Its determination was rewarded with a $NZ287,000 grant from one of the largest charitable organisations in the United States.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, set up in 1966 by Hewlett-Packard computer company founder William Hewlett and his wife, has donated $US200,000 over two years.
The charity, which has assets of $US6.29 billion and last year distributed $US784 million, supports educational, environmental, poverty eradication and arts programmes around the world.
The grant was confirmed last month and the cheque arrived this week, polytechnic deputy chief executive Dr Robin Day said yesterday.
"It's fantastic . . . We believe we are the first polytechnic in New Zealand to receive a grant from this foundation."
The money will be used to expand the polytechnic's Open Education Resources Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation run by staff member Dr Wayne Mackintosh.
It allows educators anywhere in the world to share classroom resources, lecture notes, textbooks and planning and policy documents through a website called wikieducator.
Users make donations to a "virtual honesty box", with the money used to commission more resources and to train more people to use the site.
The polytechnic has also just received a one-off grant of $117,500 from the Ministry of Education to commission New Zealand people to write wikieducator resources for New Zealand secondary schools and to train teachers to use the site.
Wikieducator was "a whole new approach to teaching and learning", Dr Day said.
"Through sharing, we can reduce costs for students and institutions."
The polytechnic was rapidly gaining an international reputation for its work in open education and the Hewlett Foundation grant would enhance that.
"This is going to put [us] on the map in this domain - no doubt about it. It is going to establish us as a centre of excellence."
