15 Years of MIT courses online for free

[Mihalik]

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

I'm a person who likes to read up on a lot of stuff, and I thought this was useful. Not that I'm going to try to change my career with this or anything, but it seems like a pretty excellent - and reliable - source of knowledge.

I can only imagine the brick and mortar universities eventually going away. So much free knowledge on the internet now, you have to wonder how a university charging $100k still can survive?

Maybe it just becomes an elite-only institution.

I went to a research college. Which means I spent about 2.5 years in a lab, and by graduation I had my name on 8 published papers, 3 of them as primary author.

That's one of the reasons why brick and mortar institutions exist and will continue existing. Granting access to material is often not enough in and onto itself and they exist to concentrate brains and to create networks for them.

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The knowledge is supposed to be free.
School, especially college, should go away.

Everyone takes an exam, like SAT, and gets a certificate.

You don't really seem to know what colleges are supposed to be doing. Not every college is a community college.

[Tijuana]

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

I'm a person who likes to read up on a lot of stuff, and I thought this was useful. Not that I'm going to try to change my career with this or anything, but it seems like a pretty excellent - and reliable - source of knowledge.

I can only imagine the brick and mortar universities eventually going away. So much free knowledge on the internet now, you have to wonder how a university charging $100k still can survive?

Maybe it just becomes an elite-only institution.

I agree; their days are numbered. The only real things propping up the University model now are sports, research prestige, and tradition. I would imagine at some point along the way, we will transition to video lectures, since there are clearly some professors who are better at it. But eventually, I see all this going online, for free even.

[Mihalik]

Correct me if I am wrong, but most of the big schools are still rejecting a majority of applicants. I do not see these free resources stepping on anyone's toes in the near future.

If you learn something, it does not matter how. Sure, someone with a degree from MIT would have an easier time getting interviews, but it is the display of knowledge that gets you the job. At the end of the day people want to see results, and if someone that did not go to college shows more promise than someone that did, they will likely be chosen. After all, who do you think will work for less? My bet is on the one without $200k in debt.

Colleges like MIT aren't just in the business of education. A degree from MIT or Stanford essentially guarantees X amount of applied skill base that goes beyond purely theoretical knowledge.

They won't just get you into an interview, but these institutions are often the ones that created the systems you'll be working in, and that knowledge has been transferred into the future employees they produce.

A degree from MIT almost guarantees immediate employment.

[Tijuana]

I went to a research college. Which means I spent about 2.5 years in a lab, and by graduation I had my name on 8 published papers, 3 of them as primary author.

That's one of the reasons why brick and mortar institutions exist and will continue existing. Granting access to material is often not enough in and onto itself and they exist to concentrate brains and to create networks for them.

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You don't really seem to know what colleges are supposed to be doing. Not every college is a community college.

Just because that is the way it is now, doesn't mean it will always be that way. There is no real reason the research needs to be done on campus, except for free labor.

[Afrospinach]

If you learn something, it does not matter how.

I seriously doubt reading through these resources is going to produce graduate material TBH. Universities do a lot that is not lecture slides and quizzes and it will always be easier for an prospective employee to outsource the task of evaluating knowledge to these institutions. Hiring is intensive enough as it is. Got the paper, got the competence. Learnt it online through self assessment? Ok bud, we will get back to you.

Don't get me wrong through in the near future I am going to plough through a few of these, fantastic resource I am just not expecting it to open up any career options. In the future maybe there will be a more unilateral structured approach available for people. Bill Gates said some time ago he thought online learning could give uni a run for it's money and their days were possibly numbered. Honestly in my experience I just cannot see how what I did at uni can be taught online though.

[Mihalik]

Just because that is the way it is now, doesn't mean it will always be that way. There is no real reason the research needs to be done on campus, except for free labor.

1, Convenience.
2, Logistics, management, resource concentration.
3, Security.

Campuses allow easy project management, concentration of assets and give you immediate and reliable access to your workforce.

This is why corporations and government agencies conducting research also follow and apply the campus model, might it be Google, Apple, Los Alamos National Security LLC, JPL Pasadena, LHC CERN and so on.

[Coombs]

Reading a book isn't going to educate you that much. Having your ideas challenged, or having problems presented to you that require synthesis of these ideas you've learned in a critical thinking aspect will.

That said, most degrees are worthless and colleges are largely a fucking scam.

[Rasulis]

People underestimate the value of learning from a good professor. There is a big difference studying open channel hydraulic modeling just from reading text books/notes, as opposed to having it taught by a professