Faculties at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have voted to have their scholar articles available to the public for free on the Web according to MIT news.
Articles will be distributed via DSpace, the open-source software platform developed by the MIT Libraries and Hewlett Packard.
The new policy improves their open sharing resources, which also includes MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) project.
The project was launched in 2002 aiming at making all MIT course materials available, free of charge, to anyone on the web.
Open Educational Resources
Imagine people sitting at home with a laptop connected to the Web browsing art masterpieces for free, or attending web-lectures without charge. That is the movement broadly known as Open Education Resources.
Open Education Resources (OER) freely provide teaching and learning materials online for everyone to use, including textbooks, full courses, course materials, modules, journals, streaming videos, tests and software.
OER in China
Open Education Resources was first adopted at UNESCO's 2002 Forum in Paris. Now it is well known for its most influential part, the Opens Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Lucifer Chu, known for translating J.R.R. Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" in Chinese, is the founder of OOPS (Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System), a project that translates English open courseware from top universities into both simplified and traditional Chinese, so that all Chinese people can have access to it.
The Wall Street Journal reported that OOPS "could be a model for developing countries without a big budget for localizing courseware." Mr Chu also said “Money is not what I'm worried about. I need more volunteers to do the work, and more users to witness our efforts."
The Website now receives 100,000 to 120,000 visits a month.
‘Pop Stars’ in teaching art
Some lectures or professors who had posted lecture online have boosted their class attendance and won fame among students around the world.
The “pop star “ in the art teaching area listed the ranking system of OEDB (Online Education Database) are various.
There is Art, Metaphor, and Life where Sauk Valley Community College offers lectures, notes, and links with representative examples of the Arts of the Western European tradition.
Professor Linda Neagley presents an introduction to the history of Western art through a survey of painting, sculpture, architecture and minor arts from prehistoric through the medieval periods at Art History in Rice University.
Philosophy of the Arts is offered by Minnesota State University Moorhead, examines the main theories of what art is, what artists are, and whether art and artistic creativity are human universals.
MIT OpenCourseWare project offers Twentieth Century Art by Professor Caroline Jones. The lecture notes provide vast materials to learn and study the last century's artistic styles since WWII.
Wikipedia: from Satan to syllabus
Twitter goes to primary school
Papyrus, camera & Education 2.0
Plugged in: enroll me to Second Life
Web 3.0: replacement or evolution?
Video journalism in post-Watergate era
Twitter goes to primary school
Papyrus, Camera and Education 2.0
Wikipedia: from Satan to Syllabus