[Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion

[Paul Stacey]

It's great to see this discussion starting up again. I read the background paper and initial introductory posts with some interest. The background paper asserts that OER are poised to make the transition to standard practice in education. However, its clear from everyone's introductory remarks there are still a lot of questions related to sustainability, financial investment, and academic use cases. 

As my introductory remark I thought I'd make one simple recommendation which I believe will result in OER sustainability, financial return, and tremendous academic benefits. For OER to make the transition to mainstream we must see institutions like MIT, UKOU, Athabasca, and ideally all others who develop academic curricula use OER that have been developed outside their institution as part of the for-credit credential opportunities they are offering. If this one thing was to occur OER would make the transition to becoming an integral part of education practice. 

Paul Stacey 
BCcampus 
http://www.bccampus.ca 
blog: http://edtechfrontier.com 





From: "Susan D'Antoni" <susandantoni at gmail.com> 
To: oer-community at athabascau.ca 
Sent: Monday, October 4, 2010 4:20:00 AM 
Subject: [Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion 

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 

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