[Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion

[Susan D'Antoni]

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the first interaction in our OER Community from Athabasca
University.  As I noted in my last message, we will hear about a
number of OER related meetings and this first discussion will be on
the meeting of the OpenCourseWare Consortium held in Vietnam this
year.

A little background

In 1999, MIT Faculty considered how to use the Internet in pursuit of
MIT's mission—to advance knowledge and educate students—and in 2000
proposed OCW. MIT published the first proof-of-concept site in 2002,
containing 50 courses. By November 2007, MIT completed the initial
publication of virtually the entire curriculum, over 1,800 courses in
33 academic disciplines. Going forward, the OCW team is updating
existing courses and adding new content and services to the site.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of higher education
institutions and associated organizations from around the world
creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a
shared model.  It is a worldwide community of hundreds of universities
and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWareand
its impact on global education. The Consortium serves as a resource
for starting and sustaining OCW projects, as a coordinating body for
the movement on a global scale, and as a forum for exchange of ideas
and future planning.

Our discussant

Mary Lou Forward, the Executive Director of the
OpenCourseWare Consortium, will lead our discussion and will be joined
by several of her colleagues.

Mary Lou provides leadership for the organization’s efforts to support
OpenCourseWare use and development globally.  Prior to joining the
Consortium, she served as Dean of African Studies for SIT Study
Abroad.  In that role, she provided academic and strategic leadership
for 29 programs across the African continent, leading SIT’s
incorporation of technology and distance learning in international
programming and developing innovative opportunities to collaborate
across countries and between diverse student groups.  Prior to that
position, Mary Lou served as Academic Director for undergraduate
programs in Madagascar, focused on Environmental Studies and Cultural
Geography.  She has also worked on community-based development in
Africa, with an emphasis on the incorporation of appropriate
technologies and sustainable resources in small-scale enterprise
development.

Background paper

The attached paper has been prepared as a brief overview of the
organization of the conference and some of the key issues discussed.

I am looking forward to our ongoing conversation.

My best regards,

Susan
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 10 10 OER Community-OCWC.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 312320 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/private/oer-community/attachments/20101004/8951f6c9/attachment-0001.doc