Frequently Asked Faculty Questions About MIT OpenCourseWare
- How do I participate in MIT OpenCourseWare?
- Can I still publish my materials on OCW if I will publish/have published a book containing the same materials?
- How is OCW different from other course publication sites such as Stellar and SloanSpace?
- I want to publish my materials to OCW, but I am very busy. How much of my time will be required?
- How often will my OCW course site be updated?
- Will my students be able to use my OCW course site?
1. How do I participate in MIT OpenCourseWare?
MIT OpenCourseWare will not succeed without the support and contributions of MIT's faculty. Because OCW is a strictly voluntary activity, we minimize the amount of time that is required to plan, build, and publish your course materials on OCW. There are three Publication Managers (PM), assigned to the individual departments that help manage the process for faculty. These PMs act as project managers and coordinators, working with you and your MIT department head to achieve both your individual, and the department's overall, publishing goals. You do not need to have an existing Web site to publish your course on OCW.
2. Can I still publish my materials on OCW if I will publish/have published a book containing the same materials?
When you publish your materials on OCW, you retain copyright ownership of the materials. You are granting MIT a non-exclusive, perpetual right (license) to publish your materials on OCW, and you agree to publish them to our users under the terms of the OCW Creative Commons license. Faculty may continue to use course materials as you see fit: You may publish them in other venues, use the materials in textbooks, and sell or assign any or all of your rights to others. Once you choose to participate in OCW, you may not withdraw the permission that you originally grant to MIT to publish the materials on OCW, even if you decide to use those materials or assign their rights in some other way in the future (except in very rare cases).
If you have previously published a textbook using the educational materials you hope to publish on OCW, publication on OCW really depends on the deal with your textbook publisher. Some faculty negotiate to retain ownership of their materials when they publish books, and some do not. OCW staff can help you check with your publisher about the copyright status of your materials.
3. How is OCW different from other course publication sites such as Stellar and SloanSpace?
Stellar and SloanSpace are learning management systems (LMS). They are designed to assist faculty in the active teaching of their courses using digital technologies. Often, access to the LMS teaching sites of faculty is limited to the class list or a select group of students. And LMS frequently offer dynamic features, such as:
- 24/7 access and just-in-time updates
- Faculty-to-student, and student-to-student interactivity
- Discussion boards, managed forums and group collaborations
- Broadcast announcements and messages
- Homework submission
- Online assignment, tracking and grading of student work
- Course surveys and evaluations
In contrast, OCW is a free and open publication. And while you may use your OCW course sites as a teaching site, OCW is a static publication. It is a snapshot in time of how a particular subject was taught by a particular member of the faculty in a particular semester. OCW has also been "contextualized" for users and — since it is free and open to the world, it faces stricter copyright standards — all issues surrounding Intellectual Property have been resolved. Materials published in a restricted LMS face fewer IP-related restrictions on publication.
4. I want to publish my materials to OCW, but I am very busy. How much of my time will be required?
OCW aims OCW aims to be as low impact on faculty as possible. In most cases, your participation requires as little as one meeting and/or a few emails. We will explain the basics of OCW publication and you will decide which materials you would like to share. Once materials are handed over to us and you have answered any questions about the materials, very little work is required. Your OCW Publication Manager (PM) or Department Liaison (DL) will email you with additional questions, and let you know when your course is built and ready for your review on the staging server.
5. How often will my OCW course site be updated?
OCW now offers free and open access to 1800 courses, spanning all five of MIT's schools and 34 academic disciplines. OCW publishes courses throughout the year, with a large number of courses being published in the months following the Spring and Fall semesters. The pace at which your individual course materials are updated depends on a variety of factors, including how fast research and teaching in your particular discipline is changing, how often the course is taught, how frequently you update and/or change your teaching materials, and how your request for updates fit into OCW's publishing cycles. We assume a cap of 150 major course revisions per year.
6. Will my students be able to use my OCW course site?
Your students are welcome to use your OCW site, as it is a free and open site accessible by anyone. But keep in mind that you will not be able to update the site on a regular basis, as you might update your teaching site on Stellar or SloanSpace. Content is "frozen" once it is published, unless you need to make minor edits through your PM or until you publish an updated version of your course site.
