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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: July 2004

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users

and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare

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The July 2004 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:

1. New Courses Now Available

2. Digging Deeper: Course

3. A Frequently Asked Question

4. Comments

5. Newsletter Available Online at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/newsletter.htm

1. New Courses Now Available

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Over the course of the summer, MIT OpenCourseWare will employ a "rolling" publication schedule, releasing batches of new courses to the Web site at http://ocw.mit.edu on a weekly basis, leading to the publication of 200 new courses by September 15. This milestone will mark the halfway point as MIT OCW works toward the publication of virtually all of MIT's courses by the year 2008. This month, we are pleased to offer the course materials from seven new MIT subjects, including:

 

MIT OCW will continue to publish new courses every week through September 15. For a complete list of all course offerings, visit the complete course list. Look for notice of new courses in subsequent issues of "The MIT OpenCourseWare Update" email newsletter.

2. Digging Deeper: Course 21W.785

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Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth guide to one particular subject. This month, we delve into Professor Edward Barrett's "Course 21W.785 -- Communicating in Cyberspace, Fall 2003," from MIT's Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies.

The Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies offers MIT students the opportunity to learn the techniques, forms, and traditions of several kinds of writing, from basic expository prose to more advanced forms of non-fictional prose, fiction and poetry, science writing, scientific and technical communication, and digital media. The Program's faculty consists of novelists, essayists, poets, translators, biographers, historians, engineers, and scientists -- including Professor Barrett, the general editor of the MIT Press Series on Digital Communication and director of the MIT Undergraduate Technical Writing Cooperative.

Professor Barrett's course covers the analysis, design, implementation and testing of various forms of digital communication based on group collaboration. Students are encouraged to think about the Web and other new digital interactive media not just in terms of technology, but also broader issues such as language (verbal and visual), design, information architecture, communication and community. Students work in small groups on a semester-long project of their choice.

The course includes a Related Resources section with examples of excellent and poor Web design. This section also offers links to useful technologies for student projects, including Apache, Flash, Java and JavaScript, MySQL, and TomCat.

And users are encouraged to check out the rich collection of Readings, several of which are freely downloadable, including "Designing the User Experience" and "Websites as Metaphors," by Deborah A. Levinson.

3. A Frequently Asked Question

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QUESTION: Can I link to MIT OCW from my Web site?

ANSWER: Links to MIT OCW or to courses or pages within the MIT OCW Web site are permitted so long as the use of the materials associated with the link is permitted under the terms of the MIT OCW Creative Commons license; the link is freely accessible (e.g., no restrictions or fee for access); and there is no claim, appearance, or implication of an affiliation with or endorsement by MIT. MIT OCW cannot guarantee the persistence of any specific link other than those to the MIT OCW homepage.

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MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is a large-scale, Web-based publishing initiative with the goal of providing free, searchable access to MIT course materials for educators, students, and individual learners around the world. These materials are offered in a single, searchable structure spanning all of MIT's academic disciplines, and include uniform metadata about the contents of the individual subject sites.

"The MIT OpenCourseWare Update" welcomes your feedback and suggestions about this newsletter and the MIT OCW Web site. Please send your feedback to Jon Paul Potts, MIT OCW Communications Manager, at jpotts@mit.edu.

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