Thursday, April 27, 2017

Strelitzia: MIT OCW in MITx and WUaS, Licensing, Course Catalog - http://worlduniversityandschool.org - MIT OCW as MITx - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mitx-related-courseware/ - aka "MITx Courses and Related OCW Courseware"


Hi, Cecilia, Enrique, Anant and Larry, 

Thanks very much for your emails re MIT OCW and MITx and licensing. For clarity of communication, I'd like to outline how CC OCW-centric World University and School has engaged the licensing language you suggested thus far. 

As background, CC WUaS is like CC Wikipedia (in 358 languages) with best STEM CC OCW, and is planning to accredit on CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and CC Yale OYC to offer free, CC OCW online university degrees - Bachelor, Ph.D., law, and M.D. as well as I.B. high school diplomas - in all ~200 countries' official and main languages. WUaS is also planning to create WIKI schools for open teaching and learning in all 7,099 living languages; in addition, all of WUaS will be wiki. Most of the current WUaS wiki pages are based on this SUBJECT TEMPLATE - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE - before WUaS moves to a new wiki emerging from CC Wikidata, to which WUaS donated WUaS in October 2015. WUaS plans to move to a new wiki soon and develop in multiple languages, emerging from Wikidata as "backend" with MediaWiki as a "front end" from the current WUaS Wikia wiki. As examples of WUaS wiki subjects, here too is the main "Subjects" wiki page at WUaS - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - with both academic subjects, such as chemistry and biology, computer science and engineering, as well as open-ended subjects such as Watsu - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Watsu_-_water_shiatsu - for example. On the WUaS academic subjects' pages you'll find much MIT OCW in 7 languages and Yale OYC listed, all of which WUaS plans to offer for credit, by adding graduate students learning to become faculty to group video conferencing / Hangouts to teach to the MIT and Yale faculty in video, and to facilitate grading / evaluations, etc.

As you can see here - http://worlduniversityandschool.org - WUaS has listed the MIT licensing language you suggested last spring, Cecilia, right at the top of our front page, and we plan to do so further in all 7 MIT OCW languages +, as our front pages develop, as well as on all our wiki pages, in all languages.  


And in our beginning course catalog, you can see, too - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VRHhXYsk-V9lvSh5onaU2hnEhwoapSN7HyBK1P09LIk/edit?usp=sharing - that WUaS has created our first undergraduate majors, and added links to many CC MIT OCW courses (including links to the non-English CC MIT OCW languages), CC Yale OYC courses, and one free open archived edX / HarvardX / JuryX course taught by Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Charles Nesson, which may be the beginning of our online law schools in all ~200 nation states' official languages. WUaS has a focus on free, open and highest quality OCW and resources, as well as on open wiki teaching/learning and creativity.  

As I mentioned in my email a week ago and also last year, WUaS is also planning to "fork" and create a parallel for-profit organization - with a separate mission, Board and Officers - around these 10 planned revenue streams - http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2016/01/14-planned-wuas-revenue-streams.html - and thinking in terms of academic markets in 200 countries' official and main languages, as well as in 8,044 languages + (per entries in Glottolog). Thanks to your emails last year, and to your email today, WUaS will not violate the MIT OCW non-commercial license re your language last year, Cecilia, that the "sale of books based on MIT OCW courses by WUaS’s planned for-­‐profit side would be a violation of the non-­‐commercial terms of our license. The license does not allow you to commercially profit from the sale of MIT OCW content in any format. See http://ocw.mit.edu/terms/#noncomm". WUaS will very carefully observe this non-commercial aspect of the MIT licensing. As WUaS is able to create CC-licensed law and medicine OpenCourseWare (and in multiple languages), WUaS would likely, however, sell books linked to our law and medical OCW (similarly to the way that CC MIT OCW links Amazon books on its reading lists). 

