Technology

Key Points

• Determine what course Web sites and course management systems are in use on your campus. This impacts your content import/export strategy, and defines the infrastructure required to collect, build, and manage course content.
• Create standards for structure and presentation of content on your OpenCourseWare Web site. Standardization helps reduce cost, improve usability of the Web site and streamline the publication process.
• Evaluate the content delivery infrastructure needs of your OpenCourseWare initiative. Worldwide distribution of end-users, use of video, anticipated peak/average loads, and other factors determine your metadata strategy. Capturing robust metadata for course content improves site search and the overall manageability of the site.

The type of technology infrastructure required for your OpenCourseWare depends on several factors: your publishing goals, existing systems infrastructure on your campus, any existing publication processes, timelines for publication (initial as well as long-term publishing model), number of end users and their geographical distribution, and budgets, among other factors.

Large institutions considering implementing an OpenCourseWare initiative may have existing technology components that can be leveraged. These components include course management systems, content management systems, interfaces to course catalogs, and enterprise application integration standards and infrastructure.

In addition to tools that exist at your institution, the Consortium members can also provide open source tools to support your open publication effort, including Utah State University's open publishing platform, eduCommons.