Osaka Kyoiku University faculty members visit California State University and sign memorandum of understanding and other agreements
Professor Noboru Takahashi, director of the International Center at OKU, and Professor Haruyo Yoshida of the English Education course visited the California State University, from February 8 (Monday) to 9 (Tuesday) to sign a memorandum of understanding and discuss future partnership. The California State University is the largest state university system in the United States focusing on practical skills with 23 independent campuses in the state of California, and its teacher training programs have a great reputation.
To further expand its multimedia education capabilities in eLearning and ICT education, OKU signed an international partnership agreement with MERLOT*, a project primarily managed by the California State University Office of the Chancellor. Professors Takahashi and Yoshida also met with Gerry Hanley, Executive Director of MERLOT at the California State University Office of the Chancellor and signed a memorandum of understanding with their office. They also visited the California State University, Long Beach and met with Dr. Jeet Joshee, Associate Vice President and Dean of International, Continuing and Professional Education to sign an agreement to explore strategies for comprehensive collaboration. With the partnership with the Long Beach campus, which is the third-largest 4-year state university in the US and is known for its high-quality education, OKU plans to engage in an active collaboration and exchange through summer language study programs and other such programs to promote internationalization of OKU.
*MERLOT: Short for “the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching”. This international project aimed at aggregating and developing online learning materials to improve learning and education quality in higher education is run primarily by the California State University system, with the collaboration of various bodies such as higher education agencies, companies, and nonprofits.