Summary: Formal, instructionally oriented knowledge offerings continue to expand. Now, if certification via passage through a "program" ,i.e., pay-for-learning sequence, is not of concern, you may work your way to learning "world class" knowledge without having to pay "world class" prices. From your home computer.

This is, among other things, a move in the direction of distributive justice, countering the tendency for the rich (in knowledge) to get richer and the poor (having little knowledge and little real access to it) to get poorer.

All we need now is for everyone to have online access and the ability to use it. (A computer in every hut?)

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Utah State University has entered the Open Learning Support movement.

Welcome to Utah State University's Open Learning Support: a free and open resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OLS supports USU's mission by engaging the public, cultivating diversity of thought and culture, and supporting learning.

Open Learning Support:

• Is a space where individuals can connect to share, discuss, ask,
  answer, debate, collaborate, teach, and learn.
• Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting program.
• Does not provide formal access to university faculty or content authors.

OLS currently provides discussion services for over 2200 modules in the Connexions collection at Rice University (this server). OLS also provides discussion services for MIT's discussion services for MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative.

OLS is free to use and free to integrate with open access collections of educational materials. If you have a Connexions-like collection of educational materials and you would like to integrate with OLS, let us know.

Open Learning Support is generously supported by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

[via edu_rss]

Here, for example, is the list of Departments through which courses are available at MIT. I have provided a sprinkling of the course links so that you can check content and organization and referencing for yourselves.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Biological Engineering Division
• Biology
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Comparative Media Studies
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Example courses:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Software Engineering for Web Applications (Fall 2003)
  • Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier (Spring 2002)
  • Natural Language and the Computer Representation of Knowledge (Spring 2003)
• Engineering Systems Division
• Foreign Languages and Literatures
• Health Sciences and Technology
• History
• Linguistics and Philosophy
• Literature
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Media Arts and Sciences
• Music and Theater Arts
• Nuclear Engineering
• Ocean Engineering
• Physics
• Political Science
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sloan School of Management
  • Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property (Spring, 2003)
  • Practical Leadership (Spring, 2003)
  • Cross Cultural Leadership (Fall, 2004)
  • Organizations as Enacted Systems: Learning, Knowing and Change (Fall 2002)
• Special Programs
• Urban Studies and Planning
• Women's Studies
• Writing and Humanistic Studies

The Open Learning Support movement is providing learning opportunities for independent learners around the world. All that's missing is live access to the professor. Also provided is discussion space so that learners with a facilitator can process and examine materials. A good facilitator with some serious background in a particular content could help sincere and moderately independent learners to gain access to "world class" (in terms of utility, currency, complexity, take your pick) content.

*The term "learning object" is used frequently and to good purpose by Stephen Downes. His point: that once a good student-operated "lesson" has been constructed it can be reused multiple times without the requirement of multiple deliveries by the original instructor, or any instructor. Knowledge objects would be stored online and be accessible for use in multiple ways in multiple courses. I am calling course materials, such as those linked to above from MIT, large learning objects. (My editorial stretch to the phrase "Large Learning Objects" has not necessarily been sanctioned by Mr. Downes.)