A report in today's Chronicle of Higher Education about Dr. Mark Marino's use of modular widgets for student submissions on his writing course web page.

Merino, a lecturer in the writing program at the University of Southern California, says that using Web widgets for online course materials furthers the goals of open courseware, efforts by professors and colleges to give away their lecture notes and other teaching materials online.

The main benefit of widgets over traditional Web pages is “portability,” Mr. Marino said in an interview. “We’re kind of saying ‘steal my content — take any piece of this class easily and put it where you want it.'”

Read more about Merino's work at the Writer-Response Theory Blog.