As we usher in another busy fall, we’d like to share with you some of the recent developments at OCW.

Our exceptional leader and long-time advocate, Cecilia d’Oliveira, retired in the summer. Cecilia dedicated more than 40 years to MIT, beginning as an undergraduate in Computer Science and Engineering, and then as a graduate student studying Management in the Sloan School. She went on to serve as the Director of MIT Information Systems and was involved in the Athena Project, before leaving MIT to fulfill her calling as an entrepreneur. She was lured back to MIT as one of the first hires for MIT OpenCourseWare. Sixteen years later, after overseeing the publication of thousands of OCW course sites, she retired as the Associate Dean for Digital Learning.

She will be sorely missed, but we carry on her passion for making education accessible to all.

A learner’s best companion

We plan to uphold Cecilia’s legacy by continuing to:

• publish free, high-quality and in-depth course materials, so that learners gain a deeper and richer understanding of courses taught at MIT,
• ensure that these resources are accessible to learners with disabilities, and
• identify and promote featured content, enhance website usability (especially for course browsing and searching), and improve OCW’s currency and relevance in relation to the MIT curriculum.

OCW will continue to help people learn and refresh their knowledge, prepare learners of all ages for formal academic programs, and inspire people to improve themselves and uplift their communities through the education they acquire.

We feel privileged to serve the many thousands of learners who visit our site every day—assuring that OCW can be learners’ best and trusted companion on their educational journey.

Reaching the next generation of inventors and leaders

We will also support educators in their efforts to teach the next generation of inventors and leaders.

While we will continue to publish courses that demonstrate what is being taught at MIT, we will also share how MIT faculty approach teaching these subjects. This type of sharing, which is at the core of OCW, is an effort to inspire and enhance innovative classroom teaching, both at MIT and around the world.

You can learn about MIT faculty insights through the OCW Educator portal on OCW. To-date, we’ve published almost 200 Instructor Insights that not only help teachers but offer students a better understanding of how and why instructors teach the way they do.

Moving forward

Having created more than 2,400 courses and some 59 supplemental resources, making available a plethora of learning assets, OCW remains committed to serving as an intensive educational tool for all types of learners and educators in the world.

In the upcoming year, we plan to publish courses that showcase new subjects, classroom and lab videos, and hands-on projects featuring student teamwork.

We welcome you to share OCW resources with your friends, family, and colleagues, and we hope to count on you for supporting our work.

Sincerely,

Joe

Joseph Pickett
Publication Director
MIT OpenCourseWare