I hadn’t heard much about this, but it is sort of blowing my mind: major universities are putting their courses online for anyone, anywhere, to access… for free. Here are two:
- MIT’s OpenCourseWare
They now have over 1,800 courses online. - Open Yale Courses
They just launched with 7 courses, and are looking to expand to 30.
There are universities from around the world that are doing this as well.
Some of these courses include full video and audio of lectures and printed materials. It is amazing that anyone, anywhere can receive an ivy league education, for free. Sure, perhaps right now it is just “elements” of an ivy league education, but perhaps it can evolve into something even greater.
Imagine the ability to take the best courses from the top 12 schools in the world? So instead of choosing Harvard over Oxford, you can be exposed to both simultaneously. Personalized, custom education.
Perhaps companies or individuals can aggregate courses from across universities to create an integrated online curriculum. They could also build in social networking tools so that participants can connect with others and form classes and study teams.
As the cost of diplomas skyrocket, it is ironic that the education itself is becoming free.