quote:When MIT announced to the world in April 2001 that it would be posting the content of some 2,000 classes on the Web, it hoped the program - dubbed OpenCourseWare - would spur a worldwide movement among educators to share knowledge and improve teaching methods. No institution of higher learning had ever proposed anything as revolutionary, or as daunting. MIT would make everything, from video lectures and class notes to tests and course outlines, available to any joker with a browser. The academic world was shocked by MIT's audacity - and skeptical of the experiment. At a time when most enterprises were racing to profit from the Internet and universities were peddling every conceivable variant of distance learning, here was the pinnacle of technology and science education ready to give it away. Not the degrees, which now cost about $41,000 a year, but the content. No registration required.
This next excerpt just goes to show the positive affects something like this can have.
quote:One of the most popular offerings turned out to be Laboratory in Software Engineering, aka 6.170, a tough requirement for electrical engineering and computer science majors. Lam Vi Quoc, a fourth-year student at Vietnam's Natural Sciences University, relied on 6.170 lectures to supplement a software lab he was taking, and Evan Hoff, a software developer in Nashville, followed the course to improve his coding skills. In Karachi, Pakistan, a group of 100 students and professionals met weekly to study 6.170. In Kansas City, five members of the Greater Kansas City Java Professionals Association gathered monthly to take the course. In Mauritius, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, Priya Durshini Thaunoo used 6.170 to prepare for a master's degree program at the University of Mauritius. Saman Zarandioon, an Iranian refugee living in Vienna, studied it to continue an education that was stalled by the Iranian government. And software developer Rahul Thadani in Birmingham, Alabama, took it to sharpen his skills.
I think the possibilities that can come of this are endless. Between students/people being able to learn what they otherwise would not be able to and the information that could be shared between schools and ideas that could be passed back and forth.
Seriously, what a great idea...
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Man, that is wicked cool. I like the fact that they are putting all of their classes online. I could get an education (no degree of course) right here at home!
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow! That is way cool! Everything I liked about college (learning more about all kinds of stuff) and none of the bad (tests, research papers, early morning classes).
posted
It is a great and visionary project that will only enhance MIT's considerable reputation. Earlier this summer I went through about 2/3 of the lecture notes for a philosophy class there. Then I found Hatrack and have been spending much time here. I'll get back to the class eventually. The professor wrote very good lecture notes, I wish I could afford the textbook she assigned readings from. Every course is not open yet, they plan to be fully open in 3 years. But I see from the wired link that 500 more courses will open next month. Hopefully more physics and math classes.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Speaking as an OSS developer of note (in my own mind), let's acknowledge that the analogy doesn't really fit: information is still flowing one-way.
That said, it is of course a fantastic idea that embodies all that the university as a societal institution should aspire towards. I'm not surprised to learn that many of the beneficiaries are from overseas -- not only is technology booming in developing countries, but the educational infrastructure is largely missing (with some notable exceptions like IIT). And dare I say it, based on my experiences with grad students at Duke and immigrants at MS, I think they appreciate the opportunities we're afforded here more.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
