MIT has released the 2004 MIT OpenCourseWare Program Evaluation Findings Report (March 31, 2005). From the executive summary: 'Traffic to the OCW site is steady, increasing, and progressively global....OCW use is centered on subjects for which MIT is a recognized leader....Self learners most frequently use the site to enhance personal knowledge (58%), keep current in field developments (18%) or plan a future course of study (11%). Students primarily use the site to complement materials from a course they are taking (44%), enhance personal knowledge (32%) or plan a course of study (12%). Educators primarily use the site to enhance personal knowledge (25%), develop a course (23%), prepare to teach a specific class (18%) or enhance research (14%)....Lecture notes, full text readings, assignments and syllabi are identified by visitors as the most useful types of content....More than half of incoming MIT freshmen are aware of the site and many indicate it influenced their decision to attend the Institute; MIT upperclass undergraduates are almost all aware of the OCW site, nearly three-quarters use the site for a range of educational activities, and nearly all feel the site has had a positive effect on their student experience....The opencourseware model is being adopted by institutions in the US and internationally, both though affiliations with MIT OCW and independently.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/01/2005 10:56:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
