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He says he prefers material on open-courseware sites over that found on professors' Web sites. "There's some level of quality control and general oversight associated" with open courseware, he says. "If I'm just strolling around on the Internet and come across some random professor's Web site," he adds, "it just kind of dilutes my confidence in it, and it makes me spend a lot more time really sitting down and looking for what I like."

Though officials hope the materials will have educational benefit, they stress that they are not a substitute for taking courses at the institutions.

3. Open education policy: Third, governments, school boards, colleges and universities should make open education a high priority.

These strategies represent more than just the right thing to do. They constitute a wise investment in teaching and learning for the 21st century. They will make it possible to redirect funds from expensive textbooks towards better learning. They will help teachers excel in their work and provide new opportunities for visibility and global impact. They will accelerate innovation in teaching. They will give more control over learning to the learners themselves. These are strategies that make sense for everyone.

Research faculty may need to closely guard patentable research under the terms of their institutional contracts, even if their inclination drives them to share openly

Science faculty, for example, often publish their research with multiple authors and may be more used to a collaborative model, whereas humanities faculty write for publications that favor a single-author model.

Two factors delineate a faculty member's attitude toward openness: a nature influence and a nurture influence.

Many said something to the effect that they felt it was their duty as an educator to share

that everyone in education should share

In the category of faculty who are strong sharers and strongly open, we find project leaders and thought leaders.

Naturally, administrators worry about open digital faculty. What if they say something the institutional leaders don't agree with? What if their work with students on the web creates a liability? Administrators can do three simple things to minimize these issues: If a faculty member writes or shares content openly on the web, using space provided by the college, the inclusion of a simple disclosure statement can provide some separation between the individual and the institution (for example, "These views/materials are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my institution"). To guard against liability, administrators can make sure that open faculty receive training on copyright issues with materials used, privacy issues with students, and security issues with web technologies. These days, most campus activities involve the potential for liability. All administrators can do is make a good-faith effort to protect the institution by ensuring that faculty have a solid grounding in the potential risks. Today's students live much of their lives in the digital world. Faculty have the potential to model and promote good Internet behavior to future workers and leaders. Administrators can support open digital faculty by making an effort to understand what the faculty do: read some of what they write; take them to lunch and discuss their latest projects; try to understand that these faculty are public ambassadors of the institution and stealth faculty developers on campus. In gaining the trust of open digital faculty, administrators will more likely be seen as advisors than as adversaries.