Carnegie Mellon (apparently sponsored by HP) has created an interesting twist on the MIT “open courseware” (OCW) model. I find the Open Learning Initiative to be interesting for several reasons:
- They are giving away not just content but also pedagogical models, which include “cognitive tutors,” “virtual laboratories,” group experiments, and simulations.
- They have focused on traditionally lab-oriented engineering courses.
- They seem to have a very active dissemination plan to enlist other schools to teach the content and contribute back modifications. This is critical; opening up the content by itself often isn’t enough to drive adoption.
Details are scant on the web site, though. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.