On the OpenCourseWare Consortium

Interesting development: the OpenCourseWare Consortium

It’s not entirely unique but the approach is a bit different and extremely worthwhile:

An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware.

The goals of the Consortium are expressed as follows:

* Extend the reach and impact of opencourseware by encouraging the adoption and adaptation of open educational materials around the world.
* Foster the development of additional opencourseware projects.
* Ensure the long-term sustainability of opencourseware projects by identifying ways to improve effectiveness and reduce costs.

The Consortium is also referenced in a recent THE article on this topic. The University of Nottingham is one of a few UK members. Let’s hope it thrives.

(With thanks to John Horton for alerting me to this one.)