UCI Distance Learning Center receives Hewlett Foundation Grant

From Irvine World News – August 22, 2002

Seminar to Focus on E-Learning Content

UC Irvine's Distance Learning Center has received $87,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for a seminar titled "Sorting Through and Sorting Out: The State of Learning Content Sharing in the E-Learning Industry." The invited seminar participants include national leaders in online learning projects that involve the sharing of content such as large-scale content repositories, university distance learning efforts, suppliers to the online education industry, and publishers. Though each of these groups approaches online content differently, all agree that the ability to share materials is essential for creating economically viable online learning systems. The seminar will be held at UCI this fall.

"We hope to uncover and define the obstacles to greater sharing of e-learning materials among universities and other organizations," said Gary Matkin, Dean of Continuing Education at UCI and seminar leader. "It's a problem we face as we at UC attempt to capture the value of our extensive investments in online courses."

The seminar participants will produce a report describing the current state of content sharing and recommending actions to increase such sharing. "While technical barriers to effective sharing do exist, there are political, cultural, organizational, and business-related obstacles that receive less attention but are harder to define," said Jia Frydenberg, director of the Distance Learning Center.

The Hewlett Foundation is devoting significant resources for the development of freely available online courseware and has a strong interest in ensuring the knowledge embedded in the content is available at no cost throughout the world. "Our grants to MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley for the development of freely available content and courses reflects our desire to make knowledge open and accessible," said Marshall Smith, Hewlett Foundation's program director for education. "We hope this seminar will address the barriers to learning object reuse and generate ideas about how to promote the practical reuse of free, high-quality learning objects."

The UCI Distance Learning Center is dedicated to supporting UCI's distance-learning activities, including education using the Internet or other remote technologies. In partnership with UCI's Electronic Education Environment (EEE) on campus, the center offers a full range of course and curriculum services related to online learning.

The Hewlett Foundation, incorporated as a private foundation in the state of California in 1966, was established by the late Palo Alto industrialist William R. Hewlett, his wife, Flora Lamson Hewlett, and their eldest son, Walter B. Hewlett. The Foundation's broad purpose, as stated in the articles of incorporation, is to promote the well-being of mankind by supporting selected activities of a charitable nature, as well as organizations or institutions engaged in such activities.

For more information about this seminar, contact Gary W. Matkin at (949) 824-5525, or gmatkin@uci.edu.