Press Release
MSU plants gardening know-how in cyberspace
MEDIA RELATIONS * Division of University Relations * 403 Olds Hall * Michigan State University * East Lansing, MI 48824-1047
Contact: Christine Geith, MSU Global: (517) 432-1950, geith@msu.edu, or Sue Nichols, University Relations: nichols@msu.edu, (517) 353-8942
April 18, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich. --- From Michigan State University’s horticulture expertise springs an innovative partnership that takes MSU’s research and plants it in cyberspace.
Learn2Grow.com is an interactive Web site that enables gardeners to get the regional and national gardening information they want, the way they want it: quick, reliable, engaging and online. Learn2Grow’s intellectual engine is fueled in part by MSU’s resources and expertise.
“The demand for all kinds of education, training and credentialing is exploding,” said Christine Geith, assistant provost and executive director of MSU Global. “We’ve created a new way to reach the university’s goals through a unique partnership with a for-profit company.”
MSU long has been a gardener’s friend, through Extension, through the Master Gardener program and through a 150-year bounty of courses and learning opportunities. The national potential audience – 110 million home gardeners – requires an even greater reach. Learn2Grow capitalizes on people’s demands to get individualized and regional information and expertise online in a tailored way that accommodates their schedule.
In addition to free articles, a plant database, and forums, Learn2Grow has online courses inspired by MSU’s award-winning online Horticulture Gardening Institute. The courses cover a broad range of specialty topics as well as garden basics through the video persona of a folksy gardening guide. They are the result of content written and reviewed by Learn2Grow, a division of Preferred Commerce, and MSU experts.
Norm Lownds, associate professor of horticulture and curator of the MSU 4-H Children’s Gardens, is leading the MSU presence and assuring quality behind the Learn2Grow content. The MSU information is easily available far beyond Michigan borders in a snazzier interface. The Learn2Grow partnership, he said, is another innovative way to meet the information needs of gardeners.
“This is taking advantage of new technology-based delivery methods from universities to commercial vendors to the public,” Lownds said. “Because the up-front time and capital investment to deliver Web information in an engaging format is huge; this has been a good way to go. There’s a lot of MSU in here.”
Geith said the partnership is a distinct managing of intellectual property in higher education – different than a professor writing a book, different than a professor licensing a technology. But the spirit, in terms of sharing knowledge, is the same.
“MSU is fortunate to have a national and international reputation in many, many areas such as horticulture,” Geith said. “Through MSU Global, we are actively creating ventures that blend MSU’s research expertise with entrepreneurial approaches such as Learn2Grow.com.”
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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 16 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.
For MSU news on the Web, go to newsroom.msu.edu
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