Carter, D. (2009) Program goes beyond open course model eSchool News, September 16
Parry, M. (2009) Obama’s Great Course Giveaway Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3
These two articles discuss Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative, which takes open educational resources to the next level. Carnegie Mellon is making available to other institutions (mainly community colleges) specially designed software-enhanced online courses that track students’ progress and provide them with feedback on problems. If the courses are used in combination with instructors, the courses can feed information to professors about where students are struggling. The courses are team-designed by community-college faculty experts, scientists who study how people learn, human-computer-interaction specialists, and software engineers, using open access online course materials.
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
[…] student activities, and guides for instructors. There is one exception to this statement and that is Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, which I welcome, but which I fear is too much in the other direction of whole packaged […]