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FORUM: GOING DIGITAL The OpenCourseWare Story: New England Roots, Global Reach

STEPHEN CARSON consortium, universities from Japan, thinking and a commitment to n April, representatives of more than 200 universities from around Spain, Korea, France, Turkey, Vietnam, addressing global challenges can the world gathered in Dalian, China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, produce remarkable results. I the United States — plus dozens from to move forward their efforts to create MIT OpenCourseWare a global body of freely accessible course China — have already published the materials from over 6,200 courses. The OpenCourseWare movement materials spanning both cultures and has its roots in New England. The In a world of increasingly restrictive disciplines. These institutions have concept emerged in 2000 at intellectual property laws and intensi- committed to freely and openly sharing Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the Web the core teaching materials fying competition to provide for-profit where then-President Charles Vest — including syllabi, lecture notes, Web services, this movement stands charged a faculty committee with assignments and exams — from the in stark contrast to prevailing trends. answering two questions: “How is the courses they offer to their enrolled The story of this OpenCourseWare going to change education?” students. Through the OpenCourseWare movement illustrates how novel and “What should MIT do about it?”

A Culture of Shared Knowledge Developing a Strategy for Low-Cost Textbook Alternatives JUDY BAKER

he open educational resources (OER) movement them available for use by community college students encourages the creation and sharing of free, open- and faculty. licensed, high-quality learning content for community CCCOER conducted a survey of 1,203 faculty from T 12 community college districts and 28 colleges across college courses to replace publishers’ costly copyrighted textbooks. Open textbooks are freely available, under the country about their attitudes and practices with regard an unrestricted license such as to open educational resources. The findings indicate a Attribution 3.0 to download from Website repositories large gap between those interested in using and willing to share, modify, redistribute, or print. to use OER in their classes (91 percent) and those The Community College Consortiumfor Open already using OER (34 percent). In order to address this Educational Resources (CCCOER) is a joint effort gap, the CCCOER is offering training and support. For established in 2007 by the Foothill-De Anza Community example, a self-paced introduction to open educational College District, the League for Innovation in the resources tutorial is available at the Connexions Website. Community College and dozens of other community A wealth of unpublished learning materials languish colleges and university partners to develop and use in the relative obscurity of isolated college campuses and OER in community college courses. In March 2008 the faculty offices. The CCCOER hopes to provide a means William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded $530,000 for faculty to share their knowledge via an to Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Los portal Website to be launched in the fall. The CCCOER Altos Hills, California and the CCCOER to plan and pilot Website (cccoer.wordpress.com) provides resources the Community College Open Textbook Project for one about open textbooks, training, membership, and campus year. Partners involved with the project include: Connexions advocacy. Community colleges are invited to join the at , Monterey Institute for Technology 60 plus colleges that are already CCCOER members in and Education, Institute for the Study of Knowledge support of the use of open textbooks. Management in Education, University of California Office of the President, , and Judy Baker is dean of Foothill Global Access at California State University’s Digital Marketplace. Foothill College in Los Altos, California, and director The primary goal is to identify, create and/or of the Community College Consortium for Open repurpose existing OER as open textbooks and make Educational Resources. E-mail: [email protected]

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These questions were put to the materials from all courses offered. maps more than 2,600 individual video committee at the height of the dot-com The project was announced on the and print learning resources from the bubble, when a number of MIT’s peer front page of The New York Times advanced placement curricula for physics, institutions were already launching on April 4, 2001. calculus and biology; and finally, the high-profile distance learning ventures. MIT moved quickly to build a team portal links to OCW materials selected It was widely expected that the to execute the project, and launched to inspire the study of STEM (science, committee would recommend a a proof-of-concept site with materials technology, engineering and mathe- similar approach for MIT. from 50 courses in September 2002, matics) subjects, including engaging The committee found they were which generated an overwhelmingly demonstrations and competitions. unable to develop a business model positive response. Since then, MIT has that would allow MIT to compete published materials from approximately The OpenCourseWare successfully in the online environment, 400-500 courses annually. Today, the Consortium however. MIT is a relatively small MIT OpenCourseWare site (ocw.mit As remarkable as the MIT school, with approximately ten thou- .edu) contains virtually all of MIT’s OpenCourseWare story is, it is fast sand students and a thousand faculty. curriculum, including the syllabi and becoming a small part of a much MIT is also very residentially focused, reading lists from 1,800 courses, notes larger story. Shortly after the site with a strong emphasis on interactive from more than 15,000 lectures, 9,000 was launched with 500 courses in and hands-on learning across the problem sets, and 900 exams. The site September 2003, MIT was contacted institute. Because it would be very also contains 25 courses with complete by numerous institutions in the US expensive, and probably detrimental video-recorded lectures, and numerous and abroad who were inspired by to the curriculum, to convert these complete texts, simulations and the MIT example. The MIT faculty residential materials to online materials animations, samples of code and recognized that the OpenCourseWare for wide distribution, the committee other learning tools. concept would not truly change higher found itself without a clear answer to Response has far exceeded education unless it was a practice shared the questions posed by President Vest. expectations. As of April 2008, more widely by institutions around the globe, In addition, the faculty were seeking than 22 million individuals from around and so the OCW team was charged an approach that would address the the world have come to the OCW site. with assisting other schools in growing pressures faced by educational Translations of OCW content by other launching OCW projects. systems around the world as more organizations have been visited by an In the United States, schools with students competed for limited educa- additional 18 million individuals. The a strong sense of global mission — tional resources. At this point the site has proven to be a useful resource including Tufts University, John Hopkins committee decided that they might be for educators at other institutions, who University (Bloomberg School of Public able to take what MIT does best — are about fifteen percent of the OCW Health), University of Notre Dame, and residential education — and combine it audience, and to students at other — began work with the Internet’s strength — wide and schools, who comprise an additional on their own OpenCourseWare sites. low-cost distribution of content — to thirty percent of OCW visitors. The Internationally, strong interest emerged generate a significant global benefit. big surprise to the MIT community was in Japan, China, Spain and France, with Rather than creating expensive new that fully half of the visitors to the site coalitions of schools coming together materials to support online learning, are not affiliated with a university at to share their own content or to trans- why not use the Internet to distribute all, but are instead a mix of working late the MIT content. By early 2005, the the course materials that MIT was professionals keeping their skills sharp, MIT OpenCourseWare team invited already creating for classroom use? individuals enjoying the opportunity representatives of these schools to the The faculty proposed the concept, to broaden their horizons, adults tran- MIT campus to discuss the formation which they dubbed OpenCourseWare sitioning back in to formal education, of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. (OCW), in the fall of 2000. President and other independent learners. The mission of the consortium was Vest recognized the power of the idea With the complete MIT curriculum established as advancing education immediately. He began seeking funding on the site, the OCW team has turned and empowering people through and initiated a series of discussions its attention to updating course materials OpenCourseWare. Starting with an within the MIT community about the and developing new services on top of initial group of 17 members, the concept. By April 2001, the Andrew this unique resource. The first of such consortium has expanded rapidly in W. Mellon Foundation and the William services was launched in November 2007. the past three years to include more and Flora Hewlett Foundation had Highlights for High School (ocw.mit. than 200 universities worldwide. About committed to funding the initial phases edu/highschool) lists around seventy half of those currently have course of the program, and consensus had introductory courses with content an materials available on OpenCourseWare emerged from the MIT community advanced high school student might sites that the institutions host. In April that the Institute should publish find approachable; further, the portal 2006, the OpenCourseWare consortium

