Free College
Courses Feed Global Hunger for Learning In 2002, when the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) started to make course content
available free online, project organizers surely had no idea that their site
would become a favorite destination for science junkies (上瘾者)across the globe.
They posted lecture outlines and other materials primarily as a resource for
fellow educators. But a whopping 55% of the 750,000 monthly visitors come from
the ranks of "independent learners’ who simply want the knowledge that once
required a student ID. "Our biggest surprise was the great number of independent
learners," says Steve Carson, external relations director for MIT Open Course
Ware (ocw. mit. edu). "It demonstrates that there is the unsatisfied hunger for
learning that’s out there." Independent learners are reaping a
harvest of new, free opportunities with the purpose of either brushing up on
skills or pursuing an education that had always been out of reach before.
Through those that are known as "open courseware", anyone that has the Internet
access can freely tap materials from about 5,000 courses at more than 150
colleges and universities around the world. Resources from physics to
family finance The resource base is expanding quickly. Last
year, Utah became the first state which has publicly funded open courseware by
establishing the Utah Open Course Ware Alliance, which provides a lot of
materials from seven institutions. Last fall, Yale University launched the first
seven in a planned collection of nearly 30 open courses, all of which involve
complete sets of videotaped lectures (open. yale. edu). And Apple’s iTunes U
website enables the free access to audio and video of lectures supplied by
dozens of schools. Through open courseware, Yale’s "Fundamentals of Physics" and
"Modem Poetry" are as accessible as Utah State University’s "Family Finance" and
"Vegetable Gardening and Lawn Care". Those education scholars see the vast
potential. "In this way, independent learners might use course materials to fill
in gaps in their educations and save a lot of time because experts have packaged
a wealth of information for them", says Janette Hill, an associate professor of
instructional technology at the University of Georgia. Take it or give
it The open courseware has really excited a lot of people;
at the same time, it also is raising some questions, such as how much
interaction is necessary to make learning successful. "Do you believe that it is
really enough just to have the information" Hill asks. "The power of learning
occurs in some kind of discussion forum where people can share ideas with each
other about what they’ve been reading, what they’ve been listening to. and
extend that to each other." Users truly have many reasons for
dabbling in open courseware, which, unlike those online degree programs, doesn’t
offer any course credits. Those sanitation (卫生设施) engineers in developing
countries sometimes need technical know-how, Carson says, so they’ll try to seek
out an MIT engineering course. The Alumni and parents monitor courses at the
University of Notre Dame site to stay in touch with intellectual life on campus,
says Terri Bays, project director for Notre Dame Open Course Ware.
Some people are even charting a discount path to obtain a degree. Shirley
Thomas of Owings Mills, Md. , says she wants to pursue a new career after her 27
years in nursing, but she’s not sure yet what she can take to study. Finally
came her solution: Test the waters by studying international economics through
USU’s open courseware. Later she hopes to get credit through the College Board’s
College-Level Examination Program (CLEP). which allows test takers to earn
college credit for what they have already known. "Don’t feel like sitting in a
classroom after working a 12-hour shift." Thomas says. "It is extremely
important for me to be able to take classes for free, especially since I haven’t
decided which degree I really intend to pursue. ’ Others,
however, have become frustrated because they have to spend a lot of time sorting
through piles of materials without any guidance from experts or sounding board
for questions. Seventy-year-old retiree Diana Hatfield Bixby browsed MIT’s open
courseware from her home in Palouse, Idaho, but she soon try to give up because
of the absence of any back-and-forth communication. "What I’d like to have is
one-on-one with people responding to e-mail. (but) there’s no way I could afford
online education, which involves paying some tuition (学费) ", Hatfield-Bixby
says. "With this type of open courseware program, there shouldn’t be any lack of
education. But how one is expected to achieve that knowledge has to be clearer,
more defined and less intimidating." More important than just a
degree As open courseware matures, its forms begin to vary
as widely as its content. Notre Dame’s "Introduction to Philosophy" for
instance, supplements a reading list with lecture outlines. "Introduction to
Non-violence", another open courseware at the University of California-Berkeley,
involves watching 28 lectures on YouTube. Not everyone prefers
multimedia platforms. In Indonesia, limited bandwidth (带宽)means it’s easier to
download static files than to deal with streaming video or audio. Because many
materials from MIT and USU don’t require multimedia platforms, teachers across
Indonesia are able to access them and benefit, even though they’re not studying
for credit. "Learning materials and process are much more important here than
just getting a degree," says Ferry Haris. a computer programmer for the
Indonesian government, "especially when books are very costly for most of ns
here." As more institutions supply open courseware, those
independent learners, who might not be MIT-level whiz kids, will find that
subjects are presented on a more accessible level, according to David Wiley,
director of the Center for Open Sustainable Learning at USU. MIT has led the
way, but now that MIT has made all of its 1,800 courses available, organizers
there will be glad to see others catching up. "We’re losing market share by the
day," Carson says, "and that’s really exciting." Users in developing countries can attend an MIT engineering course freely to improve their technical knowledge.