About Lumen Learning: Higher Education Courseware and Faculty Support
Making High-Quality College Courseware More Accessible
We design thoughtful courseware technology that supports educators and students in building the connections that inspire learning.
Deeper connections.
Powerful technology. Learning for all.
At Lumen Learning, we believe a caring environment helps all students learn. And it starts with educators. So our easy-to-use toolset, including digital courseware, teaching resources, and professional development tools, gives you what you need to build deeper connections with students. Our products are designed to help you promote equity and are accessibly priced. And we take an agile approach to product development, carefully curating open educational resources (OER) and continually updating our courseware. Every step of the way, our team is here, ready to listen and help.
Mission and History
Lumen Learning is an educational technology company with a mission to expand access to high-quality learning experiences. We develop affordable digital courseware and faculty professional development resources that help educators support student learning while reducing financial barriers to education.
Our story began in 2010, when Kim Thanos and Dr. David Wiley received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help faculty adopt open educational resources (OER) and improve learning opportunities for college students. Two years later, with additional support from the Gates Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation, they founded Lumen Learning.
Today, we continue to build on our OER foundation by combining evidence-informed course design, flexible learning technology, and responsive faculty support. Our goal is to make it easier for colleges and universities to provide engaging, affordable course materials while giving educators the freedom to teach in ways that work for them and their students.
What Faculty and Students Are Saying
“Waymaker is user-friendly and affordable, with great content and wonderful support. Waymaker has helped me spend more time interacting productively with students.”
Lanna Hubbard (Faculty), Howard College“Waymaker gives students quality interactivity and assignments at a lower cost while supporting instructors with instructor resources and seamless grade posting in my LMS.”
Leann Mischell (Faculty), Coastal Carolina University“I enjoyed Waymaker’s variety of learning options including reading, videos, and other media.”
Amy Goldin (Student), SUNY Empire“I love that Waymaker has practice opportunities at the end of each chapter. This encouraged me to reflect on my notes and ensure that I recorded the information correctly.”
Nayeli Torres (Student), Howard College“Since using OHM, I experienced an increase in student engagement which resulted in higher rates of student success and retention.”
Sophia Georgiakaki (Faculty), Tompkins Cortland Community College“What I like the most about OHM is the affordability and the great support for students and faculty. Since using OHM, I’ve been able to spend more class time on active learning.”
Jackie Johnston (Faculty), Northeast Texas Community College“Compared to other online programs I’ve used, OHM is very straightforward and easy to understand. It was very easy to learn at the beginning of the semester, and I didn’t run into any technical issues. OHM was great, and more straightforward than other programs.”
Caeli Campbell (Student), Mohawk Valley Community College“OHM is extremely easy to work with and learn from.”
Kaitlyn Halstead (Student), Olivet CollegeFrequently Asked Questions
Some of what we do at Lumen Learning is available for free to the public. The words and pictures within our courseware are open educational resources (OER) and can be freely accessed through our Course Catalog at https://lumenlearning.com/courses/. In fact, in 2021 over 158 million people around the world accessed this collection of static content.
Lumen’s Waymaker and OHM courseware, which complement our static OER content with interactivity, practice, feedback, and personalized learning tools for students costs $35 per student. (Waymaker and OHM include powerful, time-saving tools for faculty, too.)
Lumen Circles, our faculty professional development experience, also has a cost associated with it. The cost to participate in a Lumen Circle varies based on the format of the Circle.
Lumen courseware was adopted by faculty at over 500 US colleges and universities in 2021. Lumen researchers and learning engineers regularly present at conferences, publish book chapters, and publish articles in peer reviewed journals. Lumen wins competitive grants from organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation to further develop and promote its innovative and effective models for courseware creation and faculty professional development.
OER stands for “open educational resources.” As defined by Creative Commons, Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:
- Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource
- Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource
- Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new
- Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly
- Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others.
The content in Lumen Learning’s courseware is created by experts and peer reviewed by experts. And Lumen’s digital delivery and continuous improvement processes insure that the content is always up-to-date and always becoming more effective at supporting student learning.
