Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Current News
Unintended Consequences of MIT's Open Course Initiative
12/10/2003
Ann noted that they're seeing some of what they'd hoped for from outside MIT already happening from the inside - a kind of "peer review" of curricula. It seems that "publication" of what is not really a textbook and is certainly not a replacement for actually taking a class or interacting with a professor, might lead to the kind of "continuous improvement" in curricular evolution that is characteristic of total quality management (TQM).
In an opinion for this newsletter back in August, Architecture for the Transparent University, philosophy professor G. Randolph Mayes of California State University, Sacramento, wrote: "The informational privacy of the traditional classroom could be regarded as an accidental feature of its brick and mortar construction, not something essential to learning. We are raising the consciousness of old classrooms by installing the neural architecture necessary to access and display the contents of computer files located anywhere on earth. Why stop there? If we can give our classrooms eyes to see out, we can give them eyes to see in as well."
Well, the eyes are "seeing in" now - at least into the MIT curricula. And within its own faculty, it seems as though sharing with the larger world has prompted other colleagues to share and share alike. Hopefully, as more of the curricula from MIT get evolved and adapted by other faculty, with feedback, and as other institutions join in the sharing, we may be getting some of what Mayes was asking for. As I noted then, it seems like many aspects of the transparent university are inevitable.
Note: Now that MIT has more than 500 courses up and lots of people are using
OCI, the commentary and testimonials are flying. It's worth a look at its primary
Web site to catch up with the fast pace of what's being learned from this brave
initiative: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html.
About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society
for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Web 2.0 :: Wednesday, October 8, 2008
:::::: THE BUZZ
: The Institutional Path For Change in This Age: Andragogy, not Pedagogy
:::::: PRODUCTS AND APPS
: College Students Find WiFi Essential to Education, Survey Reports
: Digital Arts Alliance Adds Fordham U
: Amazon To Host Microsoft Solutions in the Cloud
: Online University Aims To Boost Rural Math and Science Teachers - News Update :: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Coming to Terms with Cloud Computing
: IBM Aims To Boost Mainframe Competency with Scholarship Program
: Microsoft's 'Dublin' App Server Tied to .NET 4.0
: Payment Card Security Toughens with DSS 1.2 Release
: 6 Universities Join NASA Astrobiology Institute
: Amazon To Host Microsoft Solutions in the Cloud
: CRM Pushing into New Areas of Higher Ed
: U Washington Aims To Streamline Data Access with Amalga
: Silverlight 2 Release Candidate Available - IT Trends :: Thursday, October 2, 2008
:::::: INTERVIEW
:: CRM Pushing into New Areas of Higher Ed
:::::: IT NEWS
:: Integrated Collaborative Environment Leverages Web 2.0
:: You Say You Want a Runtime Revolution?
:: Visual Studio To Include jQuery Library
:: Browser Makers Seek Clickjacking Fix
:: China's Southeast University Upgrades Wireless LANs Across 6 Campuses
:: Aruba To Increase Wireless Performance with ARM 2.0
:: More Universities Sign with Hothand Wireless To Deliver Mobile Marketing - SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
:::::: ELEARNING TIPS
: Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students
:::::: NEWS and PRODUCT UPDATES
: Stanford Testing iPhone Application Suite
: North Seattle CC Adds Plato Online Algebra Course to Math Formula
: Second Life Mashup Helps Boost Distance Ed Retention at Huntington JC
: DePaul Weaves SS&C Tech Finance Material into Hybrid Graduate Course
: Serena Acquisition Takes Aim at Microsoft Project - Web 2.0 :: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
:::::: THE BUZZ
: The Generative Nature of the Digital Economy and Its Challenge to Educators
:::::: ELEARNING TIPS
: Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students
:::::: PRODUCTS AND APPS
: College Crime Gets Google Maps Mashup at UCrime.com
: Second Life Mashup Helps Boost Distance Ed Retention at Huntington JC
: UW-Stout Taps Echo360 Lecture Capture To Connect with Distance Students
: Turnitin Integrates Plagiarism Tool into New Online Writing Service - News Update :: Tuesday, September 30, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Second Life Mashup Helps Boost Distance Ed Retention at Huntington JC
: Seton Hall Monitors Recruitment Dollars with Coremetrics
: Universities Tackle Mainframes in IT Courses
: Windows 7 Bits To Be Released at PDC'08
: Serena Acquisition Takes Aim at Microsoft Project
: United States Tops List of Sources for Botnet Attacks
: Malicious Code Hidden in Rich Content Files Tough To Detect, According to Finjan Report
: Purdue Team Driving SiCortex Low-power Supercomputer in 2008 Cluster Challenge
: U Arizona To Optimize Wireless Networks on Campus
