OERandtheLiberalArts

Mr. Stark's class is one of about 300 around the world to use online course material-both the content and the software that delivers it-developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative. If the Obama administration pulls off a $500-million-dollar online-education plan, proposed in July as one piece of a sweeping community-college aid package, this type of course could become part of a free library available to colleges nationwide.

"A power shift is occurring in higher education, driven by two trends: (a) the increased freedom of learners to access, create, and re-create content; and (b) the opportunity for learners to interact with each other outside of a mediating agent. Information access and dialogue, previously under control of the educator, can now be readily fulfilled by learners. When the essential mandate of universities is buffeted by global, social/political, technological, and educational change pressures, questions about the future of universities become prominent. The integrated university faces numerous challenges, including a decoupling of research and teaching functions. Do we still need physical classrooms? Are courses effective when information is fluid across disciplines and subject to continual changes? What value does a university provide society when educational resources and processes are open and transparent?"

"So what does all this mean for long term plans for Open Education at NYU? Our objective is to become the first university to deploy 21st‐century technology to reinvent the 19th century tutorial model--on a global scale, to boot. NYU is one of a number of universities who are seeking to develop portal campuses around the world. While providing free course content to the global community--including translations into key languages--enhanced versions of this material will also facilitate intercontinental, within-NYU shared learning opportunities to our registered students."

"The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education is an educational non-profit organization committed to improving access to education. MITE (pronounced "mighty") manages a range of projects from establishing systems for the development and distribution of open educational content to efficacy studies and other educational research. Two of MITE's cornerstone projects are the National Repository of Online Courses and the MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning."

"Open Educational Resources (OER) offer higher education governance leaders a cost-efficient method of improving the quality of teaching and learning while at the same time reducing costs imposed on students related to the purchase of expensive commercial textbooks and learning materials. Leading scholars around the world are already participating in the OER movement even without support from most higher education institutions, including community colleges. Higher education governance officials, particularly boards of trustees and senior academic governance leaders, have a tremendous opportunity to harness the advantages of OER for their institutions. "

"MicrobeWiki is a free wiki resource on microbes and microbiology, authored by students at many colleges and universities. Curated pages such as those linked to the Taxonomy Index are reviewed and updated by microbiologists at Kenyon College"

Since 2002, the Hewlett Foundation has worked with OER grantees to improve education globally by making high-quality academic materials openly available on the Internet. The Education Program continues to work toward establishing a self-sustaining and adaptive global OER ecosystem and demonstrating its potential to improve teaching and learning.

"Open education is not just education with open materials or open-source software. Properly conceived, open education is an education that empowers our students to be active citizens in an increasingly open world. The presenters will review some of their institutions' efforts to combine open education methodologies with civic engagement and community-based learning."

"University libraries are well positioned to run or support OER production and publication operations. Many university libraries already have the technical, service, and policy infrastructure in place that would provide economies of scale for nascent and mature OER projects. Given a number of aligning factors, the University of Michigan (U-M) has an excellent opportunity to integrate Open.Michigan, its OER operation, into the University Library. This paper presents the case for greater university library involvement in OER projects generally, with U-M as a case study."

"While the Open Education movement focuses on institutional issues, a large ocean exists of powerful individual accomplishments simply from tapping into content that is open for sharing and re-use. As colorful as old covers of "Amazing Stories" magazine, this presentation shares moving, personal stories that would not have been previously possible, enabled by open licensed materials and personal networks. Beyond my own tales, others have been culled from the net, and you can share your own."

Stanford AI open course: " Even so, a full 35,000 people handed in the first three weeks' of homework, making this likely the largest single class on the planet."

" Teach A Class is a non-profit organization which uses technology to impart education in novel ways to children in orphanages. Through online classes, it hopes to reach out to these children with the support of teachers, partner organizations, local community stakeholders, and committed citizens who are willing to help out."