A New Model for Open Sharing

Anne H. Margulies

November 5, 2003

EDUCAUSE Annual Conference

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“… to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by undertaking voyages of discovery.”

President Thomas Jefferson requesting funding for the Corps of Discovery in a Jan. 18, 1803, letter to the Congress

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I. Vision

II. Implementation

III. Impact

Agenda

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Vision

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• Fall 1999 — Faculty committee appointed

• Fall 2000 — OCW concept recommended to MIT President Charles M. Vest

• April 2001 — MIT OCW announced in The New York Times

Vision

Institutional Decision-Making

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“OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive in a

market-driven world. But it really is consistent

with what I believe is the best about MIT. It is

innovative. It expresses our belief in the way

education can be advanced – by constantly

widening access to information and by

inspiring others to participate.”

– Charles M. Vest,President of MIT

Vision

Institutional Decision-Making

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• June 2001 — Funding partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

• September 2002 — MIT OCW Pilot site opened to the public

– 50 courses from 23 academic disciplines

• September 2003 — OCW officially launched

– 500 courses from all five MIT schools and 33 academic disciplines

Vision

Vision to Reality

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• An MIT education

• Intended to represent or replace the actual interactive classroom environment

• A distance education initiative

• A Web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content

• Open and available to the world

• A permanent MIT activity

MIT OpenCourseWare IS NOT:

MIT OpenCourseWare IS:

Vision

What Is MIT OCW?

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• Furthers MIT’s fundamental mission

• Embraces faculty values

– Teaching

– Contributing to their discipline

• Counters the privatization of knowledge and champions the movement toward greater openness

Vision

Why Is MIT Doing This?

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• Provide free access to MIT course materials for educators and learners

• Create a model other universities may use to publish their own course materials

MIT OCW success rests on four pillars:

• Responsive, professional organization

• Sensible policies and efficient processes

• Reliable, scalable technology infrastructure

• Communication with MIT community, external audiences

A foundation of continuous planning,evaluation, and feedback.

OCW

Org

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Po

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& P

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Co

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Planning & Evaluation

Te

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re

Org

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Po

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s &

Pro

cess

Co

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Planning & Evaluation

Tec

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Vision

Dual Mission

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9/07 Steady State

Phase I: Pilot

2002-03

• Publish hundreds of courses

• Offer complete curriculum tracks

• Work with like-minded institutions on “opencoursewares”

• Publish courses from five schools, 33 disciplines

• Publish 2,000 courses

• Foster consortium

9/02Proof-of-

Concept Pilot 50 courses

Phase II:Expansion

2004-07

9/03Launch

500 courses

Phase III: Steady State

2008-

Vision

Publication Timeline

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Implementation

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Implementation

Scaling Up to 500 Courses

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Managing a Course Through the OCW Process

Recruit faculty and

courses

Plan• Transcribe,

convert materials

• Identify IP

• Design layout

Publish• Test site

• Final QA

• Faculty signoff

• Stage for publish

Support• Edit/add

• Respond to inquiries

• Troubleshoot

Build • Input content

• Add metadata

• Scrub content

• Clear IP

• Initial QA

Implementation

Publication Process

OCW = Snapshot of Completed

Course

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OCW PublishingEnvironment

MIT Facilities

Content Distribution Network (Akamai)Thousands of servers around the world

deliver MIT OCW course materials

Implementation

Technology

Origin ServerSearch, Feedback

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• Technology

– Implemented Microsoft CMS 2002 with workflow, metadata, and reports

– Implemented Apache, Tomcat, Lucene Search Engine, Perl Publishing engine, and Akamai for content delivery

– Implemented FileMaker for pipeline management, Netraker for external user surveys, Akamai Sitewise for site statistics

Implementation

What It Took To Make It Happen

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PROGRAM Access Use Impact

Web analytics

Online intercept surveys

Supplemental surveys

Interviews

Site feedback analysis

PROCESS Efficiency Effectiveness

Financial reports

Level of effort tracking database

IP operations tracking database

Content audit

Faculty survey

Implementation

Planning and Evaluation

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Impact

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OCW Monthly Traffic - Launch 2002 to October 2003

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

8,000,000

9,000,000

Laun

ch 2

002

Dec 2

002

Feb 2

003

April 2

003

June

200

3

Aug 2

003

Oct 20

03 (e

st.)

