The Open CourseWare boom

“The sharing of knowledge facilitated by the open source and Creative Commons movements is astounding,” says Cynthia Villanti, author of this month’s commentary (see "Technology"). She notes, for example, the Web site at MIT (ocw.mit.edu), which kicked off the OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement in 2002 when it starting putting course content online. Now, more than 120 universities have followed suit. By the end of this year, it will have all 1,800 of its courses online, reports the Christian Science Monitor. That means anyone with an Internet connection has access to course syllabi, video or audio lectures, notes, readings and so on.

MIT’s act of largesse has spawned other innovations in sharing, all to the end of “helping knowledge grow more quickly,” as one OCW site puts it.

Connexions—why reinvent the wheel? A particularly noteworthy place where students and teachers can use free, Web-based tools to access and adapt educational materials is the Connexions Project (http://cnx.org) based at Rice University. It allows multiple authors to use open source software tools to write and modify content, then store it in an area called the “Content Commons” for others to use. The materials are available for free under an open content license. Started in 1999, Connexions has thousands of instructional modules for hundreds of courses.

Creative Commons keeps sharing legal Connexions and other OCW sites depend upon Creative Commons licenses to allow sharing of all works covered under U.S. copyright law—books, Web sites, blogs, photographs, films, videos, songs, and other audio and visual recordings, for example. Creative Commons’ Web site (http://creativecommons.org) allows authors or content creators to secure licenses that attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it in a way that is consistent with the license. The point is to make using the work, with proper attribution, as easy as possible for the public or educators, who do not have to request permission in advance if they follow the terms of the license.

Podcasts for discerning tastes For a treat, visit Open Culture (http://oculture.org) for cultural and educational media (podcasts, videos, online courses, etc.) that are freely available on the Web. The OC difference is the site’s selectivity. Led by OC’s creator and lead editor, Dan Colman, associate dean and director of Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program, Open Culture features a large range of “smart, free” podcasts, many of the them associated with universities.