MIT pioneered the OpenCourseWare concept in 2002 with an initial pilot of 50 courses that were published online and made available, free of charge, to users anywhere in the world. Today, OCW makes available to the world the teaching materials used in virtually all undergraduate and graduate courses taught at MIT.
These course materials are accessed directly from the MIT OCW website (http://ocw.mit.edu), which attracts well over 1 million visits per month, or from more than 100 mirror sites, primarily in Africa and South Asia. They can also be downloaded for offline use.
In addition, affiliated organizations have translated hundreds of MIT courses into about a dozen other languages, and these materials are made available from their own websites.
At MIT, OCW's impact has been felt across the campus. Students welcome the availability of course syllabi and lecture notes and use resources such as problem sets and exams for study and practice. Some instructors refer students to OCW for part of their coursework, and a number of faculty members use OCW materials in their classroom teaching.
MIT has also been instrumental in establishing the OCW Consortium, which brings together practitioners from more than 120 institutions around the world.
For more information about MIT OpenCourseWare, contact Steve Carson, Room E70-810, 1 Broadway, 8th floor, MIT, 617-253-1250, ocw@mit.edu.