翻譯：姜凱文(簡介並寄信)
修正校定：朱學恒
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麻省理工「開放式課程」計畫更新日期：2003年六月
每月發行給麻省理工「開放式課程」計畫的使用者及夥伴的電子報
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麻省理工開放式課程電子報 2003年六月號內容：
麻省理工開放式課程電子報 2003年6月號 內容：
1. 即將發表的麻省理工開放式課程演講
2. 深度探索：課程 7.033
3. 本月的科技小百科
4. 一個常見的問題
1. 即將發表的麻省理工開放式課程演講
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那些關心並試圖從麻省理工開放式課程挖掘出更多東西的教育者與學習者受到邀請參加幾個即將到來的教育性與資訊科技的會議。
麻省理工開放式課程計畫的聯絡主管喬恩．保羅．帕茲(Jon Paul Potts)將於7月28日星期一，在加州帕洛阿圖市的史丹佛大學舉行的教學大綱會議中演講。更多關於2003年教學大綱會議的訊息請詳：
http://www.syllabus.com/summer2003/cag.asp
在11月時，麻省理工開放式課程計畫的職員將出席南加州的兩個活動：美西州際遠距教育合作小組(WCET)在聖地牙哥所舉行的第15屆年會以及阿那罕姆市的EDUCAUSE 2003會議。在11月5日星期三，喬恩將在聖地牙哥Hyatt Regency Islandia飯店所舉行的 WCET的會議上，詳述在麻省理工開放式課程發佈500門課程的期間有關教授們的經驗，關於WCET會議請詳：
http://conference.wcet.info/
在南加州阿那罕姆市阿那罕姆會議中心所舉辦的EDUCAUSE 2003，麻省理工開放式課程計畫的職員將在11月5日星期三與11月6日星期四的會議上擔任海報展示的主持人。造訪EDUCAUSE的網站以獲取更多資訊：
http://www.educause.edu/conference/annual/2003/
對於位在非洲與亞洲的教育者與自學者，麻省理工開放式課程計畫將參加2003年12月7-13日在模里西斯大學所舉行的開放與線上學習國際研討會(ICOOL，International Conference on Open and Online Learning)。更多有關ICOOL的資訊在：
http://vcampus.uom.ac.mu/icool2003/user/index.php
2. 深度探索：課程 7.033
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每個月，這份電子報將提供訂戶一份針對特定主題的深度指導。本月，我們將探討「課程 7.033：遺傳學」，由麻省理工學院生物學系的克里斯．凱瑟(Chris Kaiser)與大衛．佩吉(David Page)教授所開設，提供了使用者研究遺傳學原理，並應用在學習分子、細胞、多細胞生物包括人類各層級生物上的功能。在課堂講稿中提出了基因、染色體與基因組的結構和功能。也同時探討了族群遺傳學與運用遺傳學的方法分析蛋白質的功能、基因的調控與遺傳性的疾病。
這門基礎的遺傳學課程在麻省理工開放式課程網站上包含了完整的36個pdf革式的課堂講稿，也涵蓋了不同的主題如「孟德爾遺傳學」、「染色體與性聯遺傳」以及「突變與抑制子」：
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/LectureNotes/index.htm
課程 7.03提供了一組7個複雜的問題組與解答，包含了下列的練習：「你開始以SSR標記法從遺傳學的角度描繪出色盲。色盲顯示X染色體的隱性遺傳也因此通常在男性身上發現。然而突變的對偶基因發生頻率已高到色盲可以在女性身上發生。」這些相同的問題集是學生們在過去的學期中用來自我測試的：
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/Assignments/index.htm
這門課程也提供了麻省理工開放式課程使用者「7.03的聖經」，這是一組從1993年到2001年以來的詳細研究指南、問題組與試題：
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/StudyMaterials/index.htm
3. 本月的科技小百科
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許多訂閱麻省理工電子報的接收者問到，我們為了在秋天時要發表500門課程所使用的是個什麼樣的內容管理系統。
在先導計畫階段，麻省理工開放式課程的網頁是由「強行撰寫的HTML」所建立的，麻省理工開放式課程計畫的技術主任賽西利亞．戴歐麗維拉(Cecilia d'Oliveira)是這樣形容的。利用像DreamWeaver的網頁內容編輯器，一組由麻省理工學院與Sapient公司，那是一家商業與開發顧問公司，所組成的程式人員，負責設計與建立最初的32門課程。然而，這樣的模式是無法擴大到500門課程，甚至到2000門，因此必須使用?容管理系統來達到長期公佈目標。
麻省理工開放式課程計畫的資深管理人員與Sapient公司一起建立了廠商名單，並請廠商對工作小組進行簡報。最後，選擇了商業化的?容管理系統，微軟公司的Content Management System 2002。多樣化是選擇微軟公司Content Management System 2002的理由：微軟也對麻省理工開放式課程計畫做了嚴肅的保證，微軟公司的CMS 2002的總持有成本相較於其他尚在考慮之列的廠商會相當地低，同時微軟的產品對使用者、麻省理工開放式課程的教授的連繫與麻省理工學院的教授們提供了高階的實用性。
對於其他考慮建立自己的「開放式課程」的機構，還有幾種開放原始碼的CMS可以選擇。在此時，麻省理工開放式課程正注意著6個產品：Zope, Red Hat, Midgard, OpenACS, OpenCMS, 及 Bricolage。大部份的專家同意，到2004年止，其中一個產品將會明確地成為在開放原始碼中的品牌領導者。麻省理工開放式課程在這加速成熟的期間，也會對於關鍵的開放原始碼的CMS廠商們的進度加以追蹤。這也使得我們能將對CMS的經驗與瞭解分享給其他的機構。希望使用開放原始碼的CMS產品能降低其他機構在建立「開放式課程」的成本。
4. 一個常見的問題
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問：麻省理工開放式課程在秋天開放到500門課程後是否仍維持其免費與開放？
