Organize
and staff OpenCourseWare according to the scope of the effort. Most
functions may already exist at your institution – leverage them when
possible. How you organize will be institution-specific.
Make the organization "faculty-centric." A key success factor is to make it easy and worthwhile for faculty to participate.
Staffing
for the various OpenCourseWare functions will depend on the scope of
the OpenCourseWare effort and the availability of services on campus.
In some environments, more than one function might be combined into a
single position. For a large implementation, multiple staff might be
needed for just one function. Institutions may choose to outsource some
functions. The principal functions involved in running an
OpenCourseWare are listed below.
Executive leadership and overall program management.
Manage relationships with sponsors, funding organizations, other
internal and external stakeholder groups, strategic direction and goal
setting, overall organization, and program leadership and management.
Faculty relationship management. Enlisting new faculty and managing ongoing relationships with faculty who are providing content to OpenCourseWare.
Content production and publication. Plan, build, publish, and support maintenance of the courses.
Intellectual property and licensing. Define intellectual property (IP) and end-user licensing strategy and processes, evaluate content for IP issues.
Information Technology. Design, build and operate all technical infrastructure and resources required to meet the program goals.
Communications and outreach.
Create awareness among target audiences and other user groups.
Undertake press and other internal and external communication-related
activities.
Evaluation and Assessment. Measure and evaluate program performance against goals and external benchmarks.
Finding a global audience
Professor Charles Stewart III, MIT Department of Political Science
Professor Charles Stewart III, head of the Department of Political
Science in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, is a
specialist in the fields of American politics and behavior, political
institutions, and research methodology. Stewart, who has long been a
proponent both of using technology as a teaching aid, and also of free
and open access to ideas, was an early fan of the OpenCourseWare (OCW)
concept. And now that the concept has become a reality, he has become a
strong advocate for the site. More...