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Open & Free courses are designed for individual learners who are not under the guidance of an instructor. You will have access to most or all course content.

Open Access:
- No set start or end dates to the course - access material any time and at your own pace
- No enrollment - access the course anonymously OR create a FREE OLI account to track your progress.

Free:
- There are no fees associated with your access
- Each course is available in at least one version using only open source or free support programs and or plug-ins

Note: Tests and quizzes are not available in any Open & Free Course.

Academic versions are designed to be used by classes led by an instructor. Instructors from various institutions create customized course sections for their students. Instructors have access to each student's work and progress. They may assign applicable grades and or credit.

Several of our courses charge low per-student maintenance fees when used in this way. Students are also subject to any normal tuition fees assessed by the instructor's institution.

Note: The Open Learning Initiative does not grant credit or assign grades. Any grade or credit earned originates from the institution that the instructor represents.

The chart below displays the various features available in each course type.

Features	Open & Free Course	Academic course
Course Materials
Simulations, Computer Based Tutors, Virtual Laboratories, and Self-Assessments
Formative Feedback for Students
Access to an Instructor
Graded Exams
Tracks Student-Learning as Feedback for Instructors
Credit / Verification of Course Completion

What do I do if I want to take an OLI course?

Visit this page for information on taking an OLI course.

Why should I create an account for an Open & Free Course?

Creating a FREE account is optional when accessing an Open & Free Course.

Track Your Progress:
- Creating an account when taking Open & Free Courses will allow you to track your progress as you work through each course.
- Accessing course materials anonymously does not allow you to save or track progress.
Course Improvement:
- OLI is studying how students learn in an online educational environment and our study is directed at improving the course materials. As part of the account creation process, you have the option to opt in or out of this research study. A detailed statement about this research is provided for your review and consideration. After you create your account, you can decide to opt out at any time.
- Opting in will help us to know if OLI course designs and materials are effective. This valuable data informs improvements to OLI courses. We appreciate your help.
- If you choose to opt-out, your access to course materials will NOT be affected in any way. Data from your session will not be saved in our research database and our researchers will not see your work.

Note: If you are taking a course for credit through an institution, you will need to create an OLI account and enter a "Course Key" (provided by your instructor) to begin working in the OLI course. You will still have the option to either opt-in or opt-out of the research study.

How can I get credit for an Academic OLI course?

If you are taking the academic version of the course under the guidance of an instructor, you may be able to receive credit. Check with your instructor to find out if the institution that he or she represents will give you credit for your work.

Currently, the Open Learning Initiative does not grant credit for the completion of any course.

How can I get credit for an Open & Free OLI course?

If you are an independent learner using an Open & Free course, you can check with your school, or a local school to learn if they offer any options for credit. Each school will vary. Currently, the Open Learning Initiative does not grant credit for the completion of any course.

So far we have typically seen such independent learners arrange with their school to have an instructor create a custom course section for them to work through. The instructor monitors their progress and assigns any applicable grade. Any credit comes from the instructor's institution. The student may also have to pay that institution's tuition.

To pursue this type of use of OLI course materials, the first step would be to contact your school and see if you can make this kind of arrangement with an instructor. Then he or she can contact us for an instructor's account and assistance with the custom section.

There is no cost to the instructor - either for the instructor's account or the custom course section. Some of our courses carry a small per-student usage fee that you would pay when you register. Depending on the course, this cost could range from $15-$60.

Will I get a certificate when I complete an Open & Free Course?

No. Currently, the Open Learning Initiative does not grant credit, certificates, or validation of course completion for any course. Your gradebook is the only proof that you have completed an Open and Free course.

How do I get a Course Key?

If you are taking an Academic Course, your instructor will provide you with a Course Key. Otherwise, you can use the Open & Free Courses without a Course Key. Simply find the course you are interested in and click on "Get Started/Add Course". See a list of all the available Open & Free Courses.

What do I do if I want to teach an OLI course?

