UC Irvine Extension Partners with Brazilian College for Free Online Courses

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/29/08

UC Irvine Extension, the continuing education arm of the University of California, Irvine, has announced a joint educational venture with Brazil-based Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). Through the partnership, FGV--a nonprofit higher education institution and the largest provider of online education in Brazil--has created free online courses, presented in Portuguese, as part of the UC Irvine Extension's OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative. The two new courses are "Ethics in Portuguese" and "Training and Human Resources Development."

"The sharing of free, high-quality courses between two higher education institutions with international reach will benefit students all over the world. Exemplifying the power of the OCW initiative, this partnership enables learners, no matter whom or where they are, to gain access to University-level courses," said Gary W. Matkin, dean of continuing education at UC Irvine. "Also, since most educational material is shared from the Northern hemisphere to the Southern, this partnership provides us the opportunity to showcase high quality educational content produced in the vibrant countries of South America. The collaboration between UC Irvine Extension and FGV represents one of the first times that an international institution has created content for utilization by the United States--making it an early example of both cultural significance and educational pioneering."

Through the partnership, FGV has shared its MBA course, "Ethics in Portuguese," and has also adapted UC Irvine Extension's course, "Training and Human Resources Development." The UC Irvine course has been localized by adding concepts and cases that reflect the business and cultural environment of Brazil.

UC Irvine's OCW is a Web-based resource that houses educational assets that are discoverable, searchable, modifiable, and free and easily available. Through the OCW Movement, UC Irvine provides university-quality courses and learning assets to self learners.