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2004年二月號電子報
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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：2004年四月
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 2004年四月號內容：
1. 200門新課程即將開放
2. 麻省理工開放式課程的初步評估資料
3. 深度探索：課程16.901
4. 一個常見問題
1. 200門新課程即將開放
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在邁向2004年3月的出版週期時，麻省理工開放式課程小組在3月31日前會發佈200門新的麻省理工學院的課程，加上這200門新課程，已達總數700門的課程供自由開放使用。在2004年秋秋季時，將再發佈200門課程，囊括了麻省理工學院的五個學院及33個學系。
在前兩週中，我們已發佈20門新課程，包含了：
5.310 - 2003春季課程：化學實驗
14.471 - 2003秋季課程：公共經濟學I
15.414 - 2003夏季課程：財務管理
15.761 - 2002夏季課程：營運管理
15.904 - 2003秋季課程：策略管理 II
17.042 - 2003秋季課程：公民權與多元社會
17.118J – 2002春季課程：女性政治思想
18.238 - 2002秋季課程：幾何與量子場理論
18.466 - 2003春季課程：數理統計
21H.131 - 2000秋季課程：核子年代的的美國
21H.206 - 2001秋季課程：美國消費文化
21H.466 - 2002秋季課程：俄帝國與俄國大革命：1800-1917
21H.907 - 2000秋季課程：歷史中的審判
21H.931 - 2002春季課程：歷史研究方法研討
21H.952J - 2003秋季課程：自西元1877年以來的美國歷史著作
21L.448J - 2003秋季課程：達爾文與設計
21L.701 - 2003秋季課程：文學詮釋：詮釋詩歌
STS.002 - 2003秋季課程：邁向科學革命
STS.042J - 2002秋季課程：愛因斯坦、歐本海默、費曼：廿世紀的物理學
STS.360 - 2003春季課程：民族誌
要瞭解全部麻省理工開放式課程的完整列表，請造訪完整課程列表。請在往後的「麻省理工開放式課程」的電子報中留意新課程的公告。
2. 麻省理工開放式課程的初步評估資料
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誰是麻省理工開放式課程的使用者? 從何處來? 如何發現這個計畫? 所有的這些問題對於瞭解麻省理工開放式課程是否實現了她的使命是極為重要的，同時有助於建立一套完整而連續性的回饋程序以確保這個計畫隨時間改善。
我們的評估計畫著重在瞭解三種使用者的行為：
•使用：誰正在使用麻省理工開放式課程?
•用途：他們如何利用以及是否符合需求?
•衝擊：使用後所發生的結果?
我們利用了許多工具來評估成果，包含了量測網站流量的網站分析、電子報的訂閱數量(至今有19,600份)與線上抽樣調查，在11月6日~19日間許多人可能已經作答了，調查工具(彈出式視窗)對麻省理工開放式課程的使用者以隨機取樣的方式完成線上調查。這些不同的資料來源提供了豐富的網站使用的統計描繪。在早期發現的有：
•麻省理工開放式課程的網站流量相當大，有一群部份的重覆造訪者。從2003年10月1日至2003年11月31日間，網站紀錄了728000位使造訪者 – 在這期間平均每天有12000位造訪者。
•麻省理工開放式課程吸引了國際上的關注，有超過一半的網站流量來自北美以外的地區。45%的造訪者來自北美(美國/加拿大)。西歐是第二大流量(19%)以及流量第三位東亞的18%。還有中非、東非與北非(1.6%)以及撒哈拉以南的非洲(0.4%)表示麻省理工開放式課程網站流量的量測比例。
•教師、學生與自學者在瀏覽網站佔了相當的數量，在所有網站的造訪者中，主要的是自學者，佔了52%。學生有將近31%及教師則超過13%。
•使用者透過各種管道獲知麻省理工開放式課程。將近63%的造訪者藉由線上或離線媒體的文章得知。媒體報導對網站的活動有極大的影響 –在我們的全球宣傳之後，尖峰流量出現一天之中超過60000位造訪者。超過25%的使用者回報是藉由朋友、同僚或教師而得知。
•麻省理工開放式課程的使用集中在那些是麻省理工學院中在該領域中被視為領導者的課程上。電機工程與資訊科學系的課程網頁吸引了34%的流量在特定的教材上，而這些課程的比例只占全部發佈課程數的10%。另外的26%的流量則分佈在數學、管理、經濟與物理網頁，占全部發佈課程數的21%。
這些初步的結果將協助我們未來在發表與處理上的成長。在2004年春季，我們將對麻省理工開放式課程網站的評估部份公佈更多的結果與深入的資料。
3. 深度探索：課程16.901
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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「航空工程的電腦應用方法，這門課程是由麻省理工學院航空太空工程學系所開設。麻省理工學院David Darmofal教授在他的課程中介紹了在航太工程中所使用的電腦技術。
運用在航太結構、航空動力學、動立學與控制與航太系統的各式應用程式，透過 課程講稿 所探討的技術有：常微分方程式系統的數值積分，偏微分方程式的有限差分、有限體積及有限元素離散化，數值線性代數，特徵值問題與束制最佳化。
除了完整的 36堂pdf格式的課程講稿 與 作業外，網站上還有各式的研讀教材，包含程式碼範例與2002年春季的專案。需要使用MATTLAB軟體來執行網站上所附的.m 及.mat的檔案
4. 一個常見問題
