University of California, Irvine, USA
The University of California, Irvine (UCI), USA, was selected as winner of the OPAL Award for Institutions. The Award for Institutions recognizes institutions with a policy of encouraging open educational practices through the provision of resources and support for the development of OER, participation in research and development, and a clear strategy for motivating its staff.
Larry Cooperman, Director, OpenCourseWare is pictured receiving the award at the ceremony from Ingeborg Boe, Member of the Executive Board of the European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning and Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Council for Open and Distance Education.
UCI Distance Learning Center (DLC) was officially started in August 2001 to develop and deliver online courses and programs for the University. Today, the DLC offers over 160 online courses per quarter. UCI began its OpenCourseWare initiative in November 2006in order to be a part of the growing open educational resource and OCW movements on a global scale and to provide UC-quality courses and instructional materials to deserving students and teachers around the world, for free. Today, UCI’s OCW offering has grown significantly in just five years to include contributions from 66 UCI faculty members, 80 complete courses, 174 video lectures and over 1,000 learning assets. The website has achieved global appeal, receiving over 350,000 visits from 315,000 visitors from around the world and attracts visitors from some 200 countries.
Jury statement
In its statement, the jury highlighted this mature initiative’s strong impact in a developing country, namely Brazil. The jury also noted that the project has shown successful self-development by making open educational resources a fundamental feature of the university, and that it shows evidence of strong leadership both within the institution and externally.
The jury for this award was Professor Narend Baijnath, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of South Africa, Professor Roberto Carneiro of The Catholic University of Portugal, Dr Emma Kruse Va’ai, Deputy Vice Chancellor of The National University of Samoa and Professor Rory McGreal, Associate Vice President at Athabasca University, Canada (Chair).
Video film describing open educational practices
See details of all initiatives recognized in the OPAL Awards