Visit this page for information about teaching an OLI course.

Why use OLI's academic course material as part of our classes?

The greatest benefit of the "academic version" is that, as the students work in the system, the system collects data about the learning gains and performance of the students and uses this data to provide feedback to both the student and the instructor. In this way, students attend their class meetings in a much better prepared state than students usually do.

Students prepare for class by actively engaging with the material in numerous ways. These include completing comprehension checks of their understanding as they read, applying their new skills to problems for practice, receiving tailored feedback on their answers, and reflecting on their own understanding and questions as they proceed. In this way students come to class ready to make best use of their time with the instructor.

The OLI system automatically generates instructor reports on student progress, summaries of students’ quiz performance, and students’ reflections and questions about the previous week’s material. With this information in hand, the instructor can select discussion topics and example problems that target the topics with which the students are struggling. Then, class time can be spent with students actively engaged on the material that was most likely to need more supported practice or a novel explanation from the instructor. Thus, the instructor comes to class better prepared to teach.

It is this combination of preparedness of both the students and the instructor, facilitated by the OLI courses, that we believe is the key to the successes we have found of using this course in hybrid mode to accelerate learning and improve learning outcomes.

Academic versions also offers instructors these features:

Quickly create a basic course or use our web-based course builder tools to select and sequence available course modules that best fit her/his course
Assign a "Course Key" to the instance of the course s/he has created. Only students with this code can access her/his course
Edit and send system generated instructions to her/his students explaining how to set up a student account and use the course "Course Key"
Register and set up custom courses for free (a small per-student maintenance fee may apply to see which courses charge a fee, visit the "For Instructors" page.)

What do we have to do as an Institute to use OLI in our classrooms?

Institutes can use our materials in various ways. Two of the most common are either utilizing our academic versions or listing our site as an additional resource.

If your students will be using our materials as part of a sponsored class, we recommend that you ask your instructors to register as instructors in our system. They can then set up their own instances of a course for their students to join. We call courses used in this way "Academic Versions". Academic versions offer many advantages for your instructors. Please see the question "Why use OLI's academic course material as part of our classes?" for information about these benefits.

Alternatively, you can list our site as an additional resource for your students. There is no requirement for anyone to register for any of our courses; they are Open & Free. On the "Open & Free" course page of our website where the courses are listed, you will see two options under each course "look inside" or "join course". If you selects the "look inside" option you will be immediately put into the course with no registration; you would be anonymous. If you select the "join course" option, you will be presented with an online form to create an account on our system and register in the course. Both options are free - there is no charge regardless of whether you "look inside" or "join" but if you "join", you get the added benefit of having your own OLI home page where the courses in which you are working are listed and the system keeps track of your progress. These two options were intended to support individual learners who do not have the benefit of an instructor or fellow classmates.

What do we need to have at the Institute in terms of Hardware and Software to access the resources?

The online courses are highly interactive and use intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and frequent opportunities for assessment and feedback so each student and instructor would need access to a computer workstation with an internet connection. They do not need to have access all at the same time; each student can work through the course material at their own pace and on their own time and their work is tracked for the instructor by the system. The only software required is a web-browser and all plug-ins used by any of the courses (flash-player, java, etc.) are can be freely downloaded and installed from the internet. Each course has a "test and configure" page that allows the user to run an automatic test of their computer workstation to make sure it is configured so the course will function. The "test and configure" page and automatic test will tell the user what additional plug-ins they need and link them to the site to download and install for free.

All of the courses are hosted by our severs at Carnegie Mellon so your institute does not need any hardware or software beyond the individual workstations and internet access. If your institution has a good local area network but your internet access is not good or if internet access is prohibitively expensive, we can explore installing an "OLI Appliance" at your institution to serve your teachers and students. An “OLI Appliance” is a server configured with the OLI development and delivery environment and all OLI courses that can be put on your local area network and maintained and updated remotely by our system engineers.

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What is the difference between the "Academic Courses" and "Open & Free Courses"?