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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: April 2003

A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users
and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare
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The April 2003 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:
1. Tell Us How You Are Using MIT OCW
2. Digging Deeper: Course 15.783J
3. Technology Tip of the Month
4. A Frequently Asked Question

1.Tell Us How You Are Using MIT OCW
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The hope is that educators around the world will be able to utilize the course materials presented on the MIT OCW Web site for curriculum development, and self-learners will be able to draw upon the materials for self-study or supplementary use.

As we move forward to the publication of the course materials from 500 more MIT subjects in September 2003, the staff of MIT OCW is focused on evaluation and measurement of the MIT OCW site. We are trying to answer such questions as: How accessible are the course materials? How are people using the materials? What is the impact of MIT OCW? Have educators adapted the MIT OCW materials for their own teaching?

We would like to ask you to share your story with us for the purposes of developing user case studies. Tell us how you are using the MIT OCW materials. Please contact Jon Paul Potts, the MIT OCW Communications Manager, at jpotts@mit.edu, if you would like to share your case study.

2. Digging Deeper: Course 15.783J
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Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth guide to one particular subject. This month, we delve into "Course 15.783J: Product Design and Development," a course from MIT's Sloan School of Management: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-783JProduct-Design-and-DevelopmentSpring2002/CourseHome/index.htm

"Product Design and Development" is a project-based course that examines modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone of the course is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design, and prototype a physical product. Class sessions are conducted in workshop mode and employ cases and hands-on exercises to reinforce the key ideas. The MIT OCW site for this course includes Lecture Notes in PDF format: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-783JProduct-Design-and-DevelopmentSpring2002/LectureNotes/index.htm

Topics covered in the Lecture Notes include identifying customer needs, concept generation, product architecture, industrial design, and design-for-manufacturing.

The MIT OCW course materials also include examples of actual projects designed by Sloan School students in prior semesters, such as a "Marker Refill Station," and a "Bartender's Pour Spout," which times the pouring of liquor drinks with a green- yellow-red LED light sequence that lets the bartender know when one shot is poured:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-783JProduct-Design-and-DevelopmentSpring2002/Projects/index.htm

The site also includes a link to the textbook for the course, Product Design and Development, co-written by MIT Professor Steven Eppinger and Professor Karl T. Ulrich of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School: http://www.ulrich-eppinger.net

3. Technology Tip of the Month
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To best view and utilize the materials presented, MIT OCW has adopted guidelines to help optimize the experience with the course materials. Our course sites work on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Although higher-speed connections are preferable, slower connections, such as 28.8 kbps modems, should allow users to view most materials on the sites; however, downloading materials will take a longer period of time. The course sites should work best on Internet browsers of Netscape version 4.75 or above, and Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above. Required software includes Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0, and, MIT OCW recommends that the following freely available plug-ins be installed in your computing environment: QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Real Media Player and Shockwave. For links to the downloads for these plug-ins, visit the MIT OCW "Technical Requirements" page: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/OCWHelp/technical-faq.htm

Click on the link that reads "Course List" in the MIT OCW page header at the top of your browser window to view the listing of all current MIT OCW subjects offered: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm

Or view the subjects currently available grouped by MIT department. The departments that have MIT OCW subject sites available are listed in the left-hand navigation bar of the OCW homepage. An example would be the MIT Department of Mathematics. Click on the "Mathematics" link in the left navigation bar on the MIT OCW homepage, and you will go to the department homepage, which includes a complete list of MIT mathematics courses offered, along with a brief description of the department and its curriculum goals: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/index.htm