Student Content Published on OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all MIT's undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the Web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world.
Those educational materials often include work created by MIT students, such as student projects and work that students create in their work as teaching assistants (TAs). We have compiled here a brief list of MIT students' most frequently asked questions about MIT OCW and how they can participate in this exciting project.
The following are resources that students interacting with OCW might find helpful:
- Intellectual Property Permission Form
- Educating Everyone, a CNN International television program which aired in September and October of 2004.
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Frequently Asked Student Questions About MIT OpenCourseWare
- How is MIT OpenCourseWare different from other course publication sites such as Stellar and SloanSpace?
- I was asked to publish my work on my professor's OCW site. What does this entail?
- Why aren't the course materials for all of my classes available on OCW?
1. How is MIT OpenCourseWare different from other course publication sites such as Stellar and SloanSpace?
Stellar and SloanSpace are learning management systems (LMS). They are designed to assist faculty in the active teaching of their courses using digital technologies. Often, access to the LMS teaching sites of faculty is limited to the class list or a select group of students. And LMS frequently offer dynamic
- 24/7 access and just-in-time updates
- Faculty-to-student, and student-to-student interactivity
- Discussion boards, managed forums and group collaborations
- Broadcast announcements and messages
- Homework submission
- Online assignment, tracking and grading of student work
- Course surveys and evaluations
In contrast, OCW is a free and open publication. And while OCW course sites can be used by faculty as a teaching site, OCW is a static publication. It is a snapshot in time of how a particular subject was taught by a particular member of the faculty in a particular semester. OCW has also been "contextualized" for users and — since it is free and open to the world, it faces stricter copyright standards — all issues surrounding Intellectual Property have been resolved. Whereas materials published in a restricted LMS face fewer IP-related restrictions on publication.
2. I was asked to publish my work on my professor's MIT OCW site. What does this entail?
OCW aims to publish course content that is as complete as possible. Along with lecture notes and other content provided by the instructor, student papers and projects represent the heart of the course, providing users with a clear picture of what the course is all about. Publishing your work is easy — simply turn in your work with a signed Intellectual Property Permission Form, and OCW will convert it to the proper format for publishing. If you have questions about the permission form, contact the Publication Manager assigned to the department in which you are publishing.
3. Why aren't the course materials for all of my classes available on OCW?
OCW now offers free and open access to over 1800 courses, spanning all five of MIT's schools and all 34 academic disciplines. The pace at which new courses will be published will be determined by a variety of factors such as availability of pre-existing electronic course content, schedule of offerings at MIT, individual faculty members' availability, and others.
