by Dave Nagel

The Oregon Department of Education late last month signed on with the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education to receive course materials online, including podcasts, streaming video and audio, and textual materials. Through the deal, some 205 high schools in the state, representing about 125,000 high school students, now have access to the materials through the agency's servers and through HippoCampus.org.

Through the deal, ODE has obtained a statewide license for 33 courses in the National Repository of Online Courses. The repository (NROC) is an "open educational resource project" of the Monterey Institute, providing an online library of courses for students and teachers in algebra, United States history, biology, American government, physics, environmental science, calculus, and other topics. These resources are already publicly available through HippoCampus.org, by ODE, through its agreement, will also have access to "additional resources, services, and secure assessments," according to the Monterey Institute.

For its particular deployment, ODE integrated the NROC content through its open-source learning/content management system, Moodle. The agency is in the process of providing training for educators on the use of the tools.

Read More:

• The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
• The Oregon Department of Education
• HippoCampus.org