Comments on: USU OpenCourseWare is a Virtual Visitor’s Center

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:31:52 +0000

Thanks for commenting, David, but I don't want to stray too far from the context of my letter, which was directed at a marketing and PR committee. My point is that we have not made a strong enough case to these people. Marketing a university costs money, and the return on this investment is measured in eyeballs, visitors, or hits -- not dollars. An established OpenCourseWare like USU OCW should be a line item because it provides more marketing bang for every buck. Smart organizations like Talis have figured this out and are now using their marketing budgets to fund interesting projects that will enhance their reputation (http://blogs.talis.com/education/incubator/). I realize this is all stuff you know, but I'm just putting it out there for others. There is more I could say about this. Yes, I think I feel another blog post coming on...

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:27:23 +0000

@Marion: I think you meant to say 500,000 visitors a _year_. I still have Google Analytics running for USU OCW, so I am seeing those same numbers. Impressive for an OCW that is not longer adding new content. Imagine if there was funding for new courses!

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:15:34 +0000

Follow up post: http://tomcaswell.com/2010/01/29/usu-opencourse...

By: MarionJensen

MarionJensen — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:56:41 +0000

Great post. Although I've tracked as many as 50,000 unique visitors a month, so the site attracts closer to 500,000 to 500,000 visitors a month.

Well said!

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:31:52 +0000

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:27:23 +0000

By: MarionJensen

MarionJensen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:56:41 +0000

Great post. Although I've tracked as many as 50,000 unique visitors a month, so the site attracts closer to 500,000 to 500,000 visitors a month.

Well said!

By: Justifying OpenCourseWare «

Justifying OpenCourseWare « — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:27:06 +0000

[...] 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment Tom Caswell has a new post on the benefits of OpenCourseWare for Utah State University. From the post: The [...]

By: David Wiley

David Wiley — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:29:18 +0000

I think the problem of the moment is that every person on campus is asking, with regard to their specific program, “how do you justify NOT paying for it?” And yet things are being cut left and right. In a climate where serious conversations are being had about laying off faculty, I worry that you can't argue for a program on any merits other than “in addition to be useful, it brings in additional dollars.” But I'd love to be wrong.