[Oer-community] Is MIT thinking of putting its OCW material behind a pay wall?

[Mary Lou Forward]

Dear Fred and all,

MIT is not planning to put their OpenCourseWare site behind a paywall.
Below is their statement, which can also be found on their website at
http://ocw.mit.edu/about/media-coverage/press-releases/:

 *Erroneous reports of possible OCW paywall appear in news media*



*OCW paywall not under consideration.*



A handful of recent news articles have reported that MIT is considering
placing its MIT OpenCourseWare program behind a paywall. These articles
stemmed from remarks about e-learning that were made by an MIT administrator
at a recent educational conference. The articles were based on a
misinterpretation of the administrator’s remarks.



The content on MIT OpenCourseWare will continue to be free and available
online, as it has always been.  Like other universities, MIT is constantly
exploring new educational opportunities—including the possibility of
e-learning opportunities—but MIT has no plans to charge for access to MIT
OpenCourseWare content.



About OpenCourseWare



An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality
university-level educational materials – often including syllabi, lecture
notes, assignments, and exams – organized as courses. While OpenCourseWare
(OCW) initiatives typically do not provide a degree, credit, or
certification, or access to instructors, the materials are made available
under open licenses for use and adaptation by educators and learners around
the world.



About MIT OpenCourseWare



MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of substantially
all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate courses—more than 2,000 in
all—available on the Web, free of charge, to any user in the world. OCW
receives an average of 1.5 million web site visits per month from more than
215 countries and territories worldwide. To date, more than 65 million
visitors have accessed the free MIT educational materials on the site or in
translation.



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



On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Fred Beshears <fredbeshears at gmail.com>wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Here's something that caught my eye in the NY Times.
>
> According to a recent item in the NY Times, MIT is thinking of putting it's
> Open CourseWare materials behind a paywall (see blurb and link below).
>
> All the more reason for getting behind Dick Durbin's Open College Textbook
> act, which calls for government funding to support the creation and
> maintenance of electronic textbooks that would be in the public domain (see
> http://durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=318279).
>
> Back in 2007, I testified before a House sub-committee that was looking
> into the cost of textbooks. I believe that committee's report gave Durbin
> the incentive to put forward the bill. Unfortunately, I believe the textbook
> lobby has been able to scuttle attempts to move the bill forward. In any
> event, here's one of my blog posts that covers most of what I presented to
> the sub-committee.
>
> The Economic Case for Creative Commons Textbooks
>
> http://innovationmemes.blogspot.com/2010/09/case-for-creative-commons-textbooks.html
>
> Best,
> Fred Beshears
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/education/27iht-educBriefs27.html?ref=education
>
> The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that it is
> considering charging for access to online lectures and class notes, which
> are currently available free on the Web.
>
> Speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/organization_for_economic_cooperation_and_development/index.html?inline=nyt-org>’s
> Institutional Management in Higher Education conference in Paris this month,
> Lori Breslow, director of M.I.T.’s Teaching and Learning Laboratory, said
> that free access “may not be the best economic model, so we are now looking
> seriously at new e-learning opportunities.”
>
> Long a leader in the Open Course Ware movement, which provides free and
> open access to high-quality educational materials, M.I.T. has come under
> increasing financial pressure because of the fall in the value of its
> endowment.
>
> From a high of $10.1 billion in 2008, M.I.T.’s endowment has shrunk to $7.6
> billion. According to University World News, an online newsletter, putting
> courses behind a paywall is one of a number of measures designed to deliver
> $150 million in cuts over the 2009-12 period.* — D.D. GUTTENPLAN*
>
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>
>
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