Modern States is a national non-profit that helps more than 150,000 learners of all ages and from all 50 states take college level courses and earn college credit for free, by combining MOOC-style courses with the CLEP exams from College Board. For a quick and accessible overview of our approach, check out this short video.
Since 2024, Modern States has worked with D2L to deliver courses through the Brightspace platform. Modern States and D2L share a vision of dramatically improving access to higher education and supporting learner success in higher education. Our engagement allows us to work continuously towards that vision, leveraging the resources of both organizations to improve access, opportunity, and outcomes for learners.
Course Redevelopment
In early 2025, Modern States deepened its relationship with D2L, taking advantage of the organization’s deep expertise in learning, instructional design, and technology to support revision and redevelopment of Modern States’ 32 courses. The goal of this engagement is to ensure that all Modern States courses:
- Align with the relevant CLEP exam and cover up-to-date content
- Integrate the best research in learning science and online pedagogy
- Leverage emerging technologies to provide multiple types of support for learners
Collaboration with higher education institutions and subject matter experts (SMEs)–primarily faculty members at colleges and universities nationwide–is an essential part of the engagement.
The engagement is currently planned for two phases.
In the first phase lasting through the end of June, SMEs will assist in reviewing course content and assessments generated in large part by custom AI tools built by D2L to enhance existing course materials and lecture notes and to generate richer assessments. The purpose of this review is primarily to ensure that content is reliably complete and accurate. In the second phase from July through the end of the year, SMEs will assist Modern States to develop 3-5 entirely new courses.
Our Ask
For both phases of the engagement described above, Modern States is actively seeking SMEs interested in collaborating on course development, review, and improvement. We are asking that institutional administrators share this document with faculty members and other potential SMEs, particularly those identified as Phase 2 priorities below. Additionally, Modern States is interested in engaging with possible higher education partners to expand our visibility and availability to learners of all ages.
In recognition of the support, Modern States will provide an honorarium and acknowledge SMEs and their institutions within the relevant courses and on our website. We will also prioritize SMEs and their institutions for additional partnership opportunities, such as inclusion in implementation or research and evaluation programs.
If you are interested in learning more about Modern States and ways to support this effort, please complete this short form.