Dear Faculty:
I hope you had a great semester for the fall of 2008. Now that the semester is close to ending, I invite you to contribute your course materials onto UMass Boston’s Open Courseware located at http://ocw.umb.edu.
Open Courseware is a great resource for students and outsiders to gain an overview about the university’s courses, faculty to learn from each other’s courses, and alumni to discover how the university’s courses have changed over time.
Some of the benefits of publishing your course materials to OCW include:
• Students can use OCW to make more informed decisions about programs and courses.
• Prospective UMB students are more likely to find out about your course and can register early.
• Students who use OCW may perform better in their classes and are less likely to transfer or withdraw.
• OCW showcases UMB’s curriculum, strengths, reputation, and promotes international engagement.
When you publish your course materials to UMB’s Open Courseware website, you opt to share your materials under the Creative Commons share-alike license, which means you retain your copyright to your materials but invite them to be shared and reused with the public as long as you are cited as the copyright holder.
Other universities that have joined the Open Courseware movement include Utah State University and MIT, with hundreds of courses already published. Currently at only twenty-three UMass Boston courses published, we need your help to expand the OCW movement.
You may contribute as little as your syllabus or as much as your lecture notes. You decide what materials the public can view. Start by completing the participation form available and the process starts right away. Once your participation form is received, your files will be uploaded onto UMB’s OCW website. After your course is ready, you will be able to review the materials for any final changes and your course will be published with your approval.
To start the process, fill out this participation form and return it electronically to ocw@umb.edu or via interoffice mail to Eileen McMahon (IT/Ed Tech, Healey Library, LL). If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to e-mail us at ocw@umb.edu. Please consider joining the Open Courseware movement at UMass Boston; your participation will be appreciated and have its own benefits!
Sincerely,
UMass Boston Open Courseware