MIT OpenCourseWare

EDUCAUSE Conference 2002

October 2, 2002

Copyright Anne H. Margulies and Jon Paul Potts, 2002.

This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

MIT OpenCourseWare77 Massachusetts AvenueBuilding 9-235BCambridge, MA 02139Email: jpotts@mit.eduPhone: 617-452-3621

COPYRIGHT

I. Introduction

II. Overview• What is MIT OpenCourseWare?• Why is MIT doing this?• Benefits

III. MIT Faculty Support

IV. World Reaction

V. Tour• Site Highlights• Live Site

VI. Goals of OCW

VII. Lessons Learned

VIII. Timeline

IX. http://ocw.mit.edu

AGENDA

“OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive in a market-driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values. But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT. It is innovative. It expresses our belief in the way education can be advanced–by constantly widening access to information and by inspiring others to participate.”

– Charles M. Vest,President of MIT

INTRODUCTION

•An MIT education• Intended to represent or replace the actual interactive classroom environment

•A distance education initiative

•A large-scale, Web-based publication of MIT course content

•New approach for the open sharing of knowledge

•Open and available to the world•A permanent and sustainable MIT activity

MIT OpenCourseWare IS NOT:

MIT OpenCourseWare IS:

OVERVIEW: What is MIT OpenCourseWare?

MIT OCW…

• Advances MIT’s fundamental mission.

• Embraces faculty values and provides an instrument forrealization of faculty goals.

• Stimulates innovation.

• Counters the privatization of knowledge and championsthe movement toward greater openness.

OVERVIEW: Why is MIT doing this?

• Educators can use the materials for curriculumdevelopment.

• Learners can draw upon the materials for self-study orsupplementary use.

• A common repository of information will stimulatecollaboration and cross-disciplinary ventures.

• Institutions can learn from MIT process andinfrastructure.

OVERVIEW: Benefits

“Everybody knows that the way to make progress in science is by using the best results of others–’standing on the shoulders of giants’ is one way of expressing this idea. That’s why we publish scientific results. OCW will let the same thing happen in education.”

— Paul Penfield, Dugald C. Jackson Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

 

“OCW reflects the idea that, as scholars and teachers, we wish to share freely the knowledge that we generate through our research and teaching. While MIT may be better known for our research, with OCW we wish to showcase our teaching.”

— Shigeru Miyagawa, Professor of Linguistics and Kochi Prefecture-John Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture

“This initiative is particularly valuable for courses coveringemerging new areas of knowledge, as well as intersectingdisciplines. Having spent many years developing a course onprotein folding that served the needs of biochemists, chemists,chemical engineers, and computational biologists, I am delightedthis work will be made available to a far broader audience.”— Jonathan King, Professor of Molecular Biology

MIT FACULTY SUPPORT

WORLD REACTION

Through Tuesday, October 2, 562 emails to ocw@mit.edu

WORLD REACTION

“As a Professor of Physics teaching General Physics, I would like to enrich my expertise by looking at the MIT material offered online”

— Zagreb, Croatia

WORLD REACTION

“This is first day the OCW is online. I'm so excited about this. I have been waiting this for long time. Thank you! Thank you very much! You are doing something great for the public.”

— Vietnam

WORLD REACTION

“I am a computer science engineer and I am actually working as a market analyst at a pharmaceutical company. I think that this is a unique opportunity for me to keep on studying and learning. I'm going to be visiting this site a lot.”

– Guatemala

WORLD REACTION

“You guys are Gods. I have been dreaming about taking a course at MIT but never was able to afford one until now. I live in New York and I was up just to be the first few to try the OpenCourseWare. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.”

— New York City

WORLD REACTION

“Your free-of-charge OCW is something brilliant–and unfortunately very rare–in this commerce and money driven world of ours… [You are] returning to the very fundamental academic values; information open and available for all!”

– Spain

WORLD REACTION

“Let me tell you in this 1st feedback on this Sept 30 2002 that today is a Historic Day. It's the Big Bang in the Knowledge Universe.”

– Algeria

WORLD REACTION

“MIT OCW is the ‘8th Wonder of the World!’ My Sincere Heartfelt Thanks to all of you out there who have been involved in the making of this project. Keep up the excellent work!”

– Latvia

Extensive Visual Images

and Content

TOUR: Site Highlights

Online Simulations and Demonstrations

TOUR: Site Highlights

Video Segmentsto accompany

text-based materials

TOUR: Site Highlights

TOUR: Live Site

MIT OCW home page

• Pilot opened to the public on September 30

• Welcomes users

• Unified, searchable content

• Communicates that this is a pilot

• Manages expectations

• Encourages feedback

• Provide free, searchable, coherent access to all MIT course materials for educators, students, and individual learners around the world

• Create an efficient, standards-based model that other universities may use to publish their own course materials

MIT OCW success rests on three pillars:

• Responsive, professional organization• Sensible policies and efficient, user-

friendly processes• Reliable, scalable technology

infrastructure

And a foundation of continuous planning, evaluation, and feedback.

GOALS OF MIT OCW

LESSONS LEARNED

Process• Content collection and publication processes will need to be flexible.• Permissions process is slow and labor intensive.• Will need alternative strategies for acquisition of copyrighted content.

Technology• We require a complex architecture to support content collection and

management processes.• Our experience to date reaffirms the model for outsourcing many

technology related services.

Organization• MIT OCW should be a decentralized organization that provides close

faculty and department support.• The organization should include expertise in key functions,

such as core technology, metadata, and copyright andintellectual property treatment.

TIMELINE

OpenCourseWare Publishing PlanDiscover/Build

AY2002-03Publish/Expand

AY2003-04 through AY2004-05Enhance

AY2005-06 through AY2006-07

• Hundreds of courses

• Complete curriculum tracks

• Metadata-based search capability

• OKI compliance

• Pilot: Representative courses from all five MIT schools

• Representative content formats

• Near-full inclusion of ~2000 MIT courses

• Enhanced technology

• Dissemination of best practices in publishing Web-based course content

• Evaluation of OCW impact

9/07

Steady state

9/07

Launch

9/07

Pilot open to Public

http://ocw.mit.edu

QUESTIONS?