答：麻省理開放式課程網站對來自世界各地的使用者均是免費，隨著我們持續地成長與進步，教材仍將是免費並開放給所有人。
除了對知識的開放分享的承諾之外，麻省理工學院也堅持著這樣的理念，麻省理開放式課程計畫不是遠距教學、或授予學位的行動，從今而後，使用者也不需要註冊程序就可以瀏覽課程教材。
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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: June 2003
A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users
and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare
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The June 2003 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:
1. Upcoming MIT OCW Presentations
2. Digging Deeper: Course 7.033.
3. Technology Tip of the Month
4. A Frequently Asked Question
1. Upcoming MIT OCW Presentations
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Educators and learners interested in finding out more
about MIT OCW are encouraged to attend several
upcoming educational and information technology
conferences.
On Monday, July 28, Jon Paul Potts, the MIT OCW
Communications Manager, will speak at the Syllabus
Conference at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
For more information on Syllabus 2003:
http://www.syllabus.com/summer2003/cag.asp
In November, MIT OCW staff will appear at two events
in Southern California: the Western Cooperative for
Educational Telecommunications (WCET) 15th annual
conference in San Diego, and at EDUCAUSE 2003 in
Anaheim, Calif. On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Potts will discuss
the MIT faculty experience during the publication of 500
courses at the WCET Conference, to be held at the Hyatt
Regency Islandia in San Diego:
http://conference.wcet.info/
And at EDUCAUSE 2003, MIT OCW staff will be available
as a poster session presenter on Wednesday, Nov. 5,
and Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Anaheim Convention Center
in Anaheim, Calif. Visit the EDUCAUSE Web site for more
information:
http://www.educause.edu/conference/annual/2003/
For educators and self-learners in Africa and Asia, MIT OCW
OCW will participate in ICOOL (International Conference on
Open and Online Learning) at the University of Mauritius,
set for Dec. 7-13, 2003. For more information on ICOOL:
http://vcampus.uom.ac.mu/icool2003/user/index.php
2. Digging Deeper: Course 7.03
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Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth
guide to one particular subject. This month, we delve into
"Course 7.03: Genetics." This course, from MIT Professors
Chris Kaiser and David Page of MIT's Biology Department in
the School of Science, offers users a study of the principles
of genetics with application to the study of biological function
at the level of molecules, cells, and multicellular organisms,
including humans. Lecture notes address the structure and
function of genes, chromosomes, and genomes. It also explores
population genetics, and the use of genetic methods to analyze
protein function, gene regulation, and inherited disease.
