UCI Distance Learning Center receives Hewlett Foundation Grant

Seminar to Focus on E-Learning Content

IRVINE, Calif. – August 6, 2002 – The Distance Learning Center of the University of California, Irvine is pleased to announce that it has received $87,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for a seminar entitled: "Sorting Through and Sorting Out: The State of Learning Content Sharing in the E-Learning Industry." UCI will host the seminar on the campus in the fall. The invited seminar participants include national leaders in projects requiring learning content sharing, such as large-scale content repositories, university distance learning efforts, standards-setting bodies, suppliers to the online education industry, and publishers. Though each of these groups are approaching online content differently, all agree that the ability to share these materials is essential for creating economically viable online learning systems.

"We hope to uncover and define the obstacles to greater sharing of e-learning materials among universities and other organizations," explains 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 outcome of the seminar will be a joint report describing the current state of learning 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," explains 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. Marshall Smith, Program Director for Education, states, "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. 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.