Free University Courses from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). If you ever wanted to study anything in college, visit this website. Almost every course taught at MIT is available online for free to the public. You can't get a degree with these courses and you won't have access to the instructors, but the vast amount of knowledge is amazing. These are the actual courses taught at the University...Architecture, Math, Engineering, Literature, Business Management, Biology...plus hundreds more. They even have older courses archived. All the course study materials, course outlines, etc.
Sloan School of Management(at MIT) offers courses in: Accounting, Communication, Finance, Health Care Management, Information Technologies, International Management, Law, Leadership Marketing, Operations Management,Technology,Innovation and Entrepreneurship, more. These ARE the same courses that you would get at the University, except you don't get credit or have access to the instructors. Don't sell these short, you get: Syllabus Course syllabi typically contain information such as the course description and objectives, as well as textbooks used in the course, a calendar of lectures and homework, collaboration guidelines, and grading criteria.
Lecture Notes Lecture notes are the backbone of MIT OpenCourseWare and are extremely popular with visitors. They provide an excellent opportunity for reviewing material while providing alternate explanations of concepts. About 80% of OCW courses include lecture notes.
Assignments Many OCW courses provide complete, detailed problem sets and solutions. About 93% of OCW courses include assignments.
Exams Exams and solutions allow users to test their knowledge. They provide educators with a rich source of materials to use in their own classrooms. Almost 60% of courses on OCW with exams have them published on the site, and almost half of these feature solutions.
Audio and Video Lectures Some courses contain full or exemplary audio and video lectures. These lectures provide a glimpse into MIT classrooms, and are some of the most popular features of OCW. over 1900 Courses Available!!!!
Courses by Department * Aeronautics and Astronautics * Anthropology * Architecture * Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation * Biological Engineering * Biology * Brain and Cognitive Sciences * Chemical Engineering * Chemistry * Civil and Environmental Engineering * Comparative Media Studies * Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences * Economics * Electrical Engineering and Computer Science * Engineering Systems Division * Experimental Study Group * Foreign Languages and Literatures * Health Sciences and Technology * History * Linguistics and Philosophy * Literature * Materials Science and Engineering * Mathematics * Mechanical Engineering * Media Arts and Sciences * Music and Theater Arts * Nuclear Science and Engineering * Physics * Political Science * Science, Technology, and Society * Sloan School of Management * Special Programs * Urban Studies and Planning * Women's and Gender Studies * Writing and Humanistic Studies You can even take individual languages, Spanish, French, Chinese, others MIT OpenCourseWare has formally partnered with four organizations that are translating OCW course materials into Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Thai.
Lots of additions since I last updated this. Click on NEW COURSES on upper left side to see the new offerings
Message edited by: rubadub1902 on 2009-08-12 13:21:35 CDT
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OCW has been free and available for some time now. I have a good amount of "inside knowledge" about the whole OCW stuff - and it was intentionally designed to be available for free to everybody. I'm not saying they can't change their "business model" and start charging for OCW use - but that would be as big a direction change as if google started charging for gmail.
Message edited by: puddonhead on 2009-08-12 15:02:35 CDT
Last night I was reading a very good article about this program in the Septmeber, 2009 edition of Popular Science magazine. Article title, 'HOME SCHOOLED', pps 54-59+.
D34lS33k3r said:Will this be available all year round? Or will access to these courses be closed off in a certain amount of time?
This will be available for a long time to come. OCW was designed for people to work at their own pace at no cost. If at sometime you feel you would like to donate to the program, you can, but it will never be required. If it helps you and you have the desire and the means you can 'pay it forward' to help someone else, but don't feel pressured or obligated.
The REAL savings, other than the knowledge you would gain, is for "TESTING OUT" purposes of College Classes. If your university has the ability for you to take a test (at a nominal cost) and test out of some coursework that is very standardized (like Math) and you can read through these, you can save yourself a thousand or more on tuition costs.
smeagle said:The REAL savings, other than the knowledge you would gain, is for "TESTING OUT" purposes of College Classes. If your university has the ability for you to take a test (at a nominal cost) and test out of some coursework that is very standardized (like Math) and you can read through these, you can save yourself a thousand or more on tuition costs.
While you can't get a certificate or proof that you completed the course, since there are no formal exams, hence no way to find out if you really did the work. Some universities and colleges will let you take placement tests based on your knowledge of a subject and let you skip the online course material(OCW) and go on to the next level of learning (i.e. if you took Spanish 1 in the OCW courses, a university might let you take the final exam for Spanish 1 and if you pass, they would let you enroll in Spanish 2). You could also note on your resume that you took an OpenCourseWare course in whatever and that might get you some points with the person doing the job interview.
shallot said:Is there something similar at other schools? I have no desire to go to MIT but would consider this for a Univ. closer to my home town.
A Lot of schools are part of the OpenCourseWare program(MIT happens to be one of the best and with 1900 courses), but you don't have to travel any further than your computer. Everything is online. You can download the entire course or as many courses as you'd like and work at your own pace.
rubadub1902 said:D34lS33k3r said:Will this be available all year round? Or will access to these courses be closed off in a certain amount of time?
This will be available for a long time to come. OCW was designed for people to work at their own pace at no cost. If at sometime you feel you would like to donate to the program, you can, but it will never be required. If it helps you and you have the desire and the means you can 'pay it forward' to help someone else, but don't feel pressured or obligated.That is right. Originally, they thought about charging for it, but realized that it has to be free. In fact, they've spent over a million dollars on it already.
mpkb said:That is right. Originally, they thought about charging for it, but realized that it has to be free. In fact, they've spent over a million dollars on it already.
AFAIK - much more than a million dollars. The software developed to host these courses itself cost a lot more than a million.
puddonhead said:mpkb said:That is right. Originally, they thought about charging for it, but realized that it has to be free. In fact, they've spent over a million dollars on it already.AFAIK - much more than a million dollars. The software developed to host these courses itself cost a lot more than a million. You're right. Their budget is $3.6 million.
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