A NORTH Yorkshire-based company has decided to share its online learning platform for free to help the education sector.

The Skills Network (TSN) is a leading provider of online learning technology and online learning courses, with 300 customers across 30 countries and one million users on its system.

Selby-based, TSN's learning management platform, EQUAL, will now be available to any education institution or organisation for free.

This will enable organisations to create their own online content for students at no charge.

TSN was one of the 20 volunteer providers involved in Ofsted’s recent online education review.

The organisation is now keen for other providers to benefit from use of its technology.

James Earl, executive director at TSN, said: “The last few months has been a major challenge for any organisation, in many cases doing what they have to in order to transfer their learning online quickly to stay operational.

"What has taken years for us to perfect, others have had to do in days.

"I think that the world of e-learning has transformed, and the sector has jumped ahead years in its adoption of online systems in a matter of months.

"That is why by giving our system and authoring tool away, we feel we can create a new benchmark of quality in the industry, creating a truly collaborative environment for everyone to benefit from and ultimately improve online learning experiences for students which can be robustly monitored and assessed.”

TSN subcontract with more than 30 UK colleges, delivering online distance learning qualifications to about 35,000 students per year.

The company also delivers commercial training to businesses such as Kier, Sodexo, Thomson Reuters, and The Trade Union Congress (TUC).

For information, visit: www.theskillsnetwork.com/free-lms