Why do you have to use the OpenCourseWare?

Let's remind that the OpenCourseWare is made of courses, taught at the high school or at the university level, that are put on the internet for anyone to access freely. You can use the OpenCourseWare for several reasons including the following:

1. For your own interest. If you are interested in a particular subject or field you can use the OpenCourseWare to gain or update your knowledge in that field.
2. To update your skills or knowledge for work. If you are a professional you can use the OpenCourseWare to review or update your knowledge in a subject or field.
3. To understand concepts you are studying. The OpenCourseWare is used by many students to help them understand concepts they are studying. If you are studying mathematics you can find a lot of OpenCourseWare materials to help you to understand a lot of mathematical concepts.
4. To learn something for a particular subject or task. I heard about someone working on a solar energy project using the OpenCourseWare to help him realizing the project.
5. To supplement/create teaching materials. Educators use the OpenCourseWare to create courses, enrich the curriculum, etc.

These reasons are based on a study by the OpenCourseWare Consortium. According to this study the OpenCourseWare is used by Teachers, Students at the Secondary or high school level, Students at the undergraduate and graduate level, Self-learners, Working professionals, Employers, etc.

The results of the survey by OCW about respondents using OpenCourseWare are:
46%: to help understand concepts I am studying
31%: to learn something for a specific project or task
23%: supplement/create teaching materials
50%: to update my skills or knowledge for work
59%: for my own interest
7%: other.

A survey of users of OCW materials translated in traditional and simplified Chinese by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign revealed similar results.
68%: to extend my professional knowledge
62.8%: to increase knowledge of personal interests
31.4%: to answer questions related to my profession
25.9%: for academic studies

The percentages of these two surveys show that the OpenCourseWare is mostly used for personal interests, professional knowledge and academic studies.

My interest in different subjects of human and exact sciences led me to create the Open Popular University. I realize also that knowledge cannot be the prerogative of educational institutions meaning that in order to learn something you have to spend not only a fortune but a huge amount of time and physical energy. Knowledge should be to the disposal of the six billions of humans beings living on the earth and everybody should be able to access and learn that knowledge without any restrictions. The purpose of Open Popular University is to demystify knowledge and make it accessible to anybody provided that you have access to a computer and internet access.

My goal for Open Popular University is that it can become an open and free encyclopedia of courses and knowledge. A lot of resources are needed in order to realize this goal. I am launching a fundraising in order to optimize the site and to continue to add more courses. If you are a reader of this blog and believe in my philosophy of education I am asking for your support by doing the following:

1. Make a donation to www.indiegogo.com/Open-Popular-University and ask others to do the same by sharing the link of the fundraising.
2. Like the facebook page of Open Popular University at www.facebook.com/OpenPopularUniversity.
3. Visit the site of Open Popular University at www.openpu.wikidot.com and share the link to others. Feel free to reach me for any questions by writing on the comments section of this blog.

Who uses Opencourseware?

In a recent time to learn a subject you can matriculate at an university in order to attend a class. Depending on the level of the course one wants to attend one can take a class at a community college or an adult education center that offers various courses. For example the Boston Adult Education Center  has offered basic and short courses in different areas for a very long time. Today it is not necessary to spend some money to attend some courses thanks to the Opencourseware and various online organizations that offer free courses. One can find a subject in an opencourseware and find support in a social network like Open study. A few months ago I launched the project Open Popular University that has courses in Engineering, Sciences, Math, Human Sciences, etc. In the section "Resources" are found courses in French. I added a social network like Open Study to support a course. For certain disciplines like Civil Engineering I put the whole curriculum like the one offered by a renowned university with the free courses. In this way someone can learn an university degree program by oneself. I am presently launching a fundraising campaign to raise some funds to optimize the site and add more courses. I am appealing to my readers to support this project by clicking the link "fundraising campaign" or clicking the widget on the sidebar of this blog.

The use of OpenCourseWare is supported by studies of which one originates from Mary Lou Forward, director of Open Courseware Consortium. OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) rest on the idea that free and open sharing in education can favor the   improvement of teaching and learning around the world. The OpenCourseWare movement was initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other universities noticing the power of open sharing followed the MIT example. Initially OCW was conceived as a resource for faculty to exchange ideas and course materials. Today OCW supports formal and informal learning and millions of people worldwide are using high-quality educational materials for different reasons.

