OpenCourseWare

OpenCourseWare or OCW is a term coined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for its open educational resources that are organized as courses.

This year MIT will finish the OCW-project. This means that all of the 1,800 courses will be offered for free online. The project started in 2001 and the expectation was that it would take them at least ten years.

MIT stated that the Internet is one of the strongest ways to improve the quality of the education worldwide. Although every course will be available at the end of 2007, the content per course varies. Sometimes it is only some assignments, while other courses offering video recordings of sessions. It is not possible to get a degree or certificate with only doing the courses online.

Open University, The Netherlands

Another example is the open content project by the Open University. It is not only some reference material like provided by MIT in the US but complete self-study courses with all the readers and other material. In December the Open University started with a few courses and the number of offered courses will grown next years. It will be possible to get some additional services e.g. a certification test. You have to pay for the additional services.

This project is funded in various ways: by the Ministry of Education of The Netherlands and by the US based The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (http://www.hewlett.org). The goal of this project is to open the higher educational market for the less fortunate learners.

Merlot, a special one

MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. MERLOT is an user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed, higher education, online learning materials created by registered members, and a set of faculty development support services.

Links to online learning materials are collected here along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. MERLOT is committed to improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning by expanding access to high quality teaching and learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty-designed courses.