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Running head: MIT OPEN COURSEWARE : EXPAND LEARNING ACROSS THE GLOBE

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MIT Open CourseWare : Expand Learning Across the Globe

Orapak Suwanapakdee

Pepperdine University

December 17, 2010

MIT OPEN COURSEWARE : EXPAND LEARNING ACROSS THE GLOBE

MIT Open CourseWare : Expand Learning Across the Globe

Open CourseWare, OCW, has become more important in the world of global education,

especially in the world of OER, open education resources. Students, self-learners and professors

have accessed to course published by over 250 universities all over the world. (OCW

Consortium, 2010). Reader's Digest once listed MIT's Open Course Ware as one of America's

100 Best Ideas. (Resch, 2007). What is Open CourseWare? Who are users? What makes OCW

different from distant learning? Universities now have offered several ways to access to their

course contents in their OCW sites in order to create learning environment at the same time

promoting professors and universities. The trend of open education has allowed people from

different parts of the world to benefit from Open CourseWare in several ways. As more and

more students, self-learners and instructors all over the world use Open CourseWare, it becomes

very important to explore the meaning of Open CourseWare, the history of Open CourseWare,

global impacts of Open CourseWare, and the future use of Open CourseWare. This paper is

meant to dedicate to benefit learners, instructors and students in Thailand and everyone in the

world who like to understand about Open CourseWare. In addition, this paper is meant to

motivate Pepperdine University to combine Open CourseWare learning in sakai service in

Pepperdine Wavenet. Given insufficient information on global statistical findings using OCW

model, MIT Open CourseWare or MIT OCW will often referred in this study as it is the only

university with complete statistical findings. However, in the sense that every university has its

own strength in academic standing, MIT Open CourseWare can not be used to represent all

universities in the world. It is, however, worth looking at its statistical findings, especially 2009

Progam Evaluation Report to understand how Open CourseWare has enabled global access.

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Internet is the Root of Everything

Internet and open source software are two main driving forces behind the emergence of

Open CourseWare. Internet has drastically changed the way we communicate. In the past, when

everyone did not have the Internet, the way to learn information about school course content was

to look up information in libraries, to buy books from bookstores, or to get course content in

paper form distributed by professors in class. It takes time for students to run around to get

information about school courses or to wait for professors to hand out course information in

classes. After emergence of the Internet, the whole world has changed drastically. Students have

changed the way they learn and acquire information, and professors have changed the way they

teach and distribute their information. Without the Internet, students will not be able to browse

information about courses in Open CourseWare, send email to ask for course information from

professors, read ebooks, use Wikipedia, explore social learning via social networks, or interact

with teachers in webinar or study in distant learning programs. Not only that Internet has

impacted on our education and learning, but also that several technology devices have been

introduced to marketplace for the purpose of learning and information dissemination. For

instance, ipad, kindle, and iphone. E-library has also been offered for students to be able to

access university library. Students are offered more opportunities to read online journals, articles

and ebooks at e-library. One of technology innovation ideas emerged from Internet was Open

Software. Open Software was started with the idea of sharing information. In the early 1980s,

IBM decided to openly release the details of the architecture of its new entry into the personal

computing field. The open software with open architecture allowed many third party companies

to create strategic advantages for the IBM PC. In addition, shareware and linux were the forms of

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open source tools.( Johnstone & Poulin, 2002). In recent years, academic circles has found the

Internet to be a natural form for creating a sharing cooperative that follows open-source spirit. In

2002, UNESCO first mentioned OER in its conference ( UNESCO, 2002). Open educational

resources are educational materials and resources offered without cost for anyone to use anytime

for students and teachers at all levels; OER includes audios, videos, books, lesson plans, games,

simulations, and full courses and open-access content. OER can include open content, tools, or

infrastructure ( OECD, 2007).

Emergence of Open CourseWare

Open CourseWare, as a subset of open content with OER, was launched by Massachsetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999 as an initiative with the goals of providing free,

searchable access to MIT’s course material for the general public and expanding the reach of the

OCW concept ( Carson, 2008). MIT Open CourseWare followed MIT’s mission which was to

advance knowledge in ways that will best serve nation and the world. With its motto of

"unlocking knowledge, empowering minds," MIT Open CourseWare has offered free access to

MIT course syllabi, assigned readings, and class lecture notes since its pilot program in 2002 and

official opening in 2003.( MIT, 2010)

As MIT President Charles Vest addressed in his report for the year 2000-2001 academic

year, “inherent to the Internet and the Web is a force for openness and opportunity that should be

the bedrock of its use by universities.”

