Two Population Science Courses Added to OCW

Two population science courses, Social and Economic Aspects of Human Fertility and Principles of Population Change, have been added to JHSPH OpenCourseWare.

Social and Economic Aspects of Human Fertility analyzes the correlates of fertility levels in societies and childbearing among individuals and couples. The course examines classical theories of fertility change at the societal level and contemporary critiques of these theories, and it also explores the determinants of fertility at the individual level, with an emphasis on differences in the timing of first birth and total family size by social class and ethnicity in developed and developing countries.

Principles of Population Change provides students with the basics of demography and the health implications of major contemporary population issues. Lectures explore population changes over time; elements of demography; child survival and mortality; family and households and demographic change; the demography of social and economic inequality, role of women, urbanization, migration and fertility. Finally, students examine world demographic patterns, synthesizing the data and issues surrounding the importance of population to public health.

Both courses are taught by Nan Astone, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Education in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

0 comments - Posted by Ira Gooding at 3:46 PM - Categories: OpenCourseWare

OpenEd2009 Conference in Vancouver

After two days of attending the OpenEd2009 Conference in Vancouver, I am incredibly impressed with the vast array of new projects that are emerging in the open education field. The energy level is high, and the connections being made here at the meeting promise to produce an even higher energy level throughout the field in the months and years to come.

At least two of the sessions I attended are direct outcomes of connections and conversations that began just one year ago at OpenEd2008: Peer2Peer Univesity (P2PU) and the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in OpenCourseWare.

P2PU describes itself as "an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses." The P2PU helps enrolled students navigate the wealth of available open education materials, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and the leaders are exploring the extra step of building pathways to formal credit. You can view the session here via Ustream, and enrollment is now open for its first offering of courses.

The Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in OpenCourseWare is a soon-to-be-released document with the goal of helping OCW producers to interpret and apply fair use under US copyright law. As one of the Code's co-authors along with a group of practitioners from other institutions (Notre Dame, University of Mighican, Tufts University, MIT, and Yale), I am eager to see how its release will affect the practice of OCW production in the future. When the project began as an ad hoc session at OpenEd2008, I was very skeptical of its value and was worried that encouraging fair use in OCW would discourage the creation of new open learning object. Now, however, I'm convinced that this is an important step toward attaining OCW's full potential. You can view the session led by Lindsay Weeramuni of MIT OpenCourseWare and Lila Bailey of ccLearn here via Ustream. 

0 comments - Posted by Ira Gooding at 7:50 PM - Categories: Teaching Strategies | OpenCourseWare

Baltimore Food Systems: A Case Study of Urban Food Environments

Baltimore Food Systems: A Case Study of Urban Food Environments has just been added to JHSPH OpenCourseWare. Taught by Anne Palmer and Roni Neff of the Center for a Livable Future, this course challenges students to look closely at the environment of Baltimore City's complex food systems and to consider what it would take to improve these systems to assure access for all to nutritious, adequate, affordable, and sustainably produced food.

Although most courses on OCW are lecture-based didactic courses, Baltimore Food Systems is built around a series of field trips, projects, and classroom discussions. Many instructors of seminar-style courses like this one are hesitant to contribute to OCW out of a concern that they don't have a sufficient amount of OCW-ready content, but Baltimore Food Systems demonstrates that this isn't necessarily true. The course includes a syllabus, a reading list, and instructions for completing an oral history project and a final term paper. It also includes four lists of brainstormed questions prepared for the field trip sites: a Baltimore corner market, a supermarket, a fast food restaurant, and a food bank.

0 comments - Posted by Ira Gooding at 3:45 PM - Categories: OpenCourseWare