The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently announced that it will make available on the Web, free of charge for anyone in the world, the course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all the school's undergraduate and graduate subjects.
MIT insists that they are not giving away the store. "Let me be clear," says MIT President Charles Vest. "We are not providing an MIT education on the Web. We are providing our core materials that are the infrastructure that undergirds an MIT education." MIT's press release goes on to say that "the most fundamental cornerstone of the learning process at MIT is the interaction between faculty and students in the classroom, and amongst students themselves on campus."
We've heard plenty of schools pay lip service to the idea that education is not about course outlines, reading lists, and assignments; it's about teaching. But no one has put their money where their mouth is like MIT has promised to do. They are not just giving away their course materials; they are paying dearly for the privilege. The project, called OpenCourseWare, is estimated to cost $100 million over the next 10 years.
Can others use these course materials as they see fit? It appears not only OK, but part of the plan. According to MIT's press release, "Institutions around the world could make direct use of the MIT OpenCourseWare materials as references and sources for curriculum development. These materials might be of particular value in developing countries that are trying to expand their higher education systems rapidly."
MIT is careful to point out that the OpenCourseWare project is not a distance-learning initiative. Indeed, according to Hal Abelson, a professor of computer science and engineering who served on the committee that developed the idea, OpenCourseWare represents a repudiation of distance learning. "It's a large effort at MIT that says, 'We're not going to do distance education,'" says Abelson. "It really is making a statement about what the university is about and what it's not about."
