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MIT's OpenCourseWare Program

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the let-a-thousand-scholars-bloom dept.

Kent Simon writes "Many people may not know that MIT has initiated OpenCourseWare, an initiative to share all of their educational resources with the public. This generous act is intended (in classical MIT style) to make knowledge free, open, and available. It's a great resource for people looking to improve their knowledge of our world. OpenCourseWare should prove exceptionally beneficial to those who may not be able to afford the quality of education offered at a school like MIT. Here's a link to all currently available courses. It is expected that by the end of the year every course offered at MIT will be available on the OpenCourseWare site, including lecture notes, homework assignments, and exams. OpenCourseWare is not offered to replace collegiate education, but rather to spread knowledge freely."

4 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Other Free Courses/courseware? by lecithin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is a link for HP's free classes:

    http://h30187.www3.hp.com/

    Who has more?

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  2. Real /. readers have been aware since 2002... ;-) by Lord+Satri · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Many people may not know that MIT has initiated OpenCourseWare [...]"

    MIT OpenCourseWare Now Online
    On September 30th, 2002 with 179 comments

    And more much other older stories.

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  3. Re:HP != MIT by heroofhyr · · Score: 4, Informative

    More important, I think, than homework assignments is having the textbooks. And a large number of MIT's "open" courses lack the texts. It's rather useless if you're going there because you want to learn Subject X only to find that the only materials you have access to are some lecture videos and a few notes here and there. I understand that classes use books written by other people who have no intention of ever making that book free, but using MIT's OCW as a means of learning is far from a replacement for buying a book or going to a real course. Sometimes even a Wikipedia article provides more useful information about a given subject than all the materials about that subject offered for download by MIT combined. It might have changed since the last time I visited the site, but at the time it wasn't all that impressive except maybe as a refresher for stuff I already knew but hadn't used for ages.

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  4. Berkley online classes/lectures by lecithin · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/index.php

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