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問：為何有特別的PDF檔案無法用Acrobat 4.0/Acrobat 5.0 Reader正常地開啟?
答：在麻省理工開放式網站所提供的一小部份的PDF檔案只和Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Reader相容，如果你要閱讀這樣的檔案，建議你從Adobe 網站的網頁 http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html
下載Acrobat Reader 6.0來閱讀。同時我們正在確認這些檔案並將其最佳化，使其能完全地與Acrobat Reader 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0版相容。當你試著閱讀並發現這樣的問題時請你通知我們，我們將其修復。在你的通知中，請務必將Adobe Acrobat版本、瀏覽器種類與版本以及所使用的作業系統加以註明。同時也請你註明課程、段落與PDF檔案名稱以協助我們找尋與修正。
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The MIT OpenCourseWare Update: February 2004
A Monthly E-mail Newsletter for Users
and Friends of MIT OpenCourseWare
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The February 2004 MIT OpenCourseWare Update Contains:
1. 200 New Courses To Be Published
2. Early MIT OCW Evaluation Data
3. Digging Deeper: Course 16.901
4. A Frequently Asked Question
1. 200 New Courses To Be Published
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The MIT OpenCourseWare team is moving forward into the March 2004 publication cycle with 200 new MIT courses scheduled for publication by March 31. These 200 courses will bring to 700 the total MIT courses for which we offer free and open access. In Fall 2004, we will publish 200 more courses from across the breadth of MIT's five schools and 33 academic departments.
In the last two weeks, we have published 20 new courses, including:
5.310 - Laboratory Chemistry, Spring 2003
14.471 - Public Economics I, Fall 2003
15.414 - Financial Management, Summer 2003
15.761 - Operations Management, Summer 2002
15.904 - Strategic Management II, Fall 2003
17.042 - Citizenship and Pluralism, Fall 2003
17.118J - Feminist Political Thought, Spring 2002
18.238 - Geometry and Quantum Field Theory, Fall 2002
18.466 - Mathematical Statistics, Spring 2003
21H.131 - America in the Nuclear Age, Fall 2000
21H.206 - American Consumer Culture, Fall 2001
21H.466 - Imperial and Revolutionary Russia: 1800-1917, Fall 2002
21H.907 - Trials in History, Fall 2000
21H.931 - Seminar in Historical Methods, Spring 2002
21H.952J - Readings in American History Since 1877, Fall 2003
21L.448J - Darwin and Design, Fall 2003
21L.701 - Literary Interpretation: Interpreting Poetry, Fall 2003
STS.002 - Toward the Scientific Revolution, Fall 2003
STS.042J: Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century,
Fall 2002
STS.360 - Ethnography, Spring 2003
For a complete list of all MIT OCW offerings, visit the complete course
list. Look for notice of new courses in subsequent issues of "The MIT
OpenCourseWare Update" email newsletter.
