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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: March 2005

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users

and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare

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The March 2005 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:

1. New Courses Published

2. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW

3. Utah State University OCW

4. A Frequently Asked Question

5. Comments

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

1. New Courses Published

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MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is pleased to announce that 175 new courses will be published over the course of the next month, which will push the total number of courses available at http://ocw.mit.edu to almost 1100.

This Spring 2005 publication represents a significant achievement for people across the Institute who worked with the MIT OCW Team over the last six months, including the MIT Libraries, MIT's department heads, and most importantly, MIT's remarkable faculty. Close to two-thirds of MIT's faculty have now voluntarily participated in MIT OCW, and we know that MIT OCW would not be succeeding were it not for the faculty's dedication to MIT's institutional mission and belief in the promise of openly sharing their materials through OpenCourseWare.

We are pleased to call your attention to the following new MIT courses. When looking at the complete MIT OCW Course List, look for the red NEW to indicate courses recently published:

2. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW

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MIT OCW and the "opencourseware" concept is a part of the larger open knowledge movement that promotes free and unrestricted access to the primary teaching materials for courses taught at educational institutions. So it is with great excitement that we are pleased to tell subscribers about the creation of two new OCW projects, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Utah State University.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) in Baltimore, MD, is world-renowned as a leading international authority on public health. Every day, JHSPH works to keep millions around the world safe from illness and injury by pioneering new research, deploying its knowledge and expertise in the field and educating tomorrow's scientists and practitioners in the global defense of human life.

In February, JHSPH opened its pilot OCW project with two courses and has since added two more; six more courses are scheduled for publication in April 2005. As part of its mission to protect health and prevent disease and disability, JHSPH feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public's health and their potential solutions. At the heart of every public health triumph is an individual. JHSPH OCW provides encouragement for the self-learner to seek formal education, complementary materials for the student at JHSPH or another institution, information with which faculty can plan a course curriculum, and continuing education for the public health practitioner.

Visit JHSPH OCW at http://ocw.jhsph.edu to see the courses currently available, Understanding Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Health Care, Spring 2005, Statistical Reasoning I, Fall 2004, Family Planning Policies and Programs, Spring 2005, and Problem Solving for Immunization Programs, Winter 2004.

3. Utah State University OCW

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Utah State University (USU) is one of the nation's premier student-centered land-grant and space-grant universities. Located in scenic Logan City, UT, USU faculty receive national recognition for their teaching and research in publications such as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and USA Today. USU can count four Goldwater Scholars and a Rhodes Scholar among its graduates in recent years.

USU OCW supports USU's institutional mission to serve the public through learning, discovery, and engagement. It is true to USU's guiding principle that academics come first. As USU enters the 21st century, services like OpenCourseWare enable the University to more fully accomplish its land-grant mission.

The USU OCW pilot project opened in February with eight courses from six disciplines. Visit the USU pilot project at http://ocw.usu.edu to discover what courses are available, including Cultural Anthropology, Biochemical Engineering, Irrigation Conveyance and Control Systems, Sprinkle and Trickle Irrigation, Soil-based Hazardous Waste Management, History of Utah, Understanding Online Interaction, and Computer Assisted Language For Non-English Speakers: Spanish.

4. A Frequently Asked Question

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QUESTION: How do I contact a specific member of the MIT Faculty?

ANSWER: MIT OCW is intended as a publication of MIT course materials on the Web, and not as an interactive experience with MIT faculty. It provides the content of, but is not a substitute for, an MIT education. The most fundamental cornerstone of the learning process at MIT is the interaction between faculty and students in the classroom, and among students themselves on campus. MIT OCW does not offer visitors to the Web site the opportunity for direct contact with MIT faculty. Inquiries related to specific course materials will be forwarded to the MIT faculty member associated with that course for their consideration. However, due to the tremendous volume of email inquiries received, it is unlikely he or she will answer all emails.

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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. Our mailing address is MIT OpenCourseWare, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-213, Cambridge, MA 02139.

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