Press Release for the Second Forum of MIT OCW in Shanghai 2004-09-22   The second international forum of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open CourseWare (MITOCW) will be held in Shanghai on the 2nd and 3rd of September, 2004. It is the second conference after the successful first event hosted by Beijing Jiao Tong University September 2003. This forum is sponsored by China Open Resources for Education (CORE) and cosponsored by one of CORE lead universities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. CORE is a consortium of universities which started with 26 IET Foundation member universities such as Beijing University and Tsinghua University, as well as 44 Chinese Radio and TV universities. CORE also received support from MIT, Hewlett Foundation and IET Foundation and the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE). The mission of CORE is to promote educational resource sharing in China. CORE will coordinate and utilize the content from MITOCW and other universities to enhance the quality of education in China, and to share Chinese OCW globally. Currently, CORE membership totals more than 70 Chinese universities which have an enrollment of 5 million students who will be able to access MIT OCW. Additionally, CORE has 12 lead universities that share its vision and are committed to lead the effort to translate and localize the content to meet the Chinese needs. CORE has established a Chinese and English website as a resource sharing platform. Currently, there are 900 available MIT courseware and additional courseware from other universities. Access to the MITOCW is available at the CORE website which is a mirror site of the MITOCW in the U.S.A. CORE hopes to elevate the general level of education in China, especially in rural areas which may not currently have access to world class academic content. CORE will also provide I-Campus, I-lab, electronic books and other forms of academic resources to promote global sharing. CORE has been making steady progress with the support of the Chinese government and CORE member universities since it came into existence. Together with universities in China and other educational organizations, CORE is dedicated to improving the overall level of education in China. With this aim, all of CORE's staff is committed to fulfill CORE's mission. Hosting this forum is one step in accomplishing CORE?ˉs mission. CORE has an Executive Board and an Advisory Board to ensure that CORE operates effectively and efficiently. Most of the Executive Board members are Presidents of universities and are responsible for organizing and promoting CORE's programs. The Advisory Board consists of distinguished members from China and other countries who support CORE's goals. They are responsible for reviewing CORE's working plan, providing advice and also sponsoring CORE's activities. On the 1st of September, the day before the start of the forum, the first Executive/Advisory board meeting will be held. Approximately 24 board members will be present. The Chairman of CORE, Dr. Fun-Den Wang, with his staff, will report to board members about Five-year plan of CORE and its implementation strategy. Also, CORE will solicit the advice of board members and make appropriate revisions in response to that advice. After getting the approval of the two boards, CORE will implement its business plan. The forum will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of September. The first forum held at Beijing Jiao Tong University introduced MITOCW and its goals. At this year's forum, one presenter will be discussing philosophy and prospects of MITOCW. There will be presentations regarding application experience of MITOCW at Qinghai University by MIT students, and at Dalian Poly-Tech University. In addition to these presentations, there will be presentations on educational technology, intellectual property issues and other relevant topics. The Chairman of CORE, Dr. Wang Fun-Den will make a presentation on the CORE program as well. There will be approximately 150 people attending the forum. They come from universities in China, leading American universities and organizations such as MIT, Johns Hopkins University, Internet Archive, World Bank, Hewlett Foundation and other prestigious organizations. Totally, there will be 18 speeches. Also, in order to honor a few outstanding individuals for their contribution to resource sharing in education, CORE will present special pioneer awards to six distinguished people. They are the President of MIT, Charles Vest, Associate Dean of Engineering at MIT, Dr.Dick Yue, MITOCW Director, Anne Margules, Hewlett Foundation representatives, Dr. Marshall (Mike) Smith and Dr. Catherione (CathyCasserly, Director of Higher Education Division of MOE, Zhang Raoxue, and the Vice President of Central Radio and TV University, Yan Bing.   close