Universities pledge funds to support OpenCourseWare Consortium

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., USA- MIT joins a core group of leaders in the OpenCourseWare community to collectively pledge US $350,000 over the next five years to support the OpenCourseWare Consortium, the non-profit association of global OpenCourseWare publishers. Other members will pay annual dues of US $50 to $500 dollars to ensure the Consortium has the funding necessary to catalyze the development and use of OpenCourseWare content worldwide.
This furthers MIT's substantial commitment to open education and is an investment in the effort to create a shared body of open educational resources that spans cultures and regions. "MIT joins other leading OCW publishers in making a strong statement about the value of OpenCourseWare and the Consortium," said Consortium President Stephen Carson. "Through MIT's contribution, the Consortium will continue to support universities worldwide in publishing their educational materials."
MIT is a recognized leader in the OpenCourseWare community. Launched in 2003, MIT OpenCourseWare shares educational materials from 1,970 of MIT's courses. In total, these materials have received more than 91 million visits from an estimated 65 million visitors. MIT has been a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium since 2005, and Stephen Carson of the MIT OpenCourseWare staff currently serves of the Consortium's Board of Directors and as the Consortium's first president. MIT OpenCourseWare Executive Director Cecilia d'Oliveira described MIT's reason for supporting the Consortium in this way: "From the start of MIT's OpenCourseWare program, we've not only worked to share MIT's course materials but also helped other schools launch and maintain their own OCW sites. By making this contribution, we are furthering that longstanding commitment."
In addition to MIT, the following universities and organizations have each pledged US $25,000 over the next five years in support of the OpenCourseWare Consortium: China Open Resources for Education (China), Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium (Japan), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (United States), Korea OpenCourseWare Consortium (Korea), Open Universiteit (the Netherlands), Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), Tufts University (United States), Universia.net (Spain), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), University of California, Irvine (United States), University of Michigan (United States), and University of the Western Cape (South Africa).
To date the approximately 200 universities of the Consortium have published materials from more than 13,000 courses, available through the Consortium's web site. These materials are freely available on the web as resources to support informal and formal teaching and learning, and have received an estimated 100 million visits from virtually every country and region in the world.

OCW CONSORTIUM PARTNERS WITH LEADING EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES TO EXPAND THE IMPACT OF OPENCOURSEWARE ON VIRTUAL MOBILITY IN EUROPE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (August 22, 2011) – A consortium of leaders in the open education movement has been awarded a grant from the European Union’s Lifelong Learning program. The consortium partners include the OpenCourseWare Consortium, Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), Universidad Politécnica Madrid (Spain), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), Université de Lyon, VetAgro Sup (France), Creative Commons, and the European Association of Distance Education Universities. The project, entitled “OpenCourseWare (OCW) in the European Higher Education Context: How to make use of its full potential for virtual mobility” will focus on virtual student mobility through the increased use of OCW and the positive role that OCW plays for lifelong learners.

The project will support closer ties between universities through the use and production of OpenCourseWare, encouraging mutual use of materials among institutions. It will also create a European OCW network that will support open exchange of educational materials, quality assurance and sharing best practices. Increased availability of high-quality online materials with support for their use from the network should result in higher usage of online courses, and support greater virtual student mobility. This network of institutions across Europe can lay the groundwork for other types of collaboration in line with the aims of the European Union’s Erasmus programme.
“OpenCourseWare provides free access to many high quality courses from different European universities, accessible to enrolled students as well as lifelong learners”, said Drs. Anka Mulder, secretary general of Delft University of Technology and president of the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s board of directors. “Having free and open access to such rich educational material provides insight not only into the subject matter, but also the pedagogy and cultural underpinnings that inform it. Promotion of the benefits of OpenCourseWare in European higher education can stimulate cross-cultural understanding through virtual means. These efforts will be greatly enhanced by the expertise brought by the OpenCourseWare Consortium.”
Goals for the project include improving the infrastructure that will make the OCW network possible, including quality control, legal considerations, promotion, and joint development of OCW. Partners will also develop models for sustainable cooperation between institutions to ensure the ongoing benefits of the project. “The European OCW network has the potential to raise the importance of OCW in higher education very quickly”, said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the OCW Consortium. “We are thrilled that the European Union has provided grant funding to support these efforts.”