With Open CourseWare initiative, “we now have a powerful opportunity to use Internet

to enhance the process of conceiving, shaping, and organizing knowledge for use in teaching. In

doing so, we can raise the quality of education everywhere.” Open CourseWare(OCW)

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http://news.cnet.com/MIT-tries-free-Web-education/2100-1025_3-961563.html

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025-5083840.html


comprises “ Free and open digital publication of highly quality of high quality educational

materials, organized as courses,” capitalizing on the Internet’s potential to minimize obstacles

(e.g., borders and geographic distance) to the free exchange of knowledge and new

ideas( OpenCourseWare Consortium, 2007).

MIT’s First Strategic Move on Open CourseWare

Strategic moves on Open CourseWare are various from one university to the next

university although the underlying rule is driven by the notion of “free knowledge to share”.

When universities are looking for building Open CourseWare, it becomes very important for

them to ask several questions, one of which is “ the direction of Open CourseWare”. The

direction of Open CourseWare defines the future spending on their budgets and resources to

maintain sustainable OCW sites for long term. As for MIT, the first university founded Open

CourseWare, MIT built Open CourseWare based on direction of “ Forever Tech”. With Forever

Tech concept, the university wanted to create lifelong extended community of faculty, staffs,

students and alumni who interact both on and off campus, and establish a continuing education

program for alumni to pursue advanced degree and update their skills. ( Abelson, 2008). MIT did

not choose to enter Open CourseWare because it wanted to make money on online programs; the

decision is made based on creating learning community. MIT wants to increase the institute’s

reach and influence to top-tier students while creating offerings to the corporate and mass

markets.(Abelson, 2008). From 2002 to 2006, MIT has done pilot programs, worked with others

on translations of Spanish, Portuquese, Chinese, and Thai. In 2005, Open CourseWare

Consortium, or OCW Consortium, was formed. In 2005, MIT OCW program evaluation report

indicates that total number of visits is 8.5 million visits. 61% of traffic is non-US while 49% of

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traffic is US. Main users are students, educators and self-learners. It was clear that the global

impact was robust with the number of over 4 million visits from non-US traffic.

Open Course Ware Consortium: Global Enabler

In 2005, MIT OCW won several awards, OCW Consortium was formed; it was

incorporated as independent non-profit organization in 2008. The community consists of over

250 members, consisting of universities and associated organizations from over 40 countries.

( OCW Consortium, 2010). Activities of the Open CourseWare Consortium are supported by the

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Mission of OCW Consortium is to advance formal and

informal learning through the worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education

materials organized as courses. Overall, OCW consortium members have published more than

13,000 courses in 20 languages in OCW consortium website. 2005 was the most important year

because it was the formal year Open CourseWare was emerged in global level. The driving force

of OCW Consortium was still MIT which coordinated OCW activities among participating

universities all over the world. The OCW Consortium requires that participating universities to

publish at least 10 courses as OCW under their own name. Each university determines the format

for an OCW. (Resch, 2007)

MIT Open CourseWare Expanded for High School Students

After five consecutive years of efforts made to establish firmly MIT Open CourseWare,

in 2007 MIT announced one important of strategic moves which was to create OCW for high

school students. In 2007, MIT’s president, Susan Hockfield, announced the initiative at an event

to celebrate Open CourseWare’s fifth anniversary to customize portal into OCW designed to

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help the needs for high school students and teachers. President Hockfield mentioned in the event

that there was a national crisis when many schools have cut back on the ‘Gifted and Talented’

programs, reducing opportunities for gifted students to attend programs. In 2007, about 15,000

students per month downloaded MIT coursework. President Hockfield’s speech in the event

mentioned that the High School Program was aimed to inspire high school students especially in

science and engineering without intimidation. ( CNET, 2007). In 2007, not only that high school

courses were added but also that new monthly track record was over 2 million visits. By

November 2007, MIT completed the initial publication of the entire curriculum, including over

1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines. In 2008, MIT made the OCW more appealing by

putting audio/video content for some courses. With audio/video content, MIT has made live

lecture recorded in both forms of communication.

Impact of Open CourseWare to Global Education

Currently there is no statistical evidence compiled about the total global OCW traffic of

population of educators and learners. It becomes difficult to measure the global OCW traffic.

There was no evidence or record made as of 2010.

MIT Open CourseWare was believed to be the most visited website since no one reported

any higher number. Referring to published 2005 Program Evaluation Findings Report by MIT

Open CourseWare, MIT OCW global traffic consists of 61% non-US visitors and 49% US

visitors. Out of 8.5 million visits, 61% is from non-US. In summary, more than 4 million visits

per year is out of United States. (MIT, 2005)

As of 2010, OCW Consortium embraced over 40 member countries including

Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica,

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Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kenya,

Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestinian Territory, Peru,

Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland,

Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam. ( OCW

Consortium, 2010)

Overall, universities across globe started to become more and more interested to publish

their content to share, leading to reasons that they want to share.

Reasons Behinding Sharing Contents

Giving and sharing have been main parts of sharing contents in Open CourseWare.