The OpenCourseWare is used by faculty (Professors, Teachers) and students at the university and high school level, self-learners, employers, working professionals and different others. The study of Mary Lou Forward shows that a high percentage of users are not currently involved in formal education as faculty or students. The study uses statistics to show the different reasons people use the opencourseware. University professors and school teachers use the opencourseware to develop their courses. The opencouseware is used for professional development. Some California teachers use the opencourseware of the university of California-Irvine to help them to prepare for teaching credentials. The African Virtual University provides professional development through the use of the opencourseware. Its developed curricula for bachelor of education programs in 5 subjects to prepare teachers. The curriculum is presented in French, Portuguese and English at the African Virtual University (AVU) portal. Opencourseware is also supported by different platforms such as Open study, Peer-to-Peer university, etc. Many universities and companies put their opencourseware for free and open access. Their opencourseware is organized in different ways. Opencourseware presents different gaps and there ia a need to fill in these gaps. This is what I am trying to do at Open Popular University and I need the support of different interested people.    

Can opencourseware lead to a true revolution in education?

With the introduction of open educational resources (OER) and opencourseware in higher education some steps were taken to make education more accessible. Many universities put their courses online so that everyone can access them. Some of them think they fulfill a higher purpose by doing this. Students have broader access to knowledge. Professors know more about what's going on in terms of what is being taught at other higher institutions of learning. People who want to learn independently can access those courses. There is a lot of benefits to the world at this point. But in another perspective does this fulfill a marketing purpose when we know that universities are in the business of making money first not education as their first goal ?. That seems very appreciative when courses costing thousands of dollars are accessible online for free. But is "free" really "free"? When you go to the supermarket you are attempted to taste something for free but they give away something in order to attract people to buy their products. In the same way do some universities put their courses online in order to attract more students? I can say yes. But at the same time they think they are doing some thing more disinterested financially. But higher learning institutions have several barriers to reach such a disinterested purpose. Such barriers are economic and social. Higher learning institutions are more concerned about money than education. They don't reach out to people in order to expand education on a global scale and they operate in a closed structure from admissions, tuition, credit transfers, refunds to almost everything. Can true learning happen in such a market structure? Their business rules are stricter than those of stores and supermarkets. Stores and supermarkets offer sales at certain times of the year where items can be purchased at a very low price and other items not sold go to charities. But are they times where universities lower their tuition for students? They are rules that seem unacceptable like you can't transfer more than 2 courses from another university. There is a certain limit of time to finish a program otherwise you lose your credits while you might still pass them and have your knowledge. Alternative assessment such as prior work experiences, prior informal learning are accepted at a small scale at a very small number of universities. When I started my master's degree 27 years ago I had to stop because I didn't have the money to pay. I had to pay travel expenses from where I lived to come to the university. I wasn't qualified for loans and I had to pay higher than the other students. I came back a few years later to continue my master's program to take a few courses but again lack of money, disqualifications for loan prevented me from finishing while I had only four courses to finish. When I came back later for the third time I was told than I can only benefit of two courses in order to finish and then I lost all the other courses. That was unacceptable for me. I was told to contact my professor/advisor because he made arrangements for my former courses to be transferred. Actually he gave me a paper mentioning all these credit transfer courses. I presented this paper and they didn't accept it. My professor was dead and he wasn't there to back me up. I went to another university for the master's degree that I almost finished in the former university. Then from there I started a PhD with another university taking 21 credit courses and passing all the courses with A ( most of these courses are research). Again I had to confront another institution that is part of a structure of not truly educating. With all my abilities and enthusiasm I had to stop. Now recently I embarked myself in this journey of open PhD joining Leigh Blackall, Prawthorne and others who chose this option as well. For me there is a long road for higher learning institutions to take in order to fulfill a meaningful role in society. The following article reports about a global conference on the future of online learning and the debate around opencouseware. Certain universities are threatened by a movement that can force them to change their inadequate structures.  

Leading higher education specialists from across the world convened at Cambridge University in April for a landmark global conference on the future of online learning. The contrast here between the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the new, reflects the challenges of standardising the digital learning revolution across higher education globally.

The Cambridge conference was hosted by the OpenCourseWare Consortium, a non-profit consortium, which is now the largest open online education resource in the world. OCWC comprises some 280 higher education institutions, offers around 21,000 courses online, and has many millions of learners across the globe.

The ambition of open online learning is to cut cost and eliminate geographic distance as obstacles to the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Unlike traditional e-learning, OpenCourseWare (OCW) offers all course materials free to everyone with online access. The logic follows that educators from around the world can upgrade their OCW classes; students can enhance their OCW coursework or pursue self-study; and – for the first time ever – the general public is given a window through which to see the depth and breadth of what leading universities are offering and to benefit from reading lists and lectures.

The potential benefits of open online learning are tremendous. However, in order for it to truly deliver a global knowledge revolution, the higher education sector must collaborate more effectively to enhance the impact of online education resources.

