The power of the Internet to educate is self-evident — users have access to information and knowledge with a simple keystroke. But true educational institutions across the world are opening their doors to students everywhere, giving access to learning that was previously limited to the very privileged few.
MIT has taken this web-era phenomenon to a new level by offering every course in the university’s curriculum online at no charge to all comers. By year-end, 1,800 MIT courses will be available (for no credit, alas) to anybody who wants to learn through a consortium called OpenCourseWare (OCW).
This move is an expansion of MIT’s existing efforts to make some courses available online, which has garnered 1.5 million online students. Most of the courses are available via audiocasts or online notes submitted by the instructors, but 21 of the current courses offered are delivered with full video.
The bulk of the online learners (40%) are MIT alumni, but the university’s reach is global, with South Korea and China sending a good number of students to the online classes. MIT is not alone in sharing the educational wealth — 130 universities around the around make some courses available online at no charge via OCW. But, it’s a generous move by the school nonetheless.
MIT’s Anne Margulies, executive director of the program, recently described the OCW program as knowledge “shared openly and freely. MIT is using the power of the Internet to give away all of the educational materials created here.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:48 AM|Comments(0)
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