Following along with an online class may not be exactly the same as sitting in the auditorium and watching a live lecture. You’ll also miss out on the experience of labs and the free course material doesn’t help you earn credits, but if you’re interested in furthering your education you can do so with free college classes online at MIT. In all, more than 1900 courses are available for free at the “OPENCOURSEWARE” (OCW) website. Classes are organized by topic, and everything they offer is right there for no cost.
Of course, there are limits to taking free college classes online. You’ll still need to find access to textbooks and you won’t earn credits toward a degree. What you can do is learn more about any subject you’re interested in, or you can compare the curriculum of your own college classes with the counterpart being offered at one of the world’s most exclusive and academically challenging universities.
The internet makes copying and distributing information easy at practically zero cost, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing according to some people who make their money selling information. In particular, the music industry hasn’t been too happy with unpaid copying and mass distribution of their works, but some others are embracing the technology to increase demand through brand recognition. And MIT has plenty of brand recognition and no need to worry about free access diminishing demand for their actual degree: Everyone knows that an MIT degree is going to get you far in the science and business fields. Instead of discouraging people from pursuing that goal, it will probably make more than a few realize “Hey, I could pass this class!”
Know any other colleges that provide free course material online? Let us know, share your favorite online classes in the comments below!
August 27th, 2009 at 8:36 am
WELL LETS US DO IT AND NOT TALKING WITH OUT ACTION IF GET I COULD SOLVE SO MANY THINGS AND HOW CAN I GET FREE LABTOP
September 16th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Awesome Post. Link provided in the article is highly useful, Thank you so much for sharing it with all.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Okay, still checking out the courses but MANGANA needs to go to grade school, middle school and high school before trying this. Obviously not literate yet and made MIT site look inept. Here is his first lesson:
“Well, let us do it and quit talking without taking action. If I could get (?) I could solve so many problems. How can I get a free laptop?”
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:05 am
Plz provide the more information about this.thanks for post
March 27th, 2010 at 9:52 am
plz provide more information and how to access that lectures to my mail.pls. this is quite informative and i like it so much
August 19th, 2010 at 7:42 am
pls provide me with this information.thanks
August 25th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
http://www.equationsearch.com
This equation search engine can be very useful while taking those free classes at MIT.
May 1st, 2011 at 12:53 am
1. real lectures: 100 can see lecture.
2 internet lectures: 100 million – 500 million can see lecture anytime/anywhere/anyone..
3. knowledge belongs to the world… free free free to all peoples…
4. copy/paste/post online for world… whole world can access free free free knowledge…
5. free free free knowledge belongs to the whole world.. free free free. free internet/ free world / free knowledge….
June 13th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Always count on MIT to be at the cutting edge of college innovation 🙂
April 17th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Hi! I have checked MIT content, and it is a great initiative from their part! However, the courses seem like they are a bit old, don’t you think?