ITLA Joins OCW Network in Offering Free Access to Course Content

Ten courses from the Technology Institute will be available through the Open Course Ware (OCW) consortium.  José Armando Tavarez, Director General of the Latin American Institute of Technology (ITLA), made this announcement at the IV Virtual Educa Caribe Summit being held in the Pedro Mir Library of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD).

The Latin American Institute of Technology (ITLA) is setting a precedent in the country by offering courses from OpenCourseWare (OCW) free of charge. The offer includes 10 of its courses, following the steps of prestigious universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

José Armando Tavarez, Director General of the Latin American Institute of Technology (ITLA), made this announcement at the IV Virtual Educa Caribe Summit being held in the Pedro Mir Library of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD).

He explained that, like other academies that offer part of their material as online courses, the completion of these courses do not result in obtaining a degree or title for those who follow the training process. However, they do guarantee open access to the knowledge at no cost.

Tavarez participated in the meeting with a speech titled, “Higher Education Institutes and Free Virtual Content.”  In his speech, he explained the goal of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) project to guarantee broad access to academic training in that universities and educational institutes linked to OCW can put their content online with the support they enjoy as established educational academies.

He said that ITLA works on the digitalization of content that it will offer and
intends to include video with orientation and instruction from the teachers.

He stressed that Spain is the leader of countries with the highest number of universities integrated in this project and as such they have put a large number of its courses and lessons on the network to provide access to the information and knowledge. MIT set a precedent in 2002 followed by most of the important US universities that followed its footsteps.

Tavarez pointed out that through the portal, Universia (http://ocw.universia.net/, one can download content from Spanish and Latin American universities that are part of the open course network.