Tom Caswell

Listen. Share. Learn.

Category: Open Course Library

  • Going Open: Lessons Learned from the Open Course Library

    Scott Dennis and I presented at NorthWest eLearn in Vancouver, WA last Thursday and Friday. As usual, I threw my slides on SlideShare before the presentation. On Sunday I got an email telling me my prezi was “hot” on SlideShare. 5300 views later I am wishing I spent a little more time on those slides, but glad so many people have been exposed to the great work being done by the faculty of the Washington State colleges. The first 42 shareable courses of Open Course Library will be available on October 31, 2011. These course materials have already saved WA students hundreds of thousands of dollars. And we’re just getting started. Can’t wait to share it at the 2011 Open Education conference next week.

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  • Where are your courses, Mr. Most Accessible?

    People's Choice Award for Most Accessible OCWIt may seem strangely ironic that a project like the Open Course Library received the People’s Choice award for “most accessible” since our finished product is not yet available. (If it’s so accessible, where is it??)

    Let me explain. Accessibility and universal design principles have been a priority from the first day of this project. We are also working to share our project design and progress using social media and a wiki that describes our process.

    So over the next couple months as some people may be tempted to ask, “Where are your courses, Mr. Most Accessible OCW Winner?” I’ll just tell them about how we are adding captioning to several hundred YouTube videos, trying to make our open courses a little bit more accessible. I can’t wait for our official launch at the end of October. It’s going to be great!