This post is not about programming, so I hope all of you non-programmers won’t give up on it after reading the first paragraph or two.
Last week I blogged about my Open Source project, xajax. As open source projects like Linux, the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the OpenOffice.org Office Suite have gained more prominence, the idea of freely available information and tools has been slowly creeping into other parts of our society.
Blogs are an interesting and seemingly successful part of the movement toward “openness.” The Wikipedia is another interesting development. Both are somewhat controversial.
I want to draw your attention to another developing part of the movement that you may not be aware of yet: OpenCourseWare.
In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced its OpenCourseWare initiative in which it intends make the course materials that are used in teaching almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects at MIT available on the Web, free of charge, to anyone, anywhere in the world.
The project now has the materials from over 900 classes available. Most of them include lecture notes, tests, and homework problems–often including the solutions. Some courses also include interactive demonstrations, streaming video lectures, or even complete textbooks written by MIT professors. The project aims to have all of the course materials at MIT freely available online by the end of 2007.
Since its inception, other universities have joined the OpenCourseWare initiative including Johns Hopkins, Utah State University, Foothill-De Anza Community College, University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Tufts.
This is an exciting development. While you will not receive university credit for studying any of these materials, the information is open to anyone with access to the Internet who wants to learn.
LDS Member and USU professor, David Wiley, has been working with MIT to develop open source software to provide what he calls “Open Learning Support” to compliment the open courses. The idea is that if you provide the right kind of interaction tools, groups of people interested in the same subjects will self organize and help each other learn as kind of decentralized classes. Brother Wiley maintains the OpenContent.org to promote the OpenCourseWare concept and he has also recently created an online resource for searching for Open Courses from various universities. You can check out Brother Wiley’s blog.
It will be interesting to see if BYU eventually joins the initiative. BYU already offers some excellent free, web-based courses, but I haven’t yet seen an indication that it will release all of its class materials as OpenCourseWare.
The establishment of the wonderful Perpetual Education Fund demonstrates the Lord’s interest in educating the saints world wide. It is a wonderful program that makes me very excited about the future. I have reason to believe that the PEF is just a step in a long term plan to educate the saints.
I expect that, in the not so distant future, the Church will begin to extend a university level education, through BYU, to its members in all nations through the use of missionaries and Internet based classes. Someday we may very well see stake centers throughout the world become hubs in a vast, interconnected education system. Just as they can now do genealogical research, faithful latter-day saints of all means will be able to attend classes and attend lectures and lessons by professors and experts in all kinds of fields through web-enabled learning centers in stake centers everywhere, directed and helped locally by “education” missionaries.
While some cynics mock BYU’s church slant, it is the fact that BYU is inextricably intertwined with the Church that makes this kind of vast program even conceivable. We already have the facilities and a great deal of infrastructure to build upon. Could any other university even attempt such a program?
I am sure that creating such a system will require developing new approaches to education. It is good to see people like brother Wiley develop new concepts of education. It is an opportunity for those involved to seek revelation from the Lord and bless the the saints and the entire world.
Jon, I think this is a good development, but don’t believe it will be revolutionary. Should someone want a do-it-yourself education, textbooks and other materials have been free and accessible at libraries for generations. My guess is that the real benefit will be for people who already have a good education, as textbooks and books for advanced courses are currently harder to find at libraries and used-book stores than are materials for introductory level courses. It also seems more likely to me that it will be college graduates — rather than those who never attended college — who would be willing and able to benefit from a course syllabus and materials.
Max, very interesting post, although you almost lost me at the beginning. Opensource, Linux, Firefox, MIT….snoozzzzzzzzz. But then you got me interested again. I once tried to take an on-line graduate course, and I lasted about a week. Something about not sitting in a classroom with a professor just didn’t do it for me. But how about CIS instructors offering BYU classes worldwide to Church members with the help of the internet? Wow, that is truly revolutionary. Can you imagine the potential of Institute helping people get their college degrees from BYU for, say, Sao Paulo or Johannesburg? Incredible.
Maybe there would be a kind of permanent Institute program in the Church where adults could take all kinds of classes — not only religious classes. That would be something. And perhaps it would be a great missionary opportunity. Is your kid having trouble with trigonometry? You and him can go take the class together for free on Wednesday nights at such-and-such chapel. That could be interesting.
Widespread open free creditless education might have the potential to turn into widespread open inexpensive credited education. The option of a fee for credit could help to support the system. Or maybe I’m being too cautious. Maybe people would even offer the credited educational help for free.
