Home > News > March 2006 > 13-Mar-2006

OU to provide free learning materials online

The Open University has announced a GBP £5.65 million (US $9.9 million) project to make a selection of its learning materials available free of charge to educators and learners around the world.

Business and management materials will be among the resources available when the online service is launched in October 2006. The project is supported by a grant of US $4.45 million from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

During the initial phase of this initiative, the University will select and make available educational resources from all study levels from access to postgraduate and from a full range of subject themes: arts and history, business and management, health and lifestyle, languages, science and nature, society and technology. Learners will also be able to benefit from a range of study skills development material.

The Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, Professor Brenda Gourley, said "The philosophy of open access and sharing knowledge is a wonderful fit with the founding principles of The Open University and with the University's very strong commitment to opening up educational access and widening participation.

"The University will be developing forms of open content e-learning which will reach less experienced learners and, we hope, encourage an appetite for further learning. The Open University will be the first in the UK to offer Open Content materials under a Creative Commons licence. We are deeply grateful to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for its generous support."

Marshall S. Smith, the Hewlett Foundation's Education Program Director, said: "Over the past five years the Hewlett Foundation has been a leading investor in the area of Open Educational Resources with the goal of equalising access to knowledge across the globe.

"The Open University of the UK is unsurpassed in the area of digitised academic material. We are delighted to support the Open University's initiative to make some of its high quality academic content openly available to everyone around the world."

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