0A New Model for Open Sharing February 10, 2006 OCW Newsletter Survey Jon Paul Potts

1A New Model for Open Sharing I.Item 1 II.Item 2 III.Item 3 IV.Item 4 V.Item 5 1A New Model for Open Sharing

2 › “MIT OpenCourseWare Update” is award-winning, monthly newsletter As of February 10, 2006 – 38,308 self-registered subscribers Growing at rate of 1000 new subscribers every six to eight weeks Only information we have on subscribers is address › survey invitation sent to all subscribers Survey conducted Jan. 11 at 3 pm EST, to Jan. 14 at 3 pm EST Utilized NetRaker’s “WebEffective Intelligence Platform” Introduction

3 A New Model for Open Sharing Response › Survey tool initially set to receive 1000 respondents Crossed that threshold by 8 pm EST on January 11 Re-instrumented survey to receive 5000 respondents Sent follow-up inviting subscribers to retake survey on January 12 › Results at 3 pm on January 14: 3828 subscribers opened survey, 1903 completed survey 5.1% response rate from entire subscriber base 49% survey completion rate According to –With 1885 surveys completed, we have 95% confidence level at +/- 2.2 percent margin of error

4 A New Model for Open Sharing How Long A Subscriber? › The majority of subscribers to the MIT OpenCourseWare newsletter have received it for more than a year

5 A New Model for Open Sharing What is Your Educational Role? › Educational roles of our newsletter subscribers closely correlate the results of our 2005 Web site user survey

6 A New Model for Open Sharing › 46% of subscribers from U.S.A. or Canada – correlates with percentage of MIT OCW traffic from North America › But other sizable populations from: Australia China India Taiwan Various countries of Western Europe and Latin America › Subscribers also reported from: Kazakhstan Saudi Arabia Syria Ukraine Vietnam Where Are You From?

7 A New Model for Open Sharing How Did You Discover Newsletter? › Majority discovered newsletter on MIT OCW Web site, but 19% were referred by colleague or newsgroup

8 A New Model for Open Sharing What Do You Do with Newsletter? › Subscribers browse through content, seeking useful links. Very few – less than 1% – delete without reading

9 A New Model for Open Sharing Design of Newsletter › Overwhelming majority either agree or strongly agree that the design of the newsletter is clear, easy-to-use KEY = Strongly Agree = Agree = Disagree = Strongly disagree

10 A New Model for Open Sharing Newsletter Helps You Access Content › Overwhelming majority either agree or strongly agree that the newsletter helps them access MIT OCW content KEY = Strongly Agree = Agree = Disagree = Strongly disagree

11 A New Model for Open Sharing What Features Are Most Useful? › Subscribers find links to new courses, and links to new features on the MIT OCW Web site, to be most useful feature of newsletter › Mixed results on following features: “Digging Deeper” exploration of single course’s materials News about MIT OCW initiative as whole Links to other opencourseware projects › Limited interest in MIT OCW FAQs

12 A New Model for Open Sharing Giving to MIT OpenCourseWare › 27% are aware that MIT OCW solicits voluntary financial donations from users › 13% have visited the “Give Now” page › 2% have actually made a donation to MIT OCW › 46% would be willing to make a donation in the future CONCLUSION: We need to make a better case for why MIT OCW deserves their money!

13 A New Model for Open Sharing Sample Survey Open Feedback › Publish user case studies › Develop RSS feed for instant new course updates › Tighten up the writing – less text, more links › Increase frequency of newsletter › Honor scared ground of education and refrain from turning the MIT OCW newsletter into yet another political machine › Improve aesthetics of by sending HTML version › Continue to publish as text-only – please do not change to more graphic stuff, like most companies now do › Inform users of MIT OCW staff international meetings and speaking tours › Offer multilingual versions of newsletter (Spanish especially) › Publish more “ Digging Deeper ” explorations of good courses › Less on similar initiatives from other institutions that are also undertaking OCW. These other programs are nowhere near as advanced as MIT. › I think you are doing an excellent job and continue doing so. Don ’ t let it fail!!! › I ’ d be interested about MIT life and activities: research programs and so on.

14 A New Model for Open Sharing Conclusion A typical subscriber to the MIT OCW newsletter is a self-learner from the United States who: › Subscribed after seeing link on MIT OCW Web site › Browses through content looking for links of interest › Finds the newsletter clear and easy-to-use › Finds the newsletter better helps him/her utilize MIT OCW content › Finds links to new courses most useful › Occasionally forwards newsletter to a friend or colleague › Is semi-interested in supporting MIT OCW with a financial gift › Has not had any technical difficulties using newsletter

15 A New Model for Open Sharing Thank You! Register for the MIT OCW Update newsletter at