One key sticking point is that traditional institutions have previously enjoyed a knowledge monopoly in higher education. However, in the digital age, knowledge is instantly accessible, and universities and colleges must now actively share their role for developing and spreading knowledge with many other institutions and indeed individuals that require enhanced collaboration.

Concern exists among some higher education institutions that by releasing knowledge into the public domain, they will increasingly become little more than certification factories, with no clear role as the arbiters and producers of knowledge. The worry is that students will study online for free, after which they will shop around for higher education institutions that are willing to test to a given standard and – if they pass – provide them with an appropriate qualification. This point was also discussed in Cambridge last week.

This shouldn't be a threat to higher education institutions, especially given the ambition in Europe, and indeed much of the rest of world, to dramatically increase the percentage of the population with a tertiary education. Online learning offers the opportunity to teach many more students than we do now: a higher education institution could potentially have 1 million students, including lifelong learners who find it difficult to take part in on-campus courses.

The business model for higher education institutions would be different, of course, forcing them to change from a system of tuition fees to one of course-completion or certification fees. However, as long as they have a thorough system of testing and provide high-reputation certified qualifications, offering online learning might even be an advantage, allowing more time for other institutional work, such as research.

For some, the real danger is if higher education institutions lose their monopoly on certification. The answer here must be to enhance the quality and reputation of our institutions.

Students generally attend an institution not only because they want to learn something, but also because a qualification helps them with their future career. The greater the reputation of the certifying institution, the more valuable the diplomas, certificates and degrees will be.

People may well be less willing to pay for tuition at an institution with a poor reputation, preferring to attend a free, virtual one. They will continue to pay, however, for a qualification from high-quality institutions such as Cambridge. These diplomas, certificates and degrees are reliable proof of what they have learned and at what level, providing a valuable ticket for a future career.

In general, the higher education sector has little reason to view the digital learning revolution as a threat and should embrace the massive opportunity it presents through more active participation and collaboration. Online education can not only help provide higher education institutions with increasing numbers of students, but also new potential revenue streams, whilst embedding their reputation for high quality knowledge and teaching in the digital age.

Some key points discussed at the OpenCourseWare conference

• Student numbers in higher education make open education inevitable

The world's higher education system must accommodate nearly 80 million more students by 2025. Sir John Daniel (Common Wealth of Learning) calculated that this would require building three campuses for 30,000 students every week for the next 13 years. Since this is unlikely to happen, other ways to provide education have to be found.

• What is a sustainable model for open education?

Various models are being tested now. Some of these are based purely on volunteers, such P2PU (Peer to Peer University); most focus on combining the existing higher education structure and open education (such as MITx, Open University UK or Delft University of Technology)

• Government interest in open education is growing: In 2011, the US started a four-year programme involving a total of $2bn, which includes development of open educational resources (OER) for community colleges. Many other countries, such as India, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have introduced specific measures or subsidies to promote OER. Unesco is pushing this by encouraging governments to sign the Paris declaration on OER next June.

• And has to grow further!

Open education can help governments deal with a number of challenges in higher education, such as bridging the gap between secondary and higher education, reaching life long learners, globalisation, competition for talent and financing the increasing number of students.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/apr/25/open-business-universities-opencourseware

Towards OER university: Free learning for all students worldwide

08-02-2011 (Apia)

The OER Foundation will host an open planning meeting on 23 February 2011 in Dunedin, New Zealand, for the project, Open Educational Resources (OER) for Assessment and Credit for Students. UNESCO will provide support for streaming the meeting on the Internet to enable virtual participation by education leaders and interested persons.

OER encapsulates a simple but powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good. The Internet provides unique opportunities for everyone to share, use, and reuse this knowledge.

The OER Foundation, Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand), the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) and Athabasca University (Canada) are collaborating in this project as founding anchor partners to provide flexible pathways for OER learners to earn formal academic credit and pay reduced fees for assessment and credit.

“We extend an open invitation to all post-secondary institutions that care about sharing knowledge as a core value of education to join us in planning these sustainable learning futures,” said Dr Robin Day, Chair of the Board of Directors of the OER Foundation.

Phil Ker, Chief Executive of Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand, highlights that “OER is the means by which education at all levels can be more accessible, more affordable and more efficient”.

WikiEducator, a flagship initiative of the OER Foundation, administers the Learning4Content project – the world's largest training project to provide free wiki-skills' courses for the collaborative development of OER to thousands of educators from 140 different countries. “The Learning4Content model demonstrates that OER is cost effective and infinitely scalable,” said Dr Wayne Mackintosh, Director of the OER Foundation and founder of WikiEducator.

The challenge is to find robust mechanisms for academic credit for these OER learners. “Students seek flexible study opportunities, but they also want their achievements recognised in credible credentials,” said Sir John Daniel, President of the Commonwealth of Learning. “This important meeting will tackle the challenges of combining flexibility with rigour, which requires clarity in conception and quality in execution.”