2. Early MIT OCW Evaluation Data
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Who are MIT OCW's users? Where do they come from? How do they find out
this project? All of these questions are vital to understanding how well MIT OCW is fulfilling its mission, and are very useful in helping us establish a thorough and continuous feedback process that guarantees the project's improvement over time.
Our evaluation program focuses on understanding specifics in three
areas of user behavior:
• Access: Who is using MIT OCW?
• Use: How are they using it and does it meet their needs?
• Impact: What outcomes result from this use?
We use many tools to evaluate our success, including Web analytics that
measure traffic to the site; data such as the number of subscribers to this email newsletter (19,600 to date); and an online intercept survey which many of you may have answered between the dates of November 6 to 19, when the survey tool invited (via pop-up window) a random sample of MIT OCW visitors to complete an online survey. These various data sources provide a rich statistical picture of site usage. Among our early findings:
• MIT OCW traffic volume is high, and there is a core of repeat
visitors. The site recorded 728,000 visits between October 1, 2003 and
November 31, 2003 - an average of almost 12,000 visits per day for that
period.
• MIT OCW has attracted international attention, with over half the
site traffic coming from outside North America. 45% of visitors to MIT
OCW come from North America (USA/Canada). Western Europe is second most
common point of origin (19%) and East Asia is third with 18%. The
Middle East and North Africa (1.6%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (0.4%)
represent measurable portions of MIT OCW's traffic.
• Educators, students and self-learners access the site extensively.
Numerically, self-learners predominate, representing almost 52% of
visitors. Students represent approximately 31% of visitors, and
educators represent over 13% of total visitors to the MIT OCW site.
• User awareness of MIT OCW comes via a range of channels. Almost 63%
of visitors became aware of MIT OCW via online or offline media
articles. Site activity is heavily impacted by media coverage - a peak
of usage following our October 2003 global publicity efforts was in
excess of 60,000 visits in one day. Over 25% of users report that they
became aware of MIT OCW through a colleague, peer, or teacher.
• MIT OCW use is centered on subjects for which MIT is a recognized
field leader. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science course sites
attract 34% of traffic for users who accessed specific course materials
on MIT OCW, while only accounting for 10% of the total courses
published. Mathematics, Management, Economics and Physics sites account
for an additional 26% while representing 21% of courses published.
These early findings will help us evolve our publication and processes going forward. We will be publishing more findings and in-depth data in the Evaluation section of the MIT OCW Web site in Spring 2004.
3. Digging Deeper: Course 16.901
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Each month, this newsletter offers subscribers an in-depth guide to one
particular subject. This month, we delve into "Course 16.901: Computational Methods in Aerospace Engineering," a course from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In his course, MIT Professor David Darmofal offers an introduction to computational techniques arising in aerospace engineering.
Applications are drawn from aerospace structures, aerodynamics, dynamics and control, and aerospace systems. Techniques explored through the Lecture Notes include: numerical integration of systems of ordinary differential equations; finite-difference, finite-volume, and finite-element discretization of partial differential equations; numerical linear algebra; eigenvalue problems; and optimization with
constraints.
In addition to the complete set of 36 Lecture Notes in PDF format and Assignments, this site includes a variety of Study Materials, including coded examples and projects from Spring 2002. MATLAB® software is required to run the .m and .mat files found on this course site.
4. A Frequently Asked Question
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QUESTION: Why does a particular PDF not open correctly in my Acrobat
4.0/Acrobat 5.0 Reader?
ANSWER: A small percentage of the PDF documents offered on the MIT OCW
Web site are compatible only with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Reader. If you would like to view such a file, we recommend downloading the Acrobat Reader 6.0 from the Adobe Web site at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html. Meanwhile, we are currently working to identify these files and optimize them to fully function with Acrobat Reader versions 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0. Please contact
us if should you notice a file that has this issue when attempting to view and we will work to fix it. In your message, be sure to include your version number of Adobe Acrobat, your browser type and version as well as what operating system you are using. Also, if you would identify the course, section and name of the PDF that would assist us in locating and correcting it.
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