OU offers free learning materials
,----[ Quote ]
| The OU says it is the first British higher education
| institution to make its educational resources freely
| available online on this scale, although there are
| other similar "open courseware" projects, notably
| in the US and Japan.
|
| The content has been created using XML rather than
| HTML, which it is hoped will "future proof" it to an
| extent by making it adaptable for emerging technologies.
|
| [...]
|
| "Open content provides the opportunity for access to
| high-quality learning materials which would not
| otherwise be available and affordable to many groups
| within both the developed and developing worlds."
|
| [...]
|
| "The philosophy of open access and sharing knowledge -
| a cornerstone of this project - matches the founding
| principles of the Open University."
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6071230.stm
These trends were mentioned previously (albeit
in other contexts). Many respectiable universities
head in that very same direction. A move as such
is symbiotic with Open Source software and Linux,
which rely on Open standards as opposed to data
exchanges that are based on binary-rich, proprietary
technologies, along with their associated lockins
(vendor dependence).
|
|