As I mentioned also last year in our correspondence, on page 2 (which I've attached as a PDF) - 

"CC WUaS will also explore the possibility of fundraising on some portion of the ~ $44,000 per year per student that it costs to go to MIT for tuition, for example, from nation states' and regional governments, depending on the size of the country, and would like to collaborate with MIT OCW in this and share some of what we are able to fundraise as well with MIT OCW" (see page 17 of our correspondence from last year, as well) 

- and WUaS still seeks to fundraise from governments in all ~200 countries based on WUaS wiki pages which have links to CC MIT OCW in 7 languages (and CC Yale OYC) courses on them (thinking now in terms of the $51,400 per student / year tuition at Yale as a possible benchmark). 

For further clarity of communication, I just want to inquire also that such seeking of donations by the non-profit CC OCW-centric World University and School in the form of fundraising would be considered non-commercial by MIT. Is this the case and especially concerning, "It is not okay under the non-commercial restriction of the OCW Creative Commons license to package OCW materials and sell these as books or as courses or to sell access to these materials online to your students"? (Thomas Glenn Martin of LawDroid is currently the registered agent filing the for-profit legal paperwork for the upcoming WUaS Corporation, since the UC Berkeley Law course last year ended).

With these questions and this background and context, I'd like to explore questions of strategic partnering with MIT OCW / MITx, Enrique and Cecilia, with MIT's commitment to openness and re the MITx sublicensing, which I couldn't find just now online when I looked. Here are some questions I have:

1)
Is it / would it be possible please to simply add a MITx / MIT OCW link (for the same/related course/s) to both WUaS's a) course catalog and b) any wiki subject at WUaS which has a MIT OCW / MITx course that is free and open?

2) 
If so, would it be possible please, as WUaS accredits for online free MIT OCW- (and Yale OYC)-centric degrees, to offer such MIT OCW/MITx courses for Bachelor and Ph.D. degrees, including getting the grades, for example, from the MITx classes?

World University and School (as distinct from the upcoming emergent WUaS Corporation - thinking in terms of ~200 nation states and 7,099 living languages on both wings) currently has around $1500 in the bank, and as a startup seeking to offer free universal education with highest quality CC OCW university and high school degrees, and re your suggestion, Cecilia, to reach out to Enrique -  


"As for MITx on edX online courses (MOOCS), if you wish to use these in your curriculum, I suggest you reach out to the Head of Strategic Relationships within the MIT Office of Digital Learning. He can talk to you about your requirements for sublicensing MITx courses for use in your curriculum.  It is important to note that the MITx courses on edX are NOT licensed with a Creative Commons license so reuse by institutions requires a specific license from MIT. He can talk to you about options and pricing" - 

3) what would be requirements for sublicensing MITx, Enrique, given the above? 

4) Would it be possible please to develop a strategic partnership beyond the requirements for sublicensing MITx such that MIT OCW / MITx could benefit from the World University and School's growth vision, as well as from the fundraising approach outlined above?  

WUaS seeks to become the "Harvard" of the Internet and in all ~200 countries' main languages and also to become a major academic employer in all 7,099 languages with both wiki schools and major online universities.

Thank you.

All the best,
Scott

P.S. I'm again also including Dr. Larry Viehland in this email, who is the chair of World University and School's non-profit Board, and an alumnus of MIT.

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Dear Cecilia, 

I'm writing to follow up on my email (below) to you from 8 days ago. I'd like to inquire with you just about MIT OCW and MITx courses, and CC MIT OCW- and (Yale OYC-) centric World University and School, since you are a MIT Dean of Online Digital Learning, with responsibilities for OpenCourseWare (OCW) and MITx on edX, ODL’s two major open education initiatives, and since you were the Executive Director of MIT OCW for many years (https://odl.mit.edu/about/our-team/cecilia-doliveira). 

Since "openness is at the core of MIT’s mission – to advance knowledge and educate students, and to bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges for the betterment of humankind" (http://mailchi.mp/mit/open-spaces-open-sharing-135049?e=6987dfb442), I'm curious how MIT OCW-centric WUaS could further engage this openness in offering MIT OCW courses for university, and high school, degrees - eventually in each of all ~200 countries' official languages. 