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launched a portal (ocwconsortium.org) such as the Sakai and Moodle learning OCW site at the University of linking these sites together and management platforms, Massachusetts- (ocw.umb.edu/), providing users with a cross-site search. journals and textbooks, learning objects ’s Open Yale Courses The body of materials available through and more. The Hewlett Foundation (open.yale.edu/courses/), and a project the consortium now includes content has played a central role in fostering underway at Wheelock College. Even from schools as diverse as the Open the wider OER movement, and more with these significant contributions, University UK, Keio University (Japan), information about the OER movement the potential in New England is far University of Southern Queensland is available on the Hewlett Web site from tapped. As global interest in (Australia), University of California- (www.hewlett.org/Programs/ OpenCourseWare continues to grow, Berkeley, Universidad de Monterrey Education/OER/). New England promises to be a key (Mexico), Korea University, Delft source of open educational material University of Technology (Netherlands), OpenCourseWare in New England for many years to come. and Beijing Jiaotong University (China). The global OpenCourseWare movement Alongside the OpenCourseWare has its roots in New England, and the Stephen Carson is external relations movement, a wider movement dedi- region promises to be a leader well director for MIT OpenCourseWare cated to sharing open educational into the future. New England not only and currently serves as president resources (OER) has emerged, mak- boasts the flagship OCW project at of the board of directors for the ing available a range of educational MIT, but the Tufts OpenCourseWare OpenCourseWare Consortium. resources and tools site (ocw.tufts.edu), a recently launched E-mail: [email protected]

Digital Textbooks: A Student Perspective NICOLE ALLEN

high-speed Internet access. Students expect to access extbook prices have steadily outpaced inflation for several decades, and are sure to increase faster digital texts in a way that fits their technology and learning with rising fuel and paper costs. Textbooks typically preferences — online, downloaded, locally printed, or a T combination of all three. Some digital textbook models cost $900 per year, about a quarter of tuition at public universities. Digital textbooks could give students much hold the potential to expand access to learning materi- needed relief from this growing burden, but the current als. E-textbooks, on the other hand, can only be e-textbooks model is not the way to go. accessed online with a password and downloading is If digital textbooks are going to solve the textbook heavily restricted. Students who prefer to read from affordability crisis, the transitioning market must be shaped paper find that printing is either disabled or strictly by student expectations. Currently, we think of digital regulated, and that a hard copy still costs full price. textbooks as e-textbooks, or digitized versions of paper copies. Every major publisher offers hundreds of e-text- Students want respect as consumers books, yet sales are a negligible part of the $7 billion Students have no say in the textbook market. Unlike industry. Publishers mistake this for disinterest in digital normal consumer markets, students must purchase textbooks, when the real problem is that their e-textbooks textbooks selected by instructors, regardless of price. simply do not meet student expectations. However, new models are emerging that give students more power as consumers. For example, Flat World Books must be affordable Knowledge offers high-quality open textbooks online Students expect digital textbooks to be much less for free. Students can also purchase reasonably-priced expensive, since publishers don’t incur the costs of print copies, enhanced downloads and study aids. shipping and printing. However, the typical e-textbook sells for 50-70 percent of the printed copy price and Students expect to be treated as consumers, not as expires at the end of the term. And, unlike textbooks, a captive market. e-textbooks cannot be sold used to re-coup costs. Nicole Allen is the textbooks advocate for The Student Books must be accessible PIRGs and director of the Make Textbooks Affordable Not every student feels comfortable reading from a campaign (www.maketextbooksaffordable.org). computer display and some do not have a computer or E-mail: [email protected]

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