Want to take a course from MIT, one of the most respected technology schools in the world? You don’t have to have near-perfect SAT scores, you don’t have to have a 4.0 GPA, you don’t have to pay $50,000 tuition; in fact, you don’t even have to be enrolled as a student. . It sounds too good to be true? MIT has put its entire course catalog online so that anyone who wants to view class lectures, class notes, assignments, and other materials can do so through their computer.
Online education continues to change the way educators and students view higher education, and MIT’s open courses are just one of many ways traditional schools are adapting to technological advances. Due to the expansion of online education, the OpenCourseWare Consortium, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing global education opportunities, was created to provide students around the world with the opportunity to access higher education courses. and relevant material.
MIT isn’t the only prestigious field school getting involved. Stanford, Tufts, Yale, the University of Michigan, and Harvard also offer many, if not all, of their courses online for free. So why give away something that many students pay so much for? “My deep belief is that as academics we have a duty to spread our ideas as widely and freely as possible,” says Rebecca Henderson, a professor of business at MIT and Harvard.
Sharing the world’s knowledge is the goal of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. Getting the copyright to more schools and then delivering the material effectively, as well as long-term funding, are still being discussed. Initial funding came from the private sector through schools and thriving organizations like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. But, say the Consortium directors, “depending on philanthropy is not sustainable.”
To address sustainability, copyright and the effectiveness of the courses of the Open Education movement, activists, educators and scientists will gather in Barcelona for meetings on education, accessibility and trends in Open Education. Open Ed 2011 and Drumbeat Learning Freedom and the Web Festival will come together to discuss the future of education and the Web and the “decisions needed to make open education a reality” as well as “impact and sustainability.”
Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, plans to attend both meetings. Unequal access to education is one of the most prominent reasons OpenCourseWare was developed, bringing free education to the masses is a concept that is always on Forward’s mind. “What I think about all the time,” she says, “are ways to bring education closer to people.”
While open courses do not provide actual course credit or an eventual degree to students, many use them for self-study or to find areas of study that may interest them in their final career. In addition, open courses give disadvantaged students or students with little traditional access who may be unable to attend university the opportunity to study and learn exactly what their peers are studying elsewhere.
OpenCourseWare hopes to eventually make national and global higher education courses freely available to students and learners around the world.