18 November 2006 //
Tufts OCW Quarterly Newsletter
November 2006, Vol. 1, Issue 3

Tufts OpenCourseWare is part of a new educational movement where course content is accessible for free to everyone online.  Tufts University's initial offerings demonstrate its strength in the life sciences, as well as a multidisciplinary approach, an international perspective, and an underlying ethic of service to our local, national and international communities.  Tufts OCW is a publication of Tufts course materials.  It does not require any registration, does not offer academic credit and, in most cases, does not provide access to Tufts faculty.

Fall Updates:

We are always looking for news Tufts courses to publish. If you are a Tufts faculty member, we would be happy to provide you with a faculty information packet. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to start the process.

New Courses:
Four new courses were launched in the September 2006 release:

Promoting Positive Development Among Youth - School of Arts and Sciences
http://ocw.tufts.edu/course/31/CourseHome.

Students will learn about Applied Developmental Science (ADS) and to use research about human development to inform programs and policies pertinent to topics of social importance.

Agricultural Science and Policy I - Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
http://ocw.tufts.edu/course/32/CourseHome.

This course highlights the relevance of natural resource conservation for ensuring healthy agricultural, food and environmental systems, as well as the various approaches for implementing it. This course, the first of two semesters, focuses on soils, water, air and energy. The second semester delves into plant nutrients, plant-pest interaction, crop breeding, and livestock production.

Human Growth and Development - School of Medicine
http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/35/CourseHome.

Students will learn that there are diseases, conditions and disabilities that relate directly to the disruption of the development of physical or mental processes, that learning about Growth and Development also provides a framework for understanding in greater depth who a patient is as a person, and will gain knowledge of the normal "landscape" that can guide our exploration in clinical encounters. The subject matter will be studied by following various developmental "tracks" longitudinally from birth to
death and by studying the individual at various cross-sectional stages/ages of life.

Introduction to Modern Physics - School of Arts and Sciences
http://ocw.tufts.edu/course/36/Coursehome.

The course covers principles and concepts of Special and General Relativity; origins of Quantum Mechanics; quantum structure of atoms, molecules, solids; applications to lasers and microelectronics; nuclear and particle physics; and cosmology.

Website Traffic:

Traffic to the OCW website increased substantially in the third quarter 2006, with usage increasing by 45.5% between between Q2 2006 (66,782 visits) and Q3 2006 (97,210 visits). After 16 months live (6/21/05 - 10/21/06), we have received 343,592 visits, with an average of 775 visits per weekday and 1,066 visits per weekend. The most traffic comes from these countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Philippines.

OCW At EDUCAUSE:

At the October 2006 EDUCAUSE annual meeting, Susan Albright, TUSK director, participated in a
panel discussion given by members of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. The OpenCourseWare
Consortium is a global collaboration of more than 100 higher education institutions and organizations
working together to create a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.
Susan's message to the nearly 100 panel attendees was to foster sustainability by embedding OCW
processes into the business practices of the university. Other attendees included Terry Bays from
Notre Dame who spoke about the benefits of using graduate students to upload courses, and
David Wiley, the Director of the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning at Utah State University,
who spoke about Educommons. The panel was moderated by Cecilia d'Oliviera, the technical director for MIT's OCW.

OCW International Consortium News:

Five representatives from Tufts attended the Fall 2006 OCW Consortium Meeting in Logan, Utah, on September 26-29. The Tufts OCW evaluation team, consisting of Dr. Dawn Geronimo Terkla and Lisa S. O'Leary, gave a presentation entitled "Tufts OCW: The Users' Perspective" at the conference, which highlighted the emerging results of the evaluation undertaken to assess the impact of the OCW intitiative on its external stakeholders - faculty, students and self-learners. Preliminary findings suggest that over
90% of users have been able to accomplish their objectives: 1) downloading materials to incorporate readings and references into their courses (2) using the materials to create their own self-directed courses of study and increase their own knowledge, and 3) easily obtaining materials outside of their specialties. The presentation is available at http://www.tufts.edu/ir/reportsPresentations.html.. Podcasts and photos from the meeting are available at http://cosl.usu.edu/http://www.ocwconsortium.org/conferences/opened2006/program.

The OCW Consortium Portal is now available at http://ocwconsortium.org. You can see Tufts' representation as well as that of the numerous other member institutions, with profiles of each (if available).  The site includes a basic cross-site search to find materials on any subject offered by member institution sites, and information for other institutions or organizations who may be interested in sharing their content or supporting the movement.  The site also includes news from around the consortium.  Tufts is contributing to the consortium in three areas:  sustainability, reach and impact, and growing more OCWs.

Notice to all Tufts Faculty:

OCW is continually looking for new courses to add to the site.  If you would like to participate, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Support OCW:

If you would like to support Tufts in this exciting educational initiative, please click here to give to Tufts OCW now https://www.alumniconnections.com/donate/tufts/. When you reach Step 2 "About Your Gift", skip down to the "Other" field and enter "OpenCourseWare Fund" before entering the amount of your gift.  Or you may call 800-737-7035 from anywhere in North America or 617-627-2643 from anywhere outside North America to make a gift via credit card.  You may mail a donation (check payable to "Trustees of Tufts College") to:

Tufts University
P.O. Box 3306
Boston, MA 02241-3306

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