The Internet, the World Wide Web, the Information Highway - all labels for a wonderful source of unlimited information. Sharing that wealth of information is what the Web is really all about. Recently, one of the most prestigious and accredited institutes of higher learning has reinforced this concept. In a brainstorm session to decide how to best take advantage of the Internet, officials and professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have decided to give the public access to all of its valuable course material.
M.I.T. has just announced a new ten-year initiative to create free public Web access for almost all of its 2,000 courses. This cost of this online program is estimated to be $100 million. Professor's participation will be voluntary, but over 900 faculty members are already supporting the plan.
At an institution where the tuition averages $26,000 a year, why would valuable learning material be put online for free? Because M.I.T. sees the true value of its institution as its people, more specifically the human experience of the faculty working with students in classrooms and laboratories as well as students learning from each other. This intense learning environment is the real value of its residential university. M.I.T. doesn't expect students to cut classes because course material is already posted. With the information presented online, M.I.T. expects the faculty to be challenged to use their direct contact time with students to help them learn even more.
Presently M.I.T. is not offering for-credit courses online. Web visitors taking advantage of the online courses will not earn college credits. M.I.T. hopes by offering free course material its information will serve as ingredients of learning that can be combined with teacher-student interaction outside of M.I.T., especially helping other learning institutions around the world.
M.I.T. expects there will be a lot of uses of this valuable free information, even more uses than they can predict today. This institution is eager to share its intellectual assets instead of selling its course content for profit. What a great example of the sharing ethic of the Internet.
Other Articles Related to mit