I’ve always been amazed with the WordPress support community because they offered me so much help with my blog AT NO COST. That just blew me away with their cheerfulness and willingness to help. One regular there named Podz, who lives in London or England somewhere, literally spent many many hours helping me put everthing together and make code adjustments. We are still friendly with one another and we chat or email occasionally (every few weeks or so). And he wasn’t the only one out there.
I am sure that there are people like Podz out there who would help a person with math, reading, writing or whatever and would do so for free. I think open-source education has some real and perhaps unimagined-as-of-yet possibilities. For some people, open-source development is almost a religion. It’s fun to be a part of something bigger than yourself.
I think we’re probably uniquely well-suited to this sort of project, given the Church’s strong stand on education and self-improvement. To be fair, though, we already have lots of lectures and free classes available: Young Women weekly activities, youth and YSA firesides, Home and Family and Whatever It Is Enrichment meetings, etc.
OpenCourseWare rocks, by the way. It’s especially good if you’re preparing for upper level courses and it’s been a long time since you took the foundational stuff. I’m already looking at logic course materials, as part of my LSAT prep work.
I am a massive enthusiast on the idea of open education, and open information in general. However, I believe that the church will not introduce huge secular educational resources in its Stake Centres where those resources are already available in the community at large. For the same reason, we do not see huge libraries in our chapels at present – in fact, many church libraries are being downsized to only contain official church materials.
In countries where education is not freely available, then perhaps this will be pursued, but I believe the church is careful to not enter into secular training and education where it would overlap current resources in the community that are similarly equipped. We’re much better at teaching Sunday School in England than English Literature. And thats okay.
I had no idea OCW existed. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.
I am a graduate of the USU program … but unfortunately missed David Wiley by a year … I was there too soon I guess.
As far as the quality/boredom factor of internet classes, There’s many a professor that can put you to sleep at a distance as well as with you in their classroom … I’m sure we’ve all had that experience in one or the other. It comes down to good design and an engaging instructor/material.
The open courseware is a fantastic resource … the drawback being that it is missing mentorship and interaction. Well, I guess there is human to computer interaction in some cases, but not really person to person/group interaction. That is what keeps students engaged. Assessment and feedback are very nice too.
Since the church teaches self-reliance and preparedness and encourages using existing infrastructure in many of those cases (e.g. can your food storage/family/community/local unemployment office help you out before we tap the Fast Offerings & the storehouse), I doubt the church would ramp up an infrastructure to the level mentioned. Although … I could see an unemployment specialist pointing someone to OCW or some similar resource in terms of helping them get somewhere with limited funds. Maybe they would eventually have a kiosk or two available to assist those without access to get access to online programs (much the way that those without food can get an order for the storehouse).
Certainly is an interesting thought though …
Hey, all! It’s awesome to see excitement in the LDS community around OCW! I hope that people will see the USU OCW at http://ocw.usu.edu/ Also, folks will be interested to know that we’re currently working with Weber St, UVSC, and the U of U on their OCW sites (not public yet). Your hunch that BYU will keep making their courses freely available but not “open source” them is probably right, but we are also working with BYU-H on an OCW for them and mnay other schools in other states and other countries.
We’re having a conference on this very topic in September that will be attended by folks from MIT OCW, UNESCO, and all the other big players in open education. If you’re in driving distance, I’d strongly encourage you to come up! More info online at http://cosl.usu.edu/conference/ We’ll be publicly announcing some of the new OCWs then.
If you’d like to talk about this – or anything else – more, I would love to! Drop me a line at david[dot]wiley[at]usu[dot]edu
DEAR ELDER AND SISTER HANSEN
I’M SIZWE HLEKISO FROM ILINGE BRANCH I’V BEEN TRYING TO APPLY FOR THE PEF BUT IT’S DIFFICULT TO GET IT.
I MEET ALL THE REQUIREMENTS I ATTEND INSTITUTE, I ATTENDED CARREER WORKSHOPS SEVERAL TIMES, I HAVE CALLINGS IN THE CHURRCH BUT I DON’T SAY MAYBE IT’S A REQUIREMENT TO GET A PEF. I NEED TO DO AN INTERNATIONAL TRADE AT INTEC COLLEGE A ONE YEAR COURSE.
AS SOON AS I GET A JOB I WILL RETURN A LOAN WITH PLEASURE.
DURING MY STUDIES I WILL CONTRIBUTE R50,OO EACH AND EVERY MONTH. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IS IN DEMAND IN SOUTH AFRICA.
YOURS IN FAITH,
SIZWE
PHONE NO.078 5030 466