Open Courseware
From Bazaar Wiki
Type of application / System Requirements
MIT OCW is a large-scale, Web-based publication of the educational materials from virtually all of the MIT faculty’s courses. This unique initiative, say MIT, enables the open sharing of MIT teaching materials with educators, enrolled students, and self-learners around the world.
MIT OCW provides open access to the syllabi, lecture notes, course calendars, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, and even a selection of video lectures from MIT courses representing 33 academic disciplines and all five of MIT’s schools. By the year 2008, the initiative will include materials from 1,800 courses.
Purpose
MIT OpenCourseWare is an idea - and an ideal - developed by the MIT faculty who share the Institute's mission to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship to best serve the world. In 1999, the Faculty considered how to use the Internet in pursuit of this goal, and in 2000 proposed OCW. MIT published the first proof-of-concept site in 2002, containing 50 courses. By November 2007, MIT completed the initial publication of virtually the entire curriculum, over 1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines. Going forward, the OCW team is updating existing courses and adding new content and services to the site.
What it does
Educators around the globe are encouraged to utilize the materials for curriculum development, and self-learners and students may draw upon the materials for self-study or supplementary use. Course materials contained on the MIT OCW Web site may be freely used, copied, distributed, translated, and modified by anyone, anywhere in the world for non-commercial purposes.
It is important to note what it does not do. Open Coureware does not provide courses, neither does it lead to qualifications.
How can it be used for creation of OERs
Open Courseware is only intended for production of OERs by MIT faculty.
How can it be used for consumption of OERs
MIT Open Courseware can be studies on the web site or can be downloaded to users own computers and studies on screen or printed. It is intended for self study or for reuse by other educators.
How can it be used for reuse of OERs
The good news - Open Courseware is licensed under a Creative Commons license and may be freely reused and repurposed under a non commercial attribution license. Most - but not all - of the materials are text and pictures. There is only limited multi media. And many of the downloads are in PDF format which is not easy to edit and reuse. On the other hand Open Courseware has been extensively translated and many units are available in multiple languages.
License support
In accordance with the terms of the MIT OpenCourseWare Creative Commons license, you must give credit to MIT and the faculty author of the course materials anytime you use MIT OpenCourseWare materials.
Standards / Compatibility
Does not support any particular technical standards.
HOW TO USE IT
Its is very simple. Go to the Open Courseware site, browse, search, download and enjoy!
For those wanting to create OERs or use OERs in their tecahing or learning, Open Courseare may be best seen as offering supplementary material and handouts around particular subjects or themes.
Links / examples / Who is using it
According to MIT the site receives 52 million visits by 40 million visitors from virtually every country.
OCW is accessed by a broadly international population of educators and learners.
MIT OpenCourseWare averages 1 million visits each month; translations receive 500,000 more.
17% of visitors are from Europe.
16% are educators, 32 % students and 49% self learners with 'others' accounting for the rest.
Sandbox
Simply go to the Open Courseware site.
Comments / Discussion
Hard call, this one. The high profile of MIT and the Open Courseware development have given great publicity and credibility tot he idea of Open Educational Resources. And there is no doubt that there are any great materials in the MIT collection. Furthermore, MIT has actively worked to develop partnerships to translate the materials into different languages.
On the other hand, there are many, many great initiatives from lesser known organisations - or those with less prestige - who have not received the publicity they deserve. Sometimes you would think OERs are Open Courseware! And there are limitations to Open Courseware. Firstly, it is very uneven. For some courses there are almost complete stes of materials. In others - perhaps becuase they use proprietary materials as part of the course - the coverage is somewhat scanty. And unlike the UK OpenLearn site, MIT do not provide tools either for learners or for those wishing to reedit the materials. The materials can be rather limited - there is little multi media available .
But never the less, it remains a valuable and high profile resource.