However, there are other aspects or reasons why universities and professors are sharing. Colleges

and universities have various purposes for sharing. Purposes are for academic sharing, promoting

reputation of schools and professors, supporting students and alumni, and setting an example for

other universities. Professors share because they love to share, and it is very good for them to

promote their reputation if they want to publish books or become reputable in their fields.

Who are users of Open CourseWare?

There are many category users. First is student. Second is lecturer. Third is self-learner

who like to learn, to switch to different fields, or to look for information. Fourth is alumni.

The main beneficiaries of OCW are self-learners, participating universities, and faculty

members. Because OCW does not provide any credentials, self-learners use it solely for personal

benefit. When the right material is offered, OCW can serve as a life-altering resource for those

who have no other access to higher education. And at conventional universities, OCW is often

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blended with other forms of learning for a richer student experience. Those who publish their

own courses as OCW can present themselves as experts in a particular field to a wider audience,

bringing attention to books and other materials they'd like to promote. But the costs of providing

OCW should not be underestimated —the OCW must be produced, published, and hosted, each

with its own assurance of quality. The educational advantages of using OCW are obvious,

especially since OCW can be easily adapted in most cases, or used in its original form. Faculty

who simultaneously use and publish OCW benefit the most from it. Not having to reinvent the

wheel in areas where established knowledge is available saves time and effort, which can be

invested in the creation of original OCW in areas of individual expertise. In the best-case

scenario, the provision and the utilization of OCW are balanced, leading to an increased quantity

and quality of material from which all parties benefit. (Resch, 2007)

Accreditation and Open CourseWare

Open CourseWare does not grant certifications and it does not provide accreditation .

Once it comes to views on Open Education, several people are confused about accreditation and

certification. Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, spoke in NY Times in

Nov, 2010 about the Open Education Movement. Mr. Surman described the Open Education

Movement as having three pieces: content piece- can I get materials?; What are the ways we can

teach each other using the Web? ; and How can we make this better for learners and teachers?;

and finally there is the question of accreditation and certification. (New York Times, 2010)

The question comes to the issue of accreditation of Open CourseWare in the future.

Budget for Open CourseWare is high. MIT has used 10,000 to 15,000 dollars per course. (MIT,

2010). The question comes to affordability and budget schools want to set aside to dedicate for

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Open CourseWare. Universities with big budgets can still offer Open CourseWare when small,

non ivy league universities might be faced with difficulties to spend the same amount of budget.

They might not be able to sustain free offering free Open CourseWare. However, they can

incorporate OCW as contents in their distant learning program to charge students for

certifications.

Challenges in Designing and Developing Open CourseWare

In order for any universities to develop OCW portal, there are many challenges needed

to be overcome to achieve sustainability of website. Challenges have been gathered from articles

on different articles from various universities. Possible challenges include how universities

organize OCW content well, and make website robust and easy to use; how universities organize

internal resources, staffs, and budget availability to sustain OCW; and how quality of materials

including copyrights is maintained and updated. Another challenge the universities will be faced

with is to maintain institutional policies and guidances for material use and dissemination.

( Barrett et al., 2009)

Benefits and Costs of OpenCourseWare

“ The benefits of Open CourseWare type programs outweigh the concerns about cost,

intellectual property and devaluation of elite degrees. After all, the free material does not add up

to a diploma, and viewers can’t interact with the faculty.” – Steve Carson, OpenCourseware

Consortium President.

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Open CourseWare has offered tremendous opportunities to everyone in the world who

can read English to study materials. Direct benefits will be education to everyone who want to

learn. Everything seems great but there are many drawbacks to Open CourseWare. In my mind,

not every university has budget to allocate for knowledge sharing. In addition, if all top

universities offer courseware, learners might not spend time on ocw offered by other small

universities which dedicate tremendous budgets on courseware. Benefit of information sharing

can be driven by the fact that self-learners, students, and lecturers can now see what other

universities are doing and what lecturers from other universities are teaching. Lecturers can

improve their contents, giving students opportunities to learn more new knowledge. Students

also benefit from Open CourseWare. For instance, when they do not understand some ideas, they

can look at courseware from professors teaching the same materials from other universities to

add for their learning experiences. If students can benefit from other professors, it is very

doubtful at the end if their professors do more work to teach students or try to get course contents

from professors from other universities who teach the same courses. Free rider issue can be in

this case. Professors who do not publish their courseware might end up getting free materials

from professors who publish it. Self-learners at all ages can read course materials without

spending a dime to sign up for expensive courses. In addition, if they want to sign up courses at

any universities with any professors, they can look at their contents and outlines before joining

courses. It is great that self learners can learn for free from courseware. No one has proved

whether obtaining free knowledge has reduced or will reduce part of university income from self

learners. For developing countries, they have more ways to access to content developed by

universities in the United States. In addition, universities in developing countries can compare

curriculums with other universities in developed countries, such as the United States and the

