Rob Reynolds, Executive Director at TEL Library
After earning his Ph.D. in Spanish at the University of Texas at Austin, Rob Reynolds began his career as a university faculty member teaching languages and literature. He has also served in university administration, as a textbook publishing executive, and as a co-founder and/or leader of multiple educational technology startups. He has additional experience as a textbook author and has been an active researcher and blogger in the learning technology space since 2003. He is the author of The Future of Learning Content and currently serves as Executive Director of TEL Library, a non-profit, public library dedicated to providing affordable learning to anyone, anywhere. For the past 20 years, Rob’s career has been focused on content design and management for education. ● In the late 90s, he was designing and authoring innovative, narrative-based learning experiences for major language publishers (Prentice Hall and Heinle and Heinle), with the goal of integrating higher levels of instruction and user experience into learning content. ● Later, as Director of Information at the University of Oklahoma, he helped move the university’s general education courses online and, as part of the process, worked to redesign course structures and content management processes to make online learning more effective and cost-efficient. ● In 2004, Rob co-founded Xplana Learning in Boston. As part of his work there, he developed the company’s information science division to help publishers normalize information structures for creating and managing their content. He also designed and led the development of a content management system for publisher assets. ● As Vice President of Digital Solutions for Cengage, he oversaw the development of taxonomic structures for academic units to support efficient tagging and reuse of digital assets and custom publishing. ● At MBS Direct Rob oversaw the design and development of digital content solutions for that company’s ambitious content management and digital publishing platform, Xplana.com. ● Today, as Executive Director at TEL Library, Rob continues to innovate content management and publishing with a goal of making high-quality education affordable and easily accessible for everyone, everywhere. He is currently building a library of high-quality, low-cost learning content that can be repurposed and distributed quickly and efficiently across multiple product types and markets. In the next phase, TEL Library’s long-term goal is to leverage its structured data framework and make its structured content available to third-party AI systems to make high-quality, affordable education accessible worldwide.
