as Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning or TRU Open Learning (TRU-OL).

(TRU), through its Open Learning Division (TRU-OL), became one of Canada’s leading distance education providers. Educational goals are obtainable for anyone through accessible and varied courses that can be taken anytime and at an individually determined pace. With over 400 individual courses and more than 57 programs available for completion by distance and online learning, students can take a variety of programs such as: adult secondary school completion; certificates and diplomas, including advanced and post-baccalaureate; associate degrees; and bachelor's degrees.

(KN), another service of the Open Learning Agency, continues to operate as part of the Open Learning Agency, broadcasting its unique educational programming throughout British Columbia.

is BC's fourth largest provincial university and, through its Open Learning Division ( Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning (TRU-OL)), is one of Canada’s leading distance education providers. Also included is Open School BC (OSBC), currently of the Services and Technology Division in the Ministry of Education. This was the K-12 branch of OLA. As well as correspondence material they also developed the first online courses in 1998 with OSCAR (Open School Courses and Resources). Working with the Distance Education (DE) Schools of BC they purchased, developed and managed the first Learning Management System (LMS) WebCT). Now Open School BC has over 50 online courses that they offer to Distributed Learning programs and to public sector clients across the province in Blackboard and Moodle Learning Management Systems. http://www.openschool.bc.ca

External links

Open School BCThompson Rivers UniversityThompson Rivers University, Open Learning
{{Authority control Educational organizations based in British Columbia British Columbia government departments and agencies Distance education in Canada Organizations disestablished in 2004 2004 disestablishments in British Columbia

See also

External links