MIT OCW in MITx also seems very relevant to WUaS's prospective matriculating students' interests as they study toward online free CC OCW-centric Bachelor degrees, beginning this autumn, since these courses are "a complete online learning experience, with extensive videos, interactive exercises, graded assessments, discussion forums, and optional certificates of completion." Since MIT's mission is openness, would it be possible please for WUaS to begin to offer these 100 MIT OCW courses as MITx - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mitx-related-courseware/ - aka "MITx Courses and Related OCW Courseware" toward degrees, beginning this autumn?

And would it be possible please, also, to seek to accredit upon these, as WUaS proceeds with our plans for accreditation (potentially with WASC senior)? Furthermore, as WUaS seeks also to develop CC OCW for online law and medical schools, (potentially in collaboration with Stanford), WUaS would like to explore doing so partly emerging from MIT OCW - as well as in MITx - again in ~200 countries' official languages. 

To speak of money, WUaS is planning to seek donations from governments in all ~200 countries for free CC OCW WUaS degrees - with Yale's upcoming tuition of $51,400 per student/year as a possible benchmark - and would gladly collaborate with the MIT Office of Online Digital Learning in this as well. 

Thank you, and nice to correspond with you last year, Cecilia.

Sincerely, Scott


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Dear Cecilia and Anant (and Larry),


I'm writing you, with your oversights of CC MIT OCW and MITx, and edX, with some CC World University and School (WUaS) questions, where WUaS is CC MIT OCW-centric (in its 7 languages) and also CC Yale OYC-centric, as well as CC Wikipedia/Wikidata-centric (in its 358 languages). As you may know, CC World University is planning to offer accrediting online free-to-students CC OCW university (bachelor, Ph.D., law and M.D.) and high school (potentially I.B.) degrees - in all ~200 countries' main and official languages.  

Cecilia, since we corresponded last year about some of this (and just this week have generated the Articles of Incorporation to begin WUaS's forking process legally, which are in the process of being filed with the state of California), and Anant, since you've taught "Circuits and Electronics" both as a MIT OCW course and as a MITx course and since you're the president of edX, I'm writing to ask please about WUaS possibly offering MITx courses (from CC MIT OCW) for credit toward degrees.

Recently H Mohammed in Khartoum city, Sudan, north Africa, and WUaS have been corresponding. He's interested in studying biomedical engineering, engineering or EE/CS at MIT OCW-centric WUaS and has shared with us his secondary school transcript. While his first language is Arabic, I think his English may suffice for him to begin taking MIT OCW and Yale OYC courses in English for credit. 

WUaS has long planned to offer courses for credit from CC MIT OCW and CC Yale OYC, with graduate students in group video, teaching to the the MIT and Yale faculty. WUaS seeks to facilitate online opportunities for graduate students becoming faculty to teach, potentially in all 7,099 living languages; WUaS is also planning wiki schools for open teaching and learning in all languages. 

But as I think about this further, MIT OCW in MITx in edX seems very relevant to Hashim's interests from the Sudan, since he said he doesn't have the internet bandwidth yet for group video, yet can receive some video in email, he wrote. 

In searching further about this, I found MIT OCW as MITx - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mitx-related-courseware/ - aka "MITx Courses and Related OCW Courseware." I then looked up "biomedical engineering" in edX on a smartphone and 4 courses came up, "medical engineering" and 5 courses came up, "engineering" and 220 courses came up, and "computer science" and 292 courses came up. 

So I'm writing to ask if World University and School could please explore collaboration with MITx in edX? And in such a collaboration, could WUaS please begin to offer some of these edX courses with MIT OCW courses for degrees, as WUaS proceeds with plans for accreditation (potentially with WASC senior), and as WUaS seeks also to develop CC OCW for online law and medical schools, (potentially with Stanford)? WUaS is planning to seek donations from governments in all ~200 countries for free CC OCW WUaS degrees - with Yale's upcoming tuition of $51,400 per year/student as a possible benchmark - and would gladly collaborate with the MIT Office of Digital Learning and edX around this as well. 

Thank you, and nice to correspond with you last year, Cecilia.

Sincerely, Scott





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