OCW Consortium Announces Winners of Awards for OpenCourseWare Excellence In Coursware Categories

May 12, 2011 - PRLog -- CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (May 6, 2011) -- The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) recently announced the inaugural winners of the Awards for OpenCourseWare Excellence (ACE) in the Courseware category at the 2011 global conference in Cambridge, Mass. on May 5. The awards category recognized outstanding course materials in “video and multimedia” and “text and illustrations.”

“The courses that achieved the ACE Awards this year are representative of some of the best work being done in the opencourseware (OCW) global community,” said Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of OCW Consortium. “They embody the commitment to open sharing that has allowed the movement to rapidly grow, and we are excited to recognize these higher education leaders for their accomplishments.”

The OCW courses selected for the 2011 ACE CourseWare category include:
Video and Multimedia
•   Metabolaspel, taught by Dr. Johan van Rhijn at the Open Universiteit (Netherlands)
•   Introduction to Pitch Systems in Tonal Music, taught by John Crooks at U.C. Irvine (United States)
•   Chemistry Lab, taught by Nergis Gurel at Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
•   Estructuras Matemáticas para la Informática – II, taught by Cristina Jordan at Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain)
•   Actividad Fisica para la Salud, taught by Pedro A. López-Miñarro at the University of Murcia (Spain)
Texts and Illustrations
•   Occupation Focused Conceptual Frameworks, taught by Matumo Ramafikeng at the University of Cape Town (South Africa)
•   Applied Multimedia Technology, taught by Chris Clark at the University of Notre Dame (United States)
•   Mitología Greco-Romana, taught by José Luis Ramírez Sádaba at the Universidad de Cantabria (Spain)
•   Técnicas de Animación Turística, taught by Mildred Acuña at the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (Costa Rica)
•   Instituciones Básicas del Derecho Administrativo, taught by José Vida Fernández at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)

The awards were presented at the annual OCW Consortium global conference. The course awards were selected by an awards committee populated from the Consortium membership. All “video and multimedia” winners were recognized for the substantial video and/or multimedia elements, while “text and illustrations” winners were acknowledged for the significant text and still/static photos and illustrations included.

The OCW Consortium Awards for OpenCourseWare Excellence are sponsored by KNEXT, a learning assessment and advisory service and is owned and operated by Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, a division of Kaplan, Inc., a world leader in education and training services.

ABOUT KNEXT: There are millions of adults interested in finding a new job, moving onto a new career, or getting a college degree. But as we all know, the path can seem daunting, expensive and confusing. Enter KNEXT. We help adults identify how to earn college credit for their learning from life and work experience— be it on the job, traveling, volunteering or training. We provide a wealth of resources to help them make the right decisions for their future. And we inventory this information and advocate on their behalf at universities across the country — helping adult students transition to college in a faster, less expensive manner. For additional information about KNEXT, go to www.knext.com.

ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform.  The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.

Activities of the OpenCourseWare Consortium are supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, member dues, and contributions from sustaining members including: African Virtual University, China Open Resources for Education, Delft University of Technology, Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Korea OpenCourseWare Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netease Information Technology, Open Universiteit,  Tecnológico de Monterrey, Tufts University, Universia, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan, and University of the Western Cape. For more information, visit http://www.ocwconsortium.org.