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United Kingdom. In addition, with translations into several languages on MIT Open

CourseWare, there is a tendency that there will be more translations on other universities’

courseware. Given all the benefits and weaknesses spelled out, the main bottom is the cost of

publishing course contents and once the contents are published, universities have to assign staffs

and resources to rebuild and expand knowledge base. The knowledge will be endless, so will the

cost of expanding knowledge. Once all courses are started, it is hard to stop. For professors, it

could be very tiring for them to always reinvent their wheel over those courses to make sure that

there are out there. Open CourseWare is a shared knowledge competition; it could be the same

as market competition in economics. Once information is shared, praise and criticism are

unavoidable. This university has outdated course content or this professor has better materials

than the other one. As a graduate student once studied at MIT Sloan School of Management, I

could see the usefulness of content. Although I have graduated, I can still look at course content

to remind what I studied at MIT. What makes me not very happy is the issue of old dated course

contents. Some courses are not updated, leading me to doubt the real usefulness of information.

Introductory MBA courses like accounting, finance and economics might not change in their

contents. But, some cases should be updated. For the world to exploit the real use of MIT Open

CourseWare, it is critical for school to update as much as possible. Although there are some

issues related to professors’ confidential information in new book release, at least some of

contents should be reviewed all the time to ensure the data update. After navigating through

different universities’ Open CourseWare, I observe information disorganization. Often

information in courses is not complete. It can be difficult to understand sometimes. In addition,

Curriculum outlines and plans should be spelled out so that learners can plan what to study in

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their own calendar. Video, audio and itunes channel should be embraced with course materials in

Open CourseWare.

Statistical Findings about MIT Open CourseWare

As of Oct 2009, 2009 Program Evaluation Findings Summary indicates that there are

over 80 million visits from all over the world. In total, there is 791 courses translated and 220

mirror sites are existing globally. OCW is accessed by international population of educators and

learners. 54% of OCW traffic is non-US whereas 46% of OCW traffic is US. More than half of

80 million visits are from non-US users. In terms of use, MIT OCW site is being successfully

used by educators, students, and self learners for various purposes. Educators use MIT OCW site

for enhancing personal knowledge( 45%), learning new teaching methods( 15%), and

incorporating OCW materials into own teaching materials( 14%). Students use MIT OCW site

for enhancing personal knowledge(44%), complementing a course (39%), and planning course of

study(12%). Self learners use MIT OCW site for exploring interests outside of professional

field(41%), planning future study (20%), reviewing basic concepts in field(17%) and keeping

current in field (11%). Out of all MIT OCW site users, 73% are completely or mostly successful

and 22% are somewhat successful. ( MIT, 2009). Faculty members are key contributors to MIT

OCW site. From survey conducted at MIT in 2009, 78% of MIT’s faculty have published

courses on OCW; 78% of those participating have published 2 ore more courses. 29% of

participating faculty report OCW has positively influenced their professional standing; 21% say

OCW has publication increased the quality or organization of their materials. In MIT

community, it is very interesting to see that 35% of MIT freshmen are aware of OCW before

deciding to attend MIT were influenced by MIT OCW. MIT OCW site is used by 86% of MIT

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students, 73% of MIT faculty( tenured/tenure track and non- tenure track). In addition, 46% of

alumni and staffs also use the site. ( MIT, 2009)

Future of Open CourseWare

OCW is still an involving concept. The recently advanced search on the OCW

Consortiums website—which enables searches across all OCW offerings —is one example of a

forward-looking, super-organizational approach. ( Resch, 2007). But the OCW Consortium

should provide even more coordination, such as by using meta data to help locate and provide

exactly the OCW sought by both self-learners and faculty. ( Resch, 2007)

In order for Open CourseWare to further develop, there needs to be more systematic

approach to navigate through the content. Layout of Content including audio and video clips has

to be more systematically organized and easy to search. In addition, materials in Open

CourseWare are sometimes old and not updated, hindering the power of useful shared

information.

In summary, I believe that Open CourseWare is a good concept but in order to sustain

OCW, there needs to be real strategic, valid reason besides knowledge sharing. The real benefits

have to really outweigh the costs for universities in order to set aside budgets, resources and

efforts to maintain website. The whole idea is new and challenging. Professors might be

interested to share because it is great to tell the world how great they are. Once again, everyone

knows Open CourseWare is great. However, to be realistic, if everyone shares, and there is

competition on course materials, who will achieve awards? Of course, the awards all go back to

top schools or well known professors which might be the only ones left to maintain their prestige

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via Open CourseWare image. Small universities might finally merge Open CourseWare with

elearning to sell their distant learning programs. Again, no one knows what will happen since

there is no global statistics available besides the ones referred in MIT OCW findings.

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