Beyond Borders

OSU Spreading Natural Resources Nationwide Through Online Consortium

February 2008

Oregon State University has been accepted into the Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium allowing the university to expand the reach of its course offerings through this online learning portal.

According to the NRDLC website, the consortium's goal is to provide quality natural resources education to online learners who may not always have access to campus-based courses and programs. The consortium was originally created by Virginia Tech and the U.S. Forest Service and now includes many Land Grant and MacIntire-Stennis-designated universities, as well as the Bureau of Land Management.

Through this addition, students from the consortium's other participating universities and federal agency members have access to OSU's online graduate natural resources courses, specifically the Sustainable Natural Resources Graduate Certificate Online. The SNR certificate, facilitated through a partnership through OSU Extended Campus (Ecampus), is a series of online courses geared toward company, industry or agency employees who desire more training in assessing and solving complex sustainability problems.

"OSU's admittance to NRDLC allows us to market our courses to a larger audience of federal agency natural resource managers," said OSU College of Forestry Associate Dean Jim Johnson. "In many cases, students use these courses to satisfy their degree or certificate programs at the member institutions."

Johnson explains that inclusion into NRDLC is a win-win situation for OSU, as students are now able to tap into many assets of the nation's leaders in natural resources.

"OSU students will have the opportunity to access online courses from other consortium members including top institutions like North Carolina State University, Virginia Tech and Penn State University," Johnson said.

The collaboration with the NRDLC includes the OSU College of Forestry, College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Science and OSU Ecampus.

For more information, visit our Ecampus Sustainable Natural Resources Graduate Certificate page, as well as the NRDLC website.  Back to In the News or the Ecampus Homepage.