Open U’s Frank Commentary on MITx

I’ve been listening to Open University’s podcasts for quite some time and I’ve been impressed by the quality of their content, professors and speakers, as well as the way they offer up they’re content. They have a mix of mp3s and videos and a wide variety of courses to choose from.

So, when I saw this article:
The State of Online Courseware With The UK’s Open University, I was interested to hear their thoughts.

What I like most about this article is that it’s grounded in reality. Questions arise about how course progress will be managed, the apparent lack of organization seen in OCW’s (Open Courseware) content and the premature announcement. There have been a slew of tweets and articles praising MITx without knowing much about it. Lots of fanfare and very few questions, which I find fascinating. It would seem that all you have to do is flash the MIT moniker and everyone will accept that things have been thought through and all have bought into this idea and are willing and full participants. MIT has more than its share of high minded educators with strong personalities who are more than happy to swim against the tide. And I’m not sure that’s the case here, but I certainly hope MITx succeeds. I’m rooting for MIT on this one and anxious to see what it will look like.