The Hewlett Foundation Grants UC Irvine $320,000 to Expand OpenCourseWare Initiative

The Hewlett Foundation’s extensive and long-term support of the OER and OCW movements has been embraced by President Barack Obama’s recent announcement of a nationwide effort to produce open courses, particularly for community colleges. “This grant to UC Irvine recognizes its contributions to the Open Educational Resources movement and its desire to continue to spread and improve it,” said Barbara Chow, director of the education program at the Hewlett Foundation. “We look forward to their continued insights and efforts to make quality educational material available to all.”

About UC Irvine’s OpenCourseWare Initiative: The University of California, Irvine was the first University of California campus—and West Coast University—to join the OCW Consortium. UC Irvine’s membership in the OCW Consortium is consistent with its public- and land-grant missions and its desire to play a significant role in contributing to the social welfare of the state, the nation and the world. Open educational resources (OER) showcase the University’s high quality education and makes courses and course materials free for everyone in the world. UC Irvine’s OCW is a large-scale, Web-based resource that houses educational assets that are discoverable, searchable, modifiable, and, best of all, free and easily available.

Through the OCW Movement, UC Irvine provides university-quality courses and learning assets to populations of self learners that are underserved and in many cases, unable to participate in formal education at a university. This site also offers access to UC Irvine’s online continuing education offerings. For its leadership of the OCW movement, University of California, Irvine has been identified as one of the top 10 providers of free online courses. The ranking, published by Education-Portal.com, recognized UC Irvine for providing high-quality, university-level courses, free of charge, to learners around the globe. For more information about UC Irvine’s OCW initiative, visit http://ocw.uci.edu/ or e-mail ocw@unx.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.