Open Ed Maturing at MIT: OpenCourseWare and 15 and MITx at 3. The More It Stays the Same, The More It Changes

MIT Open Education

OCW & MITx

OpenCourseWare(sharing)• 15 Years old• Comprehensive publication of openly-

licensed materials from the entire MIT curriculum, both undergraduate and graduate

• 2340 course sites, 50 Supplemental Resources, 990 courses archived in D-Space

• Not online courses—no registration, no certificates

• Distributed thru 350 mirror sites around the world, other channels (YouTube, iTunes, Internet Archive)

• Voluntary faculty participation (~65%)• Mature publishing organization minimizes

demands on faculty• Global movement (~280 universities in

OCWC)

MITx(teaching)• 3 years old • Online courses for learners worldwide with

assessment & certificates• Online materials available for on-campus

courses• Interactive exercises, auto-graded problems

& exams, online labs, progress data• Team supports faculty-led development

projects• Internal platform for use by MIT residential

courses• Research and experimentation on the

science of learning• Grant process to fund faculty led course

teams

2001 OCW announced"OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive in

a market driven world. It goes against the

grain of current material values. But it

really is consistent with what I believe is

the best about MIT. It is innovative. It expresses our belief in the way education

can be advanced – by constantly

widening access to information and by inspiring others to participate," said MIT President Vest.

By user:AngMoKio (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

On a Steady Course2001Official OCW site launched

2004OCW adopts CC license

2007”virtually all” MIT courses are represented on OCW—1,800 courses!

2011OCW Scholar Courses Launched. OCW begins to examine quantity vs quality issue and how to keep the portfolio of courses up-to-date.

Granville Redmond [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

2011 MITx announced

MIT President Hockfield called this

“a transformative initiative for MIT and

for online learning worldwide.”

2012

Red skies at morn…March 2012 6.002x launched March 2012 High hopes for collaboration between OCW and MITx• Shared/joint services, • Common architectures• Shared tools Common

licensing and IP clearanceMay 2012  Harvard/MIT announce edX 

Stig Nygaard

Rough SeasJune 2012Trying to get MITx and OCW better aligned to better serve MIT and the public • Revisiting original ideas • Not so easy to collaborate • Different services:

• OCW publishes what happened on campus.

• MITx creates new learning experiences.

• MITx has much more labor-intensive production and a completely different platform.

• IP policy is different — not to be CC.Shipping in Stormy Seas by Julius Porcellis 1610-1654 Oil on Canvas

Getting it done2012Leveraged much of the OCW team• video training and capture • IP clearance • project management • communications • technical supportInstructors begin working with OCW and MITx simultaneously and in sequence.July 2012edX website launched  

Stig NygaardBy National Maritime Museum from Greenwich, United Kingdom [No restrictions or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Reorganization and BuildingNov 2012  New organization launched: ODL OCW and MITx reporting into ODLDec 2012  Planning for MITx staffing, space, and MITx Fellows program begins — OCW covers needs in the meantime.Jan  2013 Initial MITx hires including some people with OCW experience

Separate WaysMar 2013MITx gets moves to separate location2013OCW Educator Launched — sharing instructor reflections on teaching with the world2013Ramp-up of MITx efforts and team, figuring out working model

Not forgottenFall 2013Ongoing discussions about need for a Residential team focused on digital learning effectiveness at MIT, separate from production-oriented MITx on edX team and very different from OCW.

What?Jan 2014 OCW and MITx have been very separate. • Different buildings • No clear communication as to

who is doing what • Both groups extremely busy

producing course sites and online courses

Coming TogetherMar 2014  MITx and OCW relocate into shared space into 11 Cambridge Center — MITx continues to find its path while revisiting OCW procedures for guidance. MITx donates video resources to OCW.2015 Residential Program Manager hired, residential team built and Instructional Design team formed.

By Easa Shamih (Flickr: Team Work) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Looking to the future2015MITx spends more time on policy and procedure with much guidance from OCW staff.2016 We begin to attempt to get out of the day-to-day tasks and consider the future of MIT Open Education, together.

Buck

Big PictureWe have reached over 203,000,000 people with more than 5000 MIT Participants.Regardless of our struggles that is something to be proud of.

James Cridland

Parallels• Both organizations focused on

volume of production in early phases to prove viability of the project to funders and to have enough experience from which to learn.

• Both organizations reached a point where this emphasis on volume had to be reconsidered in an effort to provide the greatest value to users

Lessons• Obvious areas for collaborations

(especially video and IP) were revealed to be too different for joining forces on a sustained basis

• MITx is still a young organization seeking to find an optimum path in a changing environment.

• OCW must also re-assess its operations in a new landscape of online learning and technological change (mobile, interactivity)