Free University Courses from MIT

[Bravo Zulu]

Free University Courses from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
If you ever wanted to study anything in college, visit this website. Almost every course taught at MIT is available online for free to the public. You can't get a degree with these courses and you won't have access to the instructors, but the vast amount of knowledge is amazing. These are the actual courses taught at the University...Architecture, Math, Engineering, Literature, Business Management, Biology...plus hundreds more. They even have older courses archived. All the course study materials, course outlines, etc.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Sloan School of Management(at MIT) offers courses in: Accounting, Communication, Finance, Health Care Management, Information Technologies, International Management, Law, Leadership Marketing,
Operations Management,Technology,Innovation and Entrepreneurship, more.
These ARE the same courses that you would get at the University, except you don't get credit or have access to the instructors. Don't sell these short, you get:
Syllabus
Course syllabi typically contain information such as the course description and objectives, as well as textbooks used in the course, a calendar of lectures and homework, collaboration guidelines, and grading criteria.

Lecture Notes
Lecture notes are the backbone of MIT OpenCourseWare and are extremely popular with visitors. They provide an excellent opportunity for reviewing material while providing alternate explanations of concepts. About 80% of OCW courses include lecture notes.

Assignments
Many OCW courses provide complete, detailed problem sets and solutions. About 93% of OCW courses include assignments.

Exams
Exams and solutions allow users to test their knowledge. They provide educators with a rich source of materials to use in their own classrooms. Almost 60% of courses on OCW with exams have them published on the site, and almost half of these feature solutions.

Audio and Video Lectures
Some courses contain full or exemplary audio and video lectures. These lectures provide a glimpse into MIT classrooms, and are some of the most popular features of OCW.
1800 Courses Available
Courses by Department

* Aeronautics and Astronautics
* Anthropology
* Architecture
* Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation
* Biological Engineering
* Biology
* Brain and Cognitive Sciences
* Chemical Engineering
* Chemistry
* Civil and Environmental Engineering
* Comparative Media Studies
* Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
* Economics
* Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
* Engineering Systems Division
* Experimental Study Group
* Foreign Languages and Literatures
* Health Sciences and Technology
* History
* Linguistics and Philosophy
* Literature
* Materials Science and Engineering
* Mathematics
* Mechanical Engineering
* Media Arts and Sciences
* Music and Theater Arts
* Nuclear Science and Engineering
* Physics
* Political Science
* Science, Technology, and Society
* Sloan School of Management
* Special Programs
* Urban Studies and Planning
* Women's and Gender Studies
* Writing and Humanistic Studies

[JI7]

1. i remember they started this some years ago

does anyone know of websites that includes books and their entire text for free ?

[BlooInBloo]

2. That's been there for a few years. It's VERY good. I believe Berkeley has videos...

of profs giving class lectures, in addition to online materials.

EDIT: Here they are: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php

[leftstreet]

3. Nice!

Thanks for posting

[Why Syzygy]

4. Thanks!

:hi:

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. Don't forget about Utah State, Tufts University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

.. and many others, too...

Index - OpenCourseWare - Tufts University http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Utah State OpenCourseWare — Free Online Course Materials — http://ocw.usu.edu/

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://ocw.jhsph.edu/



You can check out the Universities from all over the world that offer their courses through the Open Courseware Consortium at: http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/use-dynamic.html


Peace,

Ghost

[izquierdista]

6. Knowledge has always been free

At least to those who know their way around a public library. What these courses do is to collect the knowledge and present it in an orderly way so that the student can assimilate it better. And universities are not suddenly going to go out of business, since the lecture, lab and tutorial sessions with one-on-one contact are even more valuable for the assimilation process. In the end though, it is up to the student, for he/she is the one that has to do the hard work of reading, understanding, and committing it to memory.

[orleans]

7. k&r n/t

[myrna minx]

8. I was just thinking about this the other day, when I received a catalog of lectures available

on CD or DVD. I couldn't recall what college had offered their lectures online free of charge. You've just saved me $150.00 because I nearly ordered one of the lecture series and provided a link to a very valuable resource. Thank you so much for posting.

[wildflowergardener]

9. Great - thanks

As a landscape architect, I can see some of the intro courses of urban planning and architecture being very helpful - also interested in some computer ones if there are any. Also I think this would be a great way to see if you are interested in something before going to a university and majoring in something.

I'm trying to do some extra reading to increase my knowledge to help in this economy, so this is a great resource.

Editing: I am not sure the first one I looked at in Urban Planning would be all that helpful, looked at on your own. Much of the lecture notes are pictures, and without explanation you don't get the point of the lecture. Probably the readings (many of which you have to purchase in this case) would be more helpful.

I'm wondering what people, who have used this, find the best method for getting the most out of the online courses - given that you aren't actually in the lecture so can't hear the speaker. The readings?

The other thing I looked at quickly, Computer Science said that lecture notes were not meant to be understandable outside of lecture. Again, I'm guessing the readings would be more helpful in this case - in this course they appear to be mostly free.

[klook]

10. Very cool. Thanks.

I will check these out. I also appreciate the links posted by Ghost in the Machine elsewhere in this thread.

...although I have to say I got a kick out of this image from Developing Musical Structures:


Screen shot of the interface of Impromptu software displaying the theme to "The Lone Ranger." (Image © Oxford University Press.)

Not sure why they decided to call this "the theme to 'The Lone Ranger'" instead of the "William Tell Overture" -- how many people nowadays remember that this was the theme to the LR show? And it is really more instructive to show some dots in what looks like a Windows 3.1 app rather than the actual sheet music?

Well, OK, so maybe it's a course for non-musicians. It just happened to be the first one I checked out, and it gave me a chuckle. I did download the course materials and look forward to reading through them and listening to the examples.

Thanks for bringing this resource to our attention!

[Ghost in the Machine]

11. kick...

[malaise]

12. Thanks for this

Very cool

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. k/r

[GinaMaria]

14. This is an amazing resource. thanks n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. The way colleges cost these days, my kids might have to be self-taught. So it's

nice to see there are places for them to do it online.

[Brazenly Liberal]

16. More Free Classes:

http://education-portal.com/article_directory/Free_Online_Courses_and_Education.html

Site has hundreds of links for free classes at top universities, including MIT. As Bravo Zulu said, you don't get a degree or access to instructors for most (all?) of them, but if you are reasonably good at learning on your own, you can expand your knowledge base considerably.

[lxlxlxl]

19. http://academicearth.org/ > Videos of lectures...

Just found this one today from BoingBoing...lots of different ivy league lectures...
I
Another resource is ITunesU which of course you can only access from ITunes...lots of different classes, and universities from around the world contribute...free also of course.

Recommend David Harvey's Reading of Capital if you are interested in that sort of thing...

[Tab]

17. This was introduced years ago.

It's not that it's not interesting, but it's old news - by a few years, in fact.

Still, worth mentioning for those unfamiliar with it.

[pinto]

18. Thanks a lot for this post and the links. Good stuff.

:thumbsup:

[Edweird]

20. Wow. That rocks. Thank you.

[sueh]

21. Wow! Thanks for posting. This is fantastic.