MIT Courseware – A World of Online Information!
Opencourseware or OCW are course materials created by universities, and shared freely online via the internet. The Opencourseware program started in 1999 when the University of Tubingen published videos of lectures online. The Opencourseware program at MIT was launched in October 2002. MIT’s reasoning behind OCW was “enhance human learning worldwide by the availability of a web of knowledge”.
The MIT’s OCW is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. It is a free publication of MIT course materials of subjects taught at MIT. The things to remember about OCW is that it is not an MIT education, it does not grant degrees or certificates, does not provide access to MIT faculty and the MIT does not reflect the entire content of the course.
The website offers browsing facilities, for searching for courses by department. The advanced searching option can be used to locate a specific course or a specific topic. The uploading of courses requires investments of around $10000 to $15000. The cost is incurred because of the compilation of course materials from the faculty, ensure proper license for open sharing and to format material for global distribution.
The website offers different options such as the viewing of all 2000 courses at a glance, the most visited courses, editor’s pick, audio/video courses, translated courses and the newly added courses. There are certain organizations that support or back the OCW venture, like Math Works, Lockheed Martin, and DOW. The website also offers High School courses for High School students and teachers.
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