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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: June 2005

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users

and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare

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The June 2005 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:

1. Technology-Enabled Active Learning in Physics

2. A Frequently Asked Question

3. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW

4. Utah State University OCW

5. Japan OCW Alliance

6. Comments

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

1. Technology-Enabled Active Learning in Physics

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One of the unique aspects of MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW), is that in several academic areas, we offer multiple course sites for the same topic in cases where there are different pedagogical models being taught by different members of the MIT faculty.

A good example of this can be seen in the MIT Department of Physics. All MIT undergraduates must take Physics II (Electricity and Magnetism), however, MIT offers several versions of Physics II, and this is reflected on the MIT OCW web site. In Spring 2005, MIT OCW published Course 8.02T -- Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2005, a freshman-level course that is the second semester of introductory physics. The subject is taught using the TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) format which utilizes small group interaction and current technology. The TEAL/Studio Project is a new approach to physics education designed to help students develop much better intuition about, and conceptual models of, physical phenomena.

Developed by a team of faculty led by MIT Professor John Belcher, TEAL features table-top experiments utilizing laptop computers for data acquisition and problem-solving workshops. Read the TEAL Syllabus for information about the course learning objectives, and how the course is organized.

The Visualizations section offers multimedia tools that demonstrate various physical phenomena, including Vector Fields, Electrostatics, Magnetostatics, Faraday's Law, and Light. These visualizations are freely available for download by faculty utilizing MIT OCW to develop their own introductory physics courses.

In the Lecture Notes section, there is a full set of course notes written by Belcher and his colleagues,Dr. Sen-Ben Liao and Dr. Peter Dourmashkin. The TEAL classroom includes the opportunity for students to use the Personal Response System (PRS). Questions are posed to the class to stimulate discussion and indicate how concepts are going over. Students "vote" on answers electronically and their answers are tallied. These PRS are available on the MIT OCW course site.

The TEAL version of this course offers a variety of other teaching and learning tools, including a Course Calendar, Readings, Labs, Assignments, and a Discussion Group, where users can discuss with each other the materials presented in this course.

MIT OCW presents another version of this topic taught by MIT Professor Walter Lewin, Course 8.02 -- Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002, which includes 36 videotaped lectures. Professor Lewin, who is internationally known for his dynamic and engaging lecture style, offers a wealth of content, including Lecture Notes, Problem Sets with solutions, Exams with solutions, links to Related Resources, a separate Discussion Group, and a complete set of Video Lectures, recorded on the MIT campus during Spring 2002.

MIT OCW is pleased to offer users access to both of these courses, and the different pedagogical models they present.

2. A Frequently Asked Question

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QUESTION: If MIT OCW will always be free and open, why is the Web site now asking users for financial donations?

ANSWER: MIT OCW will always be a free and open digital publication. Thanks to the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, MIT OCW has published 1100 courses through Spring 2005. In offering free and open access to these courses, MIT is giving its educational materials to the world, but maintaining these courses, and evolving MIT OCW to meet the needs of our diverse user audience, has its costs. Going forward, $50, $100, or $500 donations from our users will enable us to continue to offer a high-quality publication of MIT's course materials.

Giving to MIT OCW is easy. The Giving to MIT Web site is a safe and secure way to financially support MIT OCW:

You can also mail your gift in the form of a personal check to MIT OCW. Make your check payable to "MIT" and enclose a note indicating that the contribution is for the MIT OpenCourseWare Fund #4021100. Send your donation to:

3. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW

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The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) in Baltimore, MD, is world-renowned as a leading international authority on public health. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Opencourseware project provides access to the school's most popular courses.

4. 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. USU Opencourseware supports USU's institutional mission to serve the public through learning, discovery, and engagement.

5. Japan OCW Alliance

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The top six universities in Japan -- Keio University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo, and Waseda University -- have announced the formation of the Japan OCW Alliance. These six universities now offer open access to close to 100 courses, in both English and Japanese.

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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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