The Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Notre Dame will launch its OpenCourseWare (OCW) Web site Wednesday (Sept. 20), making the materials for eight Notre Dame courses available online, free of charge, to any user in the world.
The occasion will be celebrated with a daylong conference titled “The Ardent Search for Truth and its Unselfish Transmission” to be held from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Snite Museum of Art and from 1:30 to 5p.m. in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. The conference will feature Dennis Jacobs, vice president and associate provost; Alex Hahn, director of the Kaneb Center; and contributing faculty discussing the OCW project, which will publish the following courses on the Web:
- “Faith and the African American Experience” taught by Hugh Page, dean of First Year of Studies, Walter Associate Professor of Theology, and associate professor of Africana studies
- “Nature and the Idea of a Man-made World” taught by Norman Crowe, professor of architecture
- “African American History II” with Richard Pierce, associate professor of history and chair of the Department of Africana Studies
- “Islamic Societies of the Middle East and North Africa: Religion, History and Culture” taught by Asma Afsaruddin, associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies
- Two “Introduction to Philosophy” courses taught by Paul Weithman, department chair and professor of philosophy, and William Ramsey, associate professor of philosophy
- “Terror, Peace, and Other Inconsistencies” with George Lopez, professor of political science and senior fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
- “Foundations of Theology: Biblical and Historical” with Gary Anderson, professor of theology
The project, supported by a two-year, $233,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, eventually will offer 30 courses devoted to understanding the spiritual and moral aspects of life, the human condition, the search for meaning, and conflict resolution, and will align Notre Dame with the OCW Consortium, a collaboration of more than 60 institutions worldwide, including Kyoto University, Paris Tech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Tufts and Utah State Universities.
Housed in the Kaneb Center’s Learning Technology Lab, OCW is directed by Terri Bays, a concurrent assistant professor of English and formerly an associate director in the University’s London Undergraduate Program.
Since 1966, the Hewlett Foundation has been awarding grants to solve social and environmental problems around the world. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the foundation concentrates its resources on activities related to conflict resolution, education, environment, performing arts, population, and U.S.-Latin American relations.
Founded in 1996 and named for Notre Dame alumnus, benefactor and Trustee John A. Kaneb, the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning supports a variety of initiatives designed to stimulate reflection about teaching and learning.
Additional information is available beginning Sept. 20 at http://ocw.nd.edu/
Contact: TerriBays, Kaneb Center, 574-631-6787, bays.6@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on September 18, 2006.