1. General Principle. UC Berkeley's strength is in the excellence of its diverse faculty and departments and their differing approaches to research, teaching, and service. It is clear that the nature of higher education is undergoing many changes-social, technological, and financial. We envision that the e-learning initiative, like any other academic activity, should build upon these strengths and further promote them by encouraging and enabling the faculty to adapt to those changes in a variety of ways. There are two aspects to this initiative: infrastructure and intellectual "vision". The overriding goals for both are to:
2. Infrastructure.
a) Educational Technology Support. The campus should provide sufficient services at a campus and departmental level to support faculty, lecturers and graduate students who engage in innovative and effective uses of educational technology for Berkeley classes.
b) E-Learning Copyright, Licensing and Business Office. We suggest that Berkeley create an E-Learning Copyright, Licensing and Business Office that will support departments, faculty, lecturers and gradate students with technical information, financial assistance opportunities, and business services associated with e-learning. Such an Office would also assist in the coordination and/or resolution of issues relating to copyright law and policy, business plan development, finance, sponsorship, marketing, and fulfillment, leading to the execution of agreements which further the University's traditional mission of education and public service. The University will take advantage of opportunities offered by digital technology to primarily enhance teaching pedagogy for our students, financially benefit the faculty and other contributors to the work, and to create new sources of revenue for the University. The Office would be the main point of contact with issues associated UCOP and UCB e-learning policies and guidelines (see attached draft). The intent is for this Office to the first place the campus community goes to for issues associated with e-learning copyright, licensing and business issues. Only if there are unresolved conflicts associated with shared ownership would the "Course Materials Policy Committee" (per the 3/22/01 draft "Policy on Ownership and Use of Course Materials", Section C, UCOP Standing Committee on Copyright) be used for adjudication.
3. Intellectual Vision: Berkeley Integrated Teaching and Learning is a problem-solving based approach to content and tools that meet the needs of faculty and students in the new technological world. It promotes Berkeley's efforts to provide innovative content for teaching, learning, design, and scholarship in the following entities:
Virtual Laboratories: The Virtual Laboratory will allow students to
engage in "hands-on" research, modeling, problem solving, design and
the testing of ideas. It will have the capabilities of Information Retrieval
for search and data-mining of libraries, databases, web sites, etc.; Tools to
solve mathematical problems, engineering design, or virtual chemical experiments
(such as with Chem 1A and ChemConnections: http://mc2.cchem.berkeley.edu/MultiCHEM/);
and Integration of above for student projects. Within the virtual laboratory
environment, the student could ask questions pertinent to the specific problem
in a specific discipline or across disciplinary fields. The student could select
from a variety of tools to solve the problem to learn about each option or build
(program) her/his own tools from those already available.
Virtual Museums: Berkeley has many extremely valuable collections of
non-book artifacts and objects housed in campus libraries, museums, and archives.
The campus provides a range of internet access to these collections. The Museum
Informatics Projects (http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/mip/digital/) provides digital
on-line access to these treasures, with over 1.5 million cataloging records
from campus museums and archives. Our Museum of Paleontology (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/)
is one of the most highly "hit" academic websites in the nation, with
a broad range of on-line exhibits, collections and activities.
Virtual Forums: Berkley seminars and speakers are world class and could
be better disseminated nationally. For example, the "Conversations with
History" (http://www.bmrc.berkeley.edu/cwh/index.html) provides a sampler
that was coordinated by the Institute of International Studies. These webcasts
offer lively and unedited interviews, of distinguished men and women from all
over the world. The speakers "reminisce about their participation in great
events, and they share their perspectives on the past and reflect on what the
future may hold. Guests include diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers; economists
and political analysts; scientists and historians; writers and foreign correspondents;
activists and artists. The interviews span the globe and include discussion
of political, economic, military, legal, cultural, and social issues shaping
our world. At the heart of each interview is a focus on individuals and ideas
that make a difference."
Digital Libraries: The Berkeley Library is engaged in building digital
collections and services, and in providing access to other digital resources
via state and national partnerships and initiatives. The Berkeley Digital Library
SunSITE (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/) builds digital collections and services
while providing information and support to others doing the same. Berkeley also
hosts the SMETE.ORG e-learning partnership that offers a comprehensive collection
of science, math, engineering and technology (SMET) education content and services
to learners, educators, and academic policy-makers. SMETE.ORG distributes pedagogical
material through the establishment of a federation of digital libraries content
repositories. Providing direct access and delivery of instructional resources,
SMETE.ORG promotes educational reform through participatory communities of learners.
On-line learning: The Berkeley campus has a rich array of on-line learning
materials that need to cataloged and accessible from a common portal. Some of
this digital material has won national awards. The BIBS (Berkeley Internet Broadcasting
System) webcast UCB class lectures for remote viewing and on-demand replay for
review. BIBS webcasts 10-15 classes with approximate enrollment of over 3,000
students each semester.
Virtual Resources for the Humanities: Berkeley hosts the Electronic Cultural
Atlas Initiative (http://www.ias.berkeley.edu/ecai/), which provides online
access to historical and regional data. Historians, linguists, and other scholars
use ECAI to create, share, and use a wide range of primary resources. The ECAI
web site is used by over 200 projects covering topics that range from the Atlas
of Iconography (Tbilisi State University, Georgia) to digitized Shinto texts
(UC Berkeley & USF).
Interactive University for Outreach: The Interactive University Project
(IU) enables UC Berkeley to make its unmatched resources of people and knowledge
available on the Internet. We serve learners and educators, targeting K-12 teachers,
students, their families, and local communities throughout the Bay Area and
California. Expanded funding would allow more of the Berkeley faculty, staff
and students to make Berkeley resources available to K-12 and the community.
(http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7017/)
Revised 6/19/01