Pa

ge

s

Page Views

Impact

Data Over Time

OCW Monthly Traffic – Launch 2002 to October 2003

Page Views

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Top 15 User Countries Outsidethe United States *

*Web hits as of Sept. 30, 2003

Impact

Geographic DataNATION # OF HITS

1. Canada 6,495,090

2. United Kingdom 5,466,263

3. Germany 4,769,433

4. Brazil 3,929,334

5. Japan 3,870,805

6. South Korea 3,824,790

7. India 3,640,055

8. France 3,361,879

9. Hong Kong 2,960,400

10. China 2,193,580

11. Taiwan 2,143,839

12. Australia 2,074,719

13. Spain 1,825,894

14. Italy 1,816,695

15. Singapore 1,511,503

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• 9,500 emails to ocw@mit.edu

– Majority (60+ percent) are grateful or congratulatory

– Other inquiries

• How to register

• Technical questions

• Inquiries from other educators

• Vendors

– Negative responses (less than 3 percent)

• 17,000 subscribers to monthly email newsletter

Impact

User Feedback Data

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• 24 courses in Spanish and Portuguese site through Universia.net partnership

• Individual courses in 10 languages

Impact

Translations

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• Enables faculty to contribute to their discipline

– Providing a common repository of educational materials

– Making their materials visible to colleagues

• Leads to collaboration

– Extending relationships between MIT faculty, students and the world

– Stimulating interdisciplinary teaching and research

Impact

Benefits for MIT Faculty

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Impact

Benefits for MIT Faculty

Musical composition by Jonathan Foust, from “A Touch of Grace”

MIT Reaction: Faculty

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• Facilitates curriculum development

– Establish or revise course offerings

• Enables pedagogical development

– Develop or enhance methods for teaching a particular course

– Establish or revise course syllabi and calendars

• Contributes to course content development

– Integrate new materials into an existing course

– Add elements (e.g. simulations, problem sets, exams)

Impact

Benefits for Educators

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World Reaction: Educators

Impact

Benefits for Educators

Musical composition by Jonathan Foust, from “A Touch of Grace”

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• Offers reference material and learning activities

– Explore new areas and gaining new insights

– Stay current in a particular area of interest

– Review and update previous educational experiences

– Utilize reading lists, resource lists as research tool

Impact

Benefits for Learners

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Impact

Benefits for Learners

Musical composition by Jonathan Foust, from “A Touch of Grace”

World Reaction: Self-learners

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• Other OCWs are beginning to appear

• Some using the materials, some usingthe format, some using the idea

Impact

Emerging “OpenCourseWares”

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• Continues to be tremendous excitement

• The vision is achievable

• The impact of MIT OCW will be significant

Impact

What Does It Mean?

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• Share evaluation findings

• Develop and implement outreach “how to” Web site to assist other institutions

• Host an annual conference, workshops, and meetings

• Provide advice as needed and able

Impact

Extending OCW Beyond MIT

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“I trust that the discoveries we have made will not remain long unimproved… will promote the cause of liberty and the honour of America… and will relieve distressed humanity.”

Meriwether Lewis in a speech atCharlottesville, Va., on Nov. 15, 1806

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Thank You!

• Implementing “OpenCourseWare” on your CampusDiscussion Wednesday, November 5, 20031 to 2 p.m.Anaheim Convention Center, Room 208A

• MIT OpenCourseWare Poster SessionTeaching and Learning TrackThursday, November 6, 20034:55 p.m. to 6:10 p.m.Exhibit Hall B, Table 29