Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware Project
By: JasonItec
MIT is one of the most prestigious technology and engineering colleges in the world, and they have developed a program to make available over two thousand of their courses online for free. The entire world can now have access to the same coursework as MIT students. Currently, the Open Courseware Project (OCW) holds 2150 online courses offering everything from Economic History to Quantum Physics with new courses being uploaded regularly. To finance such a large undertaking, MIT OCW has an annual budget of around 4 million dollars, half of which is paid for by outside donations and grant monies. So, the growth and longevity of this program relies heavily on the continued support of its donors.
The MIT OCW has a massive virtual library to go along with the online coursework. PDF versions of the same textbooks used by the university are available online, for free! Every course has tabs for a syllabus, calendar, assignments, projects, and pedagogy of the class design. Embedded in the coursework are literature, text, video, and lecture materials. A person from halfway across the world could essentially map out their coursework and educate themselves with MIT designed materials and content for the price of internet access.
The question is why would a university that is at the forefront in technology education basically open up their playbook for everyone else to see?
The rationale behind this project is not for MIT to show off how awesome they are, even though it may be a side-effect, but the theory is to make the point that knowledge sharing is good for the world on many different levels. Sharing information makes for better teachers, better researchers, and better problem solvers. Basically, it cuts out learning curves and has the potential to make the world a healthier place, a safer place, and overall a better place. For distance education specifically, there is a module in OCW called “OCW Educator” that is essentially a “behind the scenes” look at how some of the best teachers in the world design and create online coursework. This is an amazing resource for anyone in the distance education or blended learning field to have the opportunity to take advantage of this knowledge and utilize it for their own professional development.
Browsing through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware Project website, ocw.mit.edu, it is impossible not to be impressed with every aspect of what they are doing. From their rationale of creating the project to the ongoing quality and development of the product itself, the whole program is just educational excellence epitomized. As an educator, reading through the articles, press releases, and newsletters on their website is inspiring down to the core.
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