1A New Model for Open Sharing

February 10, 2006

OCW Email Newsletter SurveyJon Paul Potts

2A New Model for Open Sharing

I. Item 1

II.Item 2

III.Item 3

IV.Item 4

V. Item 5

2A New Model for Open Sharing

3A New Model for Open Sharing

› “MIT OpenCourseWare Update” is award-winning, monthly email 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 email address

› Email 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

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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 email 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 http://www.researchinfo.com

– With 1885 surveys completed, we have 95% confidence level at +/- 2.2 percent margin of error

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How Long A Subscriber?

› The majority of subscribers to the MIT OpenCourseWare email newsletter have received it for more than a year

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What is Your Educational Role?

›Educational roles of our newsletter subscribers closely correlate the results of our 2005 Web site user survey

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›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?

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How Did You Discover Newsletter?

›Majority discovered newsletter on MIT OCW Web site, but 19% were referred by colleague or newsgroup

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What Do You Do with Newsletter?

›Subscribers browse through content, seeking useful links. Very few – less than 1% – delete without reading

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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 email 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.

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Conclusion

A typical subscriber to the MIT OCW email 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 email newsletter

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Thank You!

Register for the MIT OCW Update email newsletter at

http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ocw-mail