Free Open Source Courseware from MIT

It isn’t surprising that MIT is one of the most well known websites offering free online courses. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the most respected universities in the world and is usually considered the number one school in technology and engineering. It is the first university to offer its courses online as open courseware so that anyone can read and study the courses without having to pay. You don’t even have to register for them. Also, they offer 1900 courses from 36 departments, so it is likely that you will find at least a few courses in the field you are interested in.

Because all the courses are offered at no cost, you can expect that there are some drawbacks. One of these is that there is not an instructor available to help you with any difficulties you have with the subject. That means that you will have to find someone to tutor or mentor you if you have problems. The second major drawback is that there is no degree, diploma or certificate offered when you have completed a course or even many courses. If you need that degree or diploma you will have to pay to take the courses at MIT or some other university. However, there are some great reasons to consider studying some of these courses. Something here might help you with another course you are taking or help you brush up on a subject that you are planning to study, or help with a task you are doing at work.

These are courses that have actually been taught in the classes at MIT. Each course home page tells you about the features of the course and a description of it. The next page is the syllabus which lists prerequisites for the course, a list of the texts and the expectations of students enrolled in the course. Although you won’t have to meet those expectations, they do give you an idea of what the instructor feels is important in the course. The following page is the course calendar which will give you an idea of the work that would be done each week if you were actually taking the course. However, you have the advantage of studying it at your own pace either more quickly or more slowly than would be necessary for the enrolled students. The following course pages list such items as the readings required from the textbook or other sources, the assignments that are required, the tests and exams, the handouts if there are any and the lecture notes. It should be noted that all lecture notes are not always available. The individual instructors are free to include whatever they would like to from their courses. Therefore some courses are not included at all. Some are included in total. Some instructors have decided not to include all the information such as every lecture, or the answers to the quizzes and exams. Some lectures are included in video format on YouTube, and others are included in audio format in the iTunes library. The type of course also influences the amount of information available of course. For instance I checked out a beginning level Spanish course. There are no lectures to listen to or watch since the classes consisted of activities for the students to practice what they were learning rather than lectures. However, there is a very good resource page with links to many websites offering practice and exercises in the vocabulary and grammar for introductory Spanish. It is easy to check out what information is available for a course before you start studying it.

The website is easy to use. Each of the courses is laid out the same way so that once you have looked at one or two courses, you know where to find the information you want about the others. Many of the courses are available in other languages – specifically, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Spanish, Portuguese, and Persian. There is also a special section for high school students and their teachers. They are guided to the materials that will help the students prepare for and get a feel for the work and courses they will encounter at college. They will also find materials that help the students prepare for the AP exams.

The site is being used mostly by students and self learners. They use the courses to enhance their personal learning, supplement other courses they are taking, and to prepare and plan for future courses of study. Educators use the courses for personal learning, for references for their students, and to help them plan lessons. There is plenty of knowledge offered here for students, educators and self learners. It is well worth checking out this website.
The site URL is: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm