The University of the People is a forthcoming university that plans to offer tuition-free classes. UoP will begin enrolling students in April 2009, will offer degrees and plans to seek accreditation. See coverage by the New York Times or Wired Campus. (Thanks to Ellen Marie Murphy.) From the NYT story:
... “The open-source courseware is there, from universities that have put their courses online, available to the public, free,” [founder Shai] Reshef said. “We know that online peer-to-peer teaching works. Putting it all together, we can make a free university for students all over the world, anyone who speaks English and has an Internet connection.” ...
The University of the People, like other Internet-based universities, would have online study communities, weekly discussion topics, homework assignments and exams. But in lieu of tuition, students would pay only nominal fees for enrollment ($15 to $50) and exams ($10 to $100), with students from poorer countries paying the lower fees ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 1/27/2009 10:27:00 PM.
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.
