Dear ART 103 learners,

Welcome to the ART 103: Art in our world and beyond course (art103), hosted at the OERu. This course is part of the ART 100: Art Appreciation and Techniques series and explores traditional and non-traditional mediums associated with two-dimensional artworks, the camera arts, three-dimensional artworks and traditional and modern styles of architecture.

During this introductory session you will familiarise yourself with the art103 course site and meet the course facilitator(s), if there are any. Make sure you bookmark the art103 homepage. You will also establish your personal learning environment and introduce yourself using the general course discussion forum or your personal blog. Refer to the Start Here page with orientation tasks that should be completed prior to the start of the course. Here are some other important links you should review as soon as possible:

Note: The OERu is a charitable collaboration of international institutions committed to widening access to more affordable education opportunities for all. For more information about the OERu, please view our promotional video on Youtube. Please share the gift of knowledge and help us by completing the optional OERu new participant survey. This information will be used to assist the OERu with the future design of free courses with pathways to achieving credible credentials. The OERu envisions a world where all learners will have more affordable access to higher education.

The OERu international network is launching a free first year of study. art103: Art in our world and beyond is one of the courses being offered as part of this 1st year of study. Your participation in this course will help us refine our technologies to provide free learning opportunities based entirely on Open Educational Resources (OER) and open source software with pathways to achieving formal academic credit towards recognised credentials.

This is a pilot offering of this micro-course and we hope that you find it useful and enjoyable. We are trialling a few new technologies and you may encounter a few teething problems. We thank you in advance for your understanding and feedback to help us improve our open technologies. Thank you in advance for your understanding and gift of time to help us improve.

Welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing you online!