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MIT Everyware
TeachingMachines writes "David Diamond has written a very readable article at Wired News titled MIT Everyware that follows up on MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative (previous story). It turns out that one of the most popular courses has been '6.170 Laboratory in Software Engineering, Fall 2001.' Diamond notes that '[u]ltimately, MIT officials know, OpenCourseWare's success depends on the emergence of online communities to support individual courses.'"
Online courses only really work in cases where people are highly driven or very short on time. As in medical school etc.
Generaly the problem is that it's too easy to 'disconnect' from class and never open the book or do the homework as the web lectures and forum based discussions don't create the same level of attachment and group learning as class.
I'm currently a college student and I have taken a web based class this term and the first few weeks adjusting to it was tough. I kept forgetting to check the boards, to post replies etc. Since you get graded on the level of discussion on the boards etc...first few weeks sucked.
It's very nice though to have all the slides available 24/7 online, even ones from classes taught by other profs. Even better if they post last years tests 8-)
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
Top 10 OpenCourseWare Nations*
Rank Nation Hits
1. Canada 3,886,197
2. Germany 3,576,071
3. Brazil 3,170,362
4. South Korea 3,254,259
5. France 3,012,102
6. Japan 3,095,913
7. United Kingdom 3,099,713
8. China 2,563,446
9. India 2,512,267
10. Australia 1,372,052
* Outside the U.S.
Includes nearly 600,000 hits from mainland China, where the government denied access to OpenCourseWare until February 2003, and nearly 2 million hits from Hong Kong.
Top 10 OpenCourseWare Classes
1. Philosophy 24.00: Problems of Philosophy
2. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 6.170: Laboratory in Software Engineering
3. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 6.071: Introduction to Electronics
4. Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 12.409: Hands-On Astronomy: Observing Stars and Planets
5. Mathematics 18.06: Linear Algebra
6. Mathematics 18.013A: Calculus with Applications
7. Nuclear Engineering 22.00J: Introduction to Modeling and Simulation
8. Physics 8.02: Electricity and Magnetism
9. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 6.281J: Logistical and Transportation Planning Methods
10. Management 15.810: Introduction to Marketing
Nice to see that the 'Other Nations' are outside the US. And I'm glad its South (not North) Korea at No. 4, considering that Nuclear Engineering is at No. 7!
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Making MIT Affordable
Alas, I didn't graduate (ran out of money at the time) and don't see a way to get back into it. They don't seem to have any pages targeted at people who want to resume a long-interrupted stay.
"Of course, there will probably be debates to see if these courses will be admissible for diploma..."
Probably only between people such as yourself that have not read any of the FAQs:
"MIT OCW is not meant to replace degree-granting higher education or for-credit courses. Rather, the goal is to provide the content that supports an education."
About 1/3 of the FAQs there plainly state that this is just the publishable material of the course; not at all a replacement for taking the course, and in no way is admissible for a diploma.
If you've ever attended college and skipped a class, you should know there is absolutely no comparison between being in class and reading the notes on the web later. That being said, I think this is a great idea, and hopefully people will use it for its intended purpose.
Scott
are you kidding? you must be kidding.
MIT is number 1 for a reason. how can you say their SE course sucks? have you been to MIT? have you taken 6.170?
if you did go to MIT you'd know that they don't really try to teach you anything except "how to think outside the box". I went to MIT. Graduated Course VI (Comp sci). I personally cannot remember one thing i learned from any of my courses.
do you know that MIT's comp sci department really doesn't even have a course that teaches a programming language? its just assumed that either you already know an OOP language..or that you can pick it up real quick. i asked hal abelson why they didn't have a course that tought a language and he said, MORE OR LESS, "Any monkey can learn to program, at MIT we teach our engineers how to think. if it takes you longer than a couple of weeks to learn a language then you shouldn't be an engineer."
at first i was put off by that comment...but after i left MIT i grew to love it. its the truth.
if you feel the need to teach your courses with realistic case scenarios....fine by me. but don't dogg MIT because you lack the creativity and mental ability to think outside the box and teach your students to do the same. MIT teaches abstraction and critical thinking. An engineer with those tools is far more prepared to tackle problems than an engineer who learned from one case scenario. no matter how involved it is...it can't prepare them for everything.
MIT has to be doing something right. check out their rankings....then compare them to yours!
The current system restricts knowledge to those who can afford it
I wasn't very rich when I went to MIT at the end of the 90s--I lived in a trailer in rural North Carolina. The thought of paying $30k a year (now $40k a year) was just mind-boggling for me.
But then I waited to find out what the financial aid was, and they are "ridiculously" generous. They have grants and low interest loans for those who are not rich going in.
My fifth year (to get my Master's), I was able to work as a Research Assistant, getting my tuition paid AND a stipend to cover room and board plus a little bit of partying on the side. (And I was by no means the exception on this point; all of my friends had similar deals.)
Fortunately, partly because I went there, I got a good paying job afterward. Now, three years after graduation, I am close to paying off my loans.
So yes, it is expensive... but they are generous if you do not have the money.
(By the way, I feel particularly attached to OCW now... I received two letters asking me to give legal permission to MIT to use a couple of things I did in OCW (a small class project for a history class and an essay assignment I wrote for another class). It didn't even dawn on me that they would need my permission to use work that I did for classes there, since both of these things have been available on the web since I did them. Maybe they are just being nice. :))
From the MIT mission statement:
The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
It's one thing for a university to say something like that, but what I as a student can contribute to this discussion is the assurance that they're for real. TDespite huge military and government funding there are no secret projects on campus; every research lab is open to every student. Most parts of campus (including the extensive libraries) are even open to the public. Data is posted on the internet as soon as it can be verified... I feel silly listing these individual things MIT does to share information. That's probably because OCW is the single greatest step in that process.
I'm not worried that my degree will be obsolete in 20 years. Other people may have learned the same material organized by the same professors, but the real value of MIT is the interaction with the teachers and the students. It comes with a hefty price tag, of course. Disclaimer: MIT isn't perfect. Every time I've mentioned the school before I've gotten flamed. Flame away. The school isn't perfect, but it does have a particular nobility of purpose.
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The courses offered through OpenCourseWare by no means represent all of the courses offered through MIT. I would actually be surprised if the EECS department didn't offer a course similar to what you described. Certainly you can so similar work through the Media Lab,
In MechE we were required to take a course (2.73) where we were presented with a problem and we where expected to develop an engineering solution to the problem. We were organized into groups of 30 students, given a real budget ($2000/group) and expected to do research and coordinate with industry contacts. So we got to deal with things like late suppliers, unreasonable expectations, prior art, etc.
By the end of the semester, we had to develop a working prototype of our solution, within the budget we were given. Each group then presented this prototype to a group of professors, investors and industry people, and had to demonstrate that the device was feasible to use and mass-produce.Trust me, you will get real-world experience at MIT