Introduction
Here we provide basic knowledge to help you understand better about OCW and its related matters.

What's OCW?

MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) 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. Available online at http://ocw.mit.edu, MIT OCW is a large-scale, Web-based publication of MIT course materials. You do not have to register to make use of MIT OCW course materials. Educators are encouraged to utilize the materials for curriculum development, and self-learners are encouraged to draw upon the materials for self-study or supplementary use. Therefore, course materials contained on the MIT OCW Web site may be used, copied, distributed, translated, and modified, but only for non-commercial educational purposes that are made freely available to others.

Course materials

The underlying premise and purpose of MIT OCW is to make course materials used in MIT courses freely and openly available to others for non-commercial educational purposes. Through MIT OCW, MIT grants the right to anyone to use the materials, either "as is," or in a modified form. There is no restriction on how a user can modify the materials for the user's purpose. Materials may be edited, translated, combined with someone else's materials, reformatted, or changed in any other way.

  • Essential components: Syllabus, Calendar, Lecture Notes.
  • Other basic components: Readings, Assignments, Exams.
  • Recently Lecture Video or Audio(including pod casting) have been provided in many universities.

Conditions for usage

  • Materials provided through OCW sites may only be used for nonprofit educational purposes, but as long as this is the object, the materials may be freely used, copied, distributed, translated and edited.
  • No pre-registration and no application process is required for use.
  • OCW is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity, so it will not entitle users to any qualifications awarded by the university.
  • OCW will not provide any faculty staff's assistance.

How does OCW differ from other types of Web-based education?

MIT OCW differs from other Web-based education offerings in that it is free and open, because of its depth and breadth, and because it takes an institutional approach to online course publication. MIT OCW is not a distance-learning initiative. Distance learning involves the active exchange of information between faculty and students, with the goal of obtaining some form of a credential. Increasingly, distance learning is also limited to those willing and able to pay for materials or course delivery. MIT OCW is not meant to replace degree-granting higher education or for-credit courses. Rather, the goal is to provide the content that supports an education. Many individual faculty members at MIT and other universities already use the Web extensively to make standard course materials available to their students. Some colleges and universities now require a Web site for every class. But to a large extent, these Web sites are designed for, and access is only provided to, the students enrolled at these institutions.

Why doesn’t every OCW course offer video lectures?

Although video lectures are useful for students, there are many reasons that MIT OCW does not include video lectures in every course. First is the issue of bandwidth. We are very much focused on making MIT's courses materials as accessible as possible to users all over the world, including the developing world. If we were to start depending on the video component as THE most important or key element of a particular course, we would be excluding a large portion of the MIT OCW audience who are still surfing the Web on 28K modems, and would never be able to download the videos. Another limiting factor is cost: Although the technology for recording, compressing, and storing video becomes more affordable by the day, it is still not affordable, or feasible from a production standpoint, for us to be compressing 20 to 30 hours of video for each of our 1400 courses.

OCW shifts the responsibility of learning onto student. These are valueable models for all learning environments. You can see how courses have been designed to be consistent with stated learning objectives - Ludmila Matias.

Not everybody has opportunity to go to college. It is really hard to get into the university, so OCW is a great option. This has allowed people to access information who might otherwise have unable to do so - Rogelio Morales.

I definitely would like to go back to school at some point, but I'm not sure what subject to concentrate on. OCW is going to help me make decisions about what to study in the future - Benjamin Goff.