In the article Smith says: “The confluence of the Web and a spirit of sharing intellectual property have fueled a worldwide movement to make knowledge and education materials open to all for use. … In 2007 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a study of the use and prevalence of OER in the developed world, concluding that ‘An apparently extraordinary trend has emerged.’” Today, more than 7,800 courses are available on the web.

Smith looks at several issues in developing an infrastructure for the OER. These include technical, social, cultural, political, legal and financial issues.

He provides examples of OER which include: Science simulations designed by C. Wieman of the University of British Columbia and University of Colorado, MIT OpenCourseWare, and the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education’s HippoCampus.

Article: Opening Education (subscription)

A slightly more detail article is available at Teal Teaching in MIT Spectrum, Winter 2004.

The approach was spearheaded by John Belcher, who is quoted in the Spectrum article as saying that TEAL students make gains nearly double those of their counterparts in standard classes.

Course materials, photos of the classroom and interactive visualizations are at Visualizing Electricity and Magnetism at MIT.  The content is available for free used for non-profit educational purposes, as long as an acknowledgment is given to the MIT TEAL/Studio Physics Project.