OpenCourseWare: Where It Is And Where It’s Going [INFOGRAPHIC]
The Internet has changed a lot of things, most especially education. OpenCourseWare (OCW) is course material by different universities shared freely on the internet in various digital formats. Ever since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pioneered making undergraduate and graduate course material freely available online in 2001, they’ve had 131 million downloads and 92 million visitors. MIT has material from over 40 courses available online in various formats including streamed video lectures and audio available through iTunesU.
Apple isn’t out of it too with over 1,000 universities providing educational material via iTunesU, Apple’s “model for learning anything, anywhere, anytime.” Since its launch, it has gotten over 700 million downloads – some of them from the top universities in the world.
Of all the users that access OCW 43% of them are self learners, which isn’t surprising since it allows them to learn whatever they want to whenever. Students make 42% of the users with the rest of them consisting of educators and others.
OCW provides access to textbooks, audio and visual content and a lot of other useful tools for learning. Free education is only a click away. Starting today, MIT will begin offering free online courses you can take and earn a certificate for when you’re done. The first course will be ‘Circuits and Electronics’ and registration is unlimited. However, like in a traditional setting, you would have to have advanced mathematics and physics background. According to Bloomberg News, “Students will have video lectures, midterm and final exams, weekly deadlines to complete homework and labs and access to discussion forums.”
The infographic shows more stats of its current state and what’s in store for the future. Do you think it’s great or reducing the value of education? Share your thoughts, drop a comment. Click on image to enlarge.
Source: Online College Courses