The MIT OCW course site for this fundamental genetics course
includes a complete of 36 Lecture Notes in PDF format, covering
diverse topics such as "Mendelian Genetics," "Chromosomes and
Sex Linkage," and "Mutations and Suppressors":
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/LectureNotes/index.htm
Course 7.03 offers a set of seven complex Problem Sets and
Solutions, including the following exercise: "You set out to
genetically map color blindness with respect to SSR markers.
Color blindness shows X-linked recessive inheritance and therefore
is usually found in males. However, the mutant allele frequency is
sufficiently high that colorblind females do occurŠ" These are the
same Problem Sets that MIT students have tested themselves on
in past semesters:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/Assignments/index.htm
The course also offers MIT OCW users "The 7.03 Bible," a set of
detailed study guides, problem sets, and exams from 1993
through 2001:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-03GeneticsFall2001/StudyMaterials/index.htm
3. Technology Tip of the Month
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Many recipients of "The MIT OpenCourseWare Update" email
newsletter have asked us what content management system
(CMS) we have implemented for the publication of 500 courses
and beyond this fall.
For the pilot phase, the Web pages of the MIT OCW site were
built by what Cecilia d'Oliveira, MIT OCW's Technology Director,
called "brute-force HTML." Utilizing Web content editors such as
DreamWeaver, a team of programmers from MIT and the Sapient
Corp., a business and development consulting firm, designed
and built the first 32 subjects. However, that model was not
scalable for 500 courses - or 2,000 - and so MIT OCW has
implemented CMS in order to achieve MIT OCW's long-term
publishing goals.
MIT OCW senior management, working with the Sapient Corp.,
developed a short-list of vendors, and the individual vendors
gave presentations to the team. In the end, MIT OCW selected
a commercial CMS, Microsoft Content Management System 2002.
The reasons for the choice of Microsoft 2002 were manifold:
Microsoft made a serious commitment to the MIT OCW project,
the total cost of ownership of Microsoft CMS 2002 was
significantly lower than the other vendors in consideration,
and the Microsoft product offered a high-level of usability for
the end-users, MIT OCW's faculty liaisons and MIT's faculty.
For other institutions considering implementing their own
"opencourseware" there are several open-source CMS options.
At this point, MIT OCW is monitoring six: Zope, Red Hat, Midgard,
OpenACS, OpenCMS, and Bricolage. By 2004, most experts agree
that one CMS provider will become the clear, open source leader
in this industry sector. MIT OCW will track the progress of key
open-source CMS providers during this accelerated maturation.
This will contribute to MIT being able to share its experience and
understanding of these CMS options with other institutions. The
hope is that utilization of open-source model CMS products could
lead to less expensive implementations of "opencoursewares"
at other institutions.
4. A Frequently Asked Question
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Q: Will MIT OCW still be free and open when you publish 500
courses in the fall?
A: MIT OCW is available on the Web, free of charge, to any user
anywhere in the world. As we continue to grow and evolve, the
materials will always remain free and open to all.
Along with this commitment to the open sharing of knowledge, MIT
is committed to the idea that MIT OCW is not a distance-learning,
or a degree-granting, initiative, and that there will not be a
registration process required for users to view course materials
now or in the future.
