[Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion

[Mary Lou Forward]

Dear OER community,



We are very pleased to be joining you for this discussion.  As you read in
Susan’s attachment, the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s 2010 conference focused
on Educational Policy and OpenCourseWare.  The three subthemes, Building
OCW, Using OCW as a Platform, and Sustaining OCW, provided opportunities to
learn about and discuss the impacts and challenges of opening educational
resources.  You can view many of the presentations, including the keynote
addresses by Hal Plotkin of the US Department of Education, and Malcolm
Reed, of JISC in the UK, at http://vimeo.com/ocwconsortium. Presentation
slides and materials can be found in the “global conferences” folder at
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/community/documents.



Terri Bays and Meena Hwang, OCW Consortium staff, and Steve Carson,
President of the Board of Directors, will also be joining the conversation.
We thought it would helpful to organize the discussion following the format
of the conference, with a day for each theme:

·      *Building OCW* – How and why to create OCW and OER, lessons learned
and ways to effectively use OER to support educational policy.

·     * **Using OCW as a Platform* – Current and potential uses of OER to
support educational goals such as increased success in higher education,
workforce development, life-long learning, and international collaboration.

·      *Sustaining OCW* – Strategies for sustaining, building and expanding
projects, ways to showcase impact of OCW and OER, what the future holds for
the movement.

·      *Educational Policy and OCW* – Strategies for gaining policy-level
support for OER, steps being taken around the world to incorporate openness
in education, why policy is important to the future of OER.

We can follow these themes with a couple of days for questions and answers,
or to address other issues.  We’re also happy to answer questions anytime,
and to get your feedback.  We’re looking forward to the week’s discussions.



Best regards,

Mary Lou Forward

-- 
Mary Lou Forward
OpenCourseWare Consortium
www.ocwconsortium.org



On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Susan D'Antoni <susandantoni at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Oer-community mailing list
> Oer-community at athabascau.ca
> https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community
>
>
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