Skip to content Skip to navigation

Connexions

You are here: Home » Content » OER Open Courseware

Navigation

Content Actions
  • Download module PDF
  • Add to ...
    Add the module to:
    • My Favorites
    • A lens
    • An external social bookmarking service
    • My Favorites (What is 'My Favorites'?)
      'My Favorites' is a special kind of lens which you can use to bookmark modules and collections directly in Connexions. 'My Favorites' can only be seen by you, and collections saved in 'My Favorites' can remember the last module you were on. You need a Connexions account to use 'My Favorites'.
    • A lens (What is a lens?)

      Definition of a lens

      Lenses

      A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

      What is in a lens?

      Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

      Who can create a lens?

      Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

      What are tags? tag icon

      Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

    • External bookmarks
  • E-mail the author
  • Rate this module (How does the rating system work?)

    Rating system

    Ratings

    Ratings allow you to judge the quality of modules. If other users have ranked the module then its average rating is displayed below. Ratings are calculated on a scale from one star (Poor) to five stars (Excellent).

    How to rate a module

    Hover over the star that corresponds to the rating you wish to assign. Click on the star to add your rating. Your rating should be based on the quality of the content. You must have an account and be logged in to rate content.

    		(0 ratings)

Lenses

What is a lens?

Definition of a lens

Lenses

A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

What is in a lens?

Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

Who can create a lens?

Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

What are tags? tag icon

Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

This content is ...

In these lenses

  • OpenEd display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: Open Ed Lens
    By: Cheryl RichardsonAs a part of collection:"Introduction to Open Educational Resources"

    Comments:

    "Helps understand OER processes"

    Click the "OpenEd" link to see all content selected in this lens.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

Recently Viewed

This feature requires Javascript to be enabled.

Tags

(What is a tag?)

These tags come from the endorsement, affiliation, and other lenses that include this content.

OER Open Courseware

Module by: Judy Baker

Summary: Overview of open courseware movement and related resources.

OER Open Courseware

Lesson Components

  • Fast Fact
  • Skill/Objective
  • Success Indicators
  • Introduction
  • Activity
  • Review questions
  • Resources

Fast Fact

MIT first announced its Open Courseware program in 2001. The OCW provides open access to course materials for up to 1,550 MIT courses, representing 34 departments and all five MIT schools. The goal is to include materials from all MIT courses by 2008.

Skills/Objectives

Learners will be able to:

  1. Identify sources of open courseware for use in their own teaching disciplines.
  2. Locate at lesson in an open course to modify for use in their own teaching.

Success Indicators

  1. Posted lesson plan that repurposes learning content from OCW for learner's own teaching.

Introduction

The OpenCourseWare movement began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002 and has now spread to some 120 other universities worldwide. According to UC Irvine: "OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a free and open digital publication of high quality university-level educational materials, often including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments and exams. Open educational resources are based on the notion that knowledge and education are common goods that must be supported by a defined community."

While OCW initiatives typically do not provide a degree, credit, certification, or access to instructors, the materials are made available, for free, under open licenses for use and adaption by educators and learners anywhere.

Definition

According to the Open Courseware Consortium:

"An OpenCourseWare site is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses...is available for use and adaptation under an open license...does not typically provide certification or access to instructors."

The OpenCourseWare Finder Finder currently shows search results from:

Other universities with open courseware include:

Wikiversity is a online group of educators engaged in a collaborative learning effort using wiki software, which makes collaboration easy. Take the guided tour to discover more.

HippoCampus, a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), provides high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.

Activity

Experience

  1. Use the OpenCourseWare Finder Finder to search for Open Courseware in your teaching discipline.
  2. Listen to a lecture podcast at Stanford on iTunes or Berkeley.

Reflect

  1. Participate in the Wikiversity Motto contest by posting your choice and why on the wiki or at the Wikiversity Colloquium.

Apply

  1. Develop a lesson plan that repurposes learning content from OCW for your own teaching.
  2. Consider adding your own course to Wikiuniversity. Use the tutorial provided.

Review Questions

  1. What are some of the sources of open courseware?
  2. Which sources of open courseware provide learning materials that can be modified for use in the learner's own teaching?

Comments, questions, feedback, criticisms?

Send feedback