OCW Consortium Appoints Anka Mulder President

Online, May 31, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) Board of Directors has elected Anka Mulder as its new President. The announcement was made at the Consortium's global conference, which included representatives from the more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware (OCW). Mulder currently serves as the director of education at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She succeeds Stephen Carson of MIT, who held the position for three years. The Consortium also announced the results of elections for its Board of Directors. With representatives from more than ten countries participating on the board, the Consortium is confident that a global voice is well represented.

"Anka takes on her leadership role at an important pinnacle in our organization-the 10th anniversary of the OCW movement and our goal to usher in a new era of international awareness and commitment," said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of OCW Consortium. "Anka, the first president from outside the U.S., will lead our mission to build more attention to the movement and the Consortium worldwide."

Mulder was elected based on work serving on the organization's board of directors and as the director of education at Delft University of Technology. As one of the early adopters of open learning, Mulder is involved with implementing projects related to educational innovation, including the initiation of an OCW project for the university. She oversees the program, ensures the adoption of the OCW movement within the school, administers the internal and external communications of the program and helps define the university's future strategy with the OCW movement.

"Thanks to the efforts of our prior president, Stephen Carson, the Consortium has grown enormously," said Mulder. "In my new role, I will focus on the user experience and need. This is the next step of the OCW movement. Also, I will strive to continue the growth of our worldwide membership base which includes connecting government entities with the OCW movement."

The OCW Consortium also announced the results of elections for its Board of Directors. Elected to serve two-year terms through May 2013 are: Youngsup Kim, Handong University and Korea OCW Consortium, Korea; Murilo Mandonca, UNISUL, Brazil; Anka Mulder, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; Edmundo Tovar, Universidad Politecnica Madrid, Spain; and Joel Thierstein, Connexions, USA. Yoshimi Fukuhara, who will be representing Meiji University and the Japan OCW Consortium, was elected to a one year term. They join board members serving terms through May 2012 including: Stephen Carson, MIT, USA; Larry Cooperman, University of California, Irvine, USA; Ignasi Labastida i Juan, Creative Commons International, Spain; and Philipp Schmidt, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the OCW movement and the Consortium concurrently announced the inaugural winners of the Awards for OpenCourseWare Excellence (ACE). The awards provide recognition to outstanding individuals, courseware and opencourseware sites in the OCW Consortium community. Individual award recipients are selected by the Consortium's board of directors, while the site and courseware awards are selected by an awards committee populated from the Consortium membership. The winners included:

Individual Categories
• Leadership ACE: Pedro Aranzadi Elejabeitia, managing director at Portal Universia, S.A.
• Educator ACE: Walter Lewin, physics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• President's ACE: Catherine Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons

Site Awards Category
• University of Sumatera Utara OpenCourseWare
• University of Michigan OERbit
• Universidad de Alicante OpenCourseWare

CourseWare Categories

Video and Multimedia
• Metabolaspel, taught by Dr. Johan van Rhijn at the Open Universiteit (Netherlands)
• Introduction to Pitch Systems in Tonal Music, taught by John Crooks at U.C. Irvine (United States) Chemistry Lab, taught by Nergis Gurel at Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
• Estructuras Matemáticas para la Informática - II, taught by Cristina Jordan at Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain)
• Actividad Fisica para la Salud, taught by Pedro A. López-Miñarro at the University of Murcia (Spain)

Texts and Illustrations
• Occupation Focused Conceptual Frameworks, taught by Matumo Ramafikeng at the University of Cape Town (South Africa)
• Applied Multimedia Technology, taught by Chris Clark at the University of Notre Dame (United States)
• Mitología Greco-Romana, taught by Jose Luis Ramírez Sádaba at the Universidad de Cantabria (Spain)
• Tecnicas de Animación Turística, taught by Mario Badilla at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Costa Rica)
• Instituciones Básicas del Derecho Administrativo, taught by Jose Vida Fernández at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)

ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform. The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.

Activities of the OpenCourseWare Consortium are supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, member dues, and contributions from sustaining members including: African Virtual University, China Open Resources for Education, Fundacao Getulio Vargas - FGV Online, Delft University of Technology, Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Korea OpenCourseWare Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netease Information Technology, Open Universiteit, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Tufts University, Universia, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan, and University of the Western Cape. For more information, visit http://www.ocwconsortium.org. For more information, visit http://www.ocwconsortium.org.
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