Why go to college when you can get all the classes online for nothing? That is a question students of the future will be forced to answer, but more urgently, a question applicants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology must ask themselves right now . . . especially considering the six figure price tag of an undergraduate degree there.
MIT, as part of its OpenCourseWare project has decided to make hundreds of classes – video lectures, homeworks, tests and quizzes – available online to the public. The OCW project began as an attempt to make course materials available for students to review or make up for missed lectures. As the site was developing, rising tuition at the university (now one of the most expensive in the country) had become a contentious political issue on campus. Students and professors argued that low income applicants were being priced out of top universities, and foreigners unable to get visas or travel to the United States often did not have access to quality instruction.
To combat these trends and renew the philanthropic mission of the university, MIT, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are cooperating to host the university’s materials and disseminate them for free to anybody who wants to learn.
Not only is this very nice of them, I believe it is the wave of the future for education. Why take a class from some local loser who has no background in the field and no interest in what he is teaching when you can learn from a leader in the discipline? Why even leave your room to sit in a big lecture hall when you can have a front row seat at your computer?
I started a linear algebra course the other day and it was surprisingly painless. This really is the only way to fly. No need to take notes because you have the whole lecture right in front of you whenever you want it. No falling asleep in class because you can pause your professor and come back whenever you like. The site also includes a forum so you and other students can get your questions answered and work through the trickiest problems.
Perhaps the best part it that there is no risk to exploring new subjects. You don’t have to worry about flubbing your GPA or winding up in a course that you hate. Don’t take to a class? Switch to another one with no add/drop forms to fill out and no missed sessions.
Oh yeah, did I mention it’s free?
Check it out here.
