In response to yesterday’s post, OCWC President Steve Carson left a link in the comment section to the organization’s 2010-2011 strategic plan. Reading through the plan provided a number of insights, but let me focus on two here and you can read the rest of the document for yourself.
First, the OCWC budget for 2010 is $1,000,000.
Second, the document includes a section called “Value Proposition to Members,” which includes the following explanation:
OCW Consortium currently offers educational institutions the following benefits:
OCWC membership… • Provides an opportunity to fully participate in an international movement to increase access to education and knowledge, and to attract potential students to member institutions. • Helps OCW proponents at member institutions in making a case for OpenCourseWare investment to university decision makers, funders and faculty • Brings down the cost of creating and maintaining an OCW site • Helps people all over the world learn about and find member institutions’ OCW websites courses • Provides an opportunity to fully participate in the development of, and gain early knowledge of, toolkit innovations • Provides the ability to participate in, and gain economies of scale in, the collaborative development of OCW Software • Provides favorable publicity about member institutions’ role in the OCW movement and in the OCWC • Provides a facilitated opportunity to learn best practices from other member institutions • Provides first access to strategic alliances and collaborations with other member institutions • Reduces the cost of participation in OCWC conferences for members
OCWC membership could… • Support the generation of research funding at member institutions • Support the rational management of course-related intellectual property at member institutions • Attract funding for Open Courseware-related projects at member institutions with OCW sites • Provide OCW-related technical infrastructure and support to member institutions
So now, with an overview of the value proposition, you can decide for yourself how good a value the OCWC is to the open education movement for $1,000,000 / year.
P.S. OCWC - please add this “Why You Should Join” list on your website where interested people can find it!