Learning Environments and related u-wide missions in online learning and new media are placed in the Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs, rather than in an office of technology or continuing education as in many universities. This is a dramatic sign of the emphasis SUNY places on innovating and exploring new media and technology for academic ends. We take this position seriously by creating new programmatic initiatives (e.g. Center for Online International Learning and collaborative degrees online); collaborating to forge new policies responsive to media change (blended learning and professorial labor; intellectual property; cross-campus articulation agreements honoring student learning online); and grant seeking (Sloan funding for cross-institutional joint degrees online; Apple Corp grant for podcasting).

In sum, our philosophy is to remain alert to events on the horizon by remaining in close contact with Educause and the New Media Consortium and relying on the collective intelligence – the wisdom of the crowd -- of adept and interested professionals across SUNY, aggregating and unleashing that wisdom through our many programs.

LE's goal is to seed, find funding for, or directly administer programs and initiatives that will be self-sustaining and/or unleash innovation to keep SUNY at the forefront of, or at least in touch with, important academic technologies and media. Our value proposition is to provide the benefits to campuses and university as a whole that a System perspective and position can bring. At the same time, successful programs generally live and thrive by finding efficiencies, synergies and collaborations of individuals on specific campuses.