“The concept of free learning for all students is well aligned with UNESCO's global mission to provide education for all, which now seems imminently more doable with the mainstream adoption of OER in our formal education institutions,” said Dr Visesio Pongi, Director of the UNESCO Office in Apia.

 Related link
Meet Athabasca U Canada's first OER University

How Open Educational Resources are changing the face of Higher Education

With all the talk about the cost of higher education, there is an underlying current bringing about a radical change in education. This quiet, yet revolutionary force, is both directly and indirectly changing the bottom line in the price of attaining education. Behind the curtains in higher education are Open Educational Resources.

"Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others."

Recently, well-known author Anya Kamenetz covered Open Educational Resources and various pioneer learning start-ups in her free book The Edupunks Guide to a DIY Education. It is over 100 pages long full of online free or highly affordable knowledge resources. The OER movement is not only growing: it is exploding.

What perhaps is overlooked in daily conversations is that the most important aspect about OER is that it enables the best quality knowledge material to travel free of charge to the most remote and underserved places in the world. Education is no longer only for the elite privileged few; or for those saddled with a lifelong debt burden to achieve it. Education is now for everyone and anyone driven, motivated, inspired and ready to seek it out online. Money is no longer a prerequisite to a quality education -- only a computer and an internet connection remain.

We are part of a new era. From free learning sources such as MIT OpenCourseWare, to fully formed tuition-free degree programs such as those offered by University of the People, the phrase "burdensome tuition" is becoming a phrase of the past. Worldwide disparities in educational access based on economic situation or geographic restriction are being leveled out.

Think what a world we are becoming -- a world where money is not required in order for individual and collective intelligence to be expressed and compounded. Removing money from the equation, we will see in a very short time what universal affordable education will achieve in changing, brightening and modifying the world we live in.


Huffington Post

Popular Ways that OpenCourseWare Is Used

Education-Portal.com recently ran a survey asking readers to detail their familiarity with OpenCourseWare (OCW), free college course materials available online to any interested learners. We wanted respondents to tell us how they use OCW, what kinds of OCW they find most helpful and more. Here are the results.

by Eric Garneau
One of the key questions Education-Portal.com asked of its readers was how they made use of OCW. Tellingly, about 40% of the survey's respondents answered that they didn't know what OCW was, and 46% said they'd never used it. Those who had used OCW found it valuable for both personal and professional enrichment.

'To Update My Skills or Knowledge for Work'

About 30% of our survey's respondents who were familiar with OCW used it outside the traditional college setting, hoping to bulk up their knowledge and preparation for tasks they'd face on the job. This answer may indicate that OCW can find success replacing more traditional adult education/re-education programs - there's less need to re-enroll in college for job skills when you can get what you need for free on the Internet.

'For My Personal Interest/Entertainment'

Perhaps surprisingly, around 27% of our survey-takers - just narrowly the second largest group - found a use for OCW that seems antithetical to its educational purpose: fun. Could this response mean that those people who seek out OCW are motivated self-starters when it comes to education, that they crave knowledge even when it has no practical benefit to them? Or does it rather speak to the fact that more and more often OCW is presented in an attractive fashion meant to appeal to users familiar with YouTube, Hulu and other time-killing multimedia sites? Realistically, probably a little bit of both is the case.

'To Learn Something for a Specific Project or Task'

Roughly 17% of our survey's respondents chose to use OCW in a more focused method, accessing the necessary material when it helped them complete something they were currently working on. In a way, this seems like the most common use of information on the Internet - when you lack knowledge to finish what you're doing, you go to Google to learn more about that topic. Perhaps we ought to be surprised, then, that for our survey-takers this use ranked third by a significant margin. It seems as though OCW engenders more long-term usage from many of its supporters.

'To Help Understand Concepts I'm Studying'

Only 15% of those who took our survey used OCW as a study aide. That may strike some as curious, given that it may be perhaps OCW's most obvious application. However, it's possible that actual college students have less use for OCW than those not in college - they already have course material to study, and it's material they've paid for, so why not use it? Much has been made of OCW's ability to appeal to non-traditional students who may not have easy access to college, something that this survey seems to correlate.

'To Help Me Create Teaching Materials'

Although only a scant seven percent of our readers used OCW to help their own classroom presentations, this bears mentioning because it's not necessarily a usage that immediately comes to mind. Perhaps one of the best untapped applications of OCW is its ability to contribute to an ongoing dialog in the world of teaching. What techniques, materials and evaluations work best? Which don't? As a free, open resource, OCW can help to vet so-called 'best practices' in education, and it might give teachers some new ideas about delivering their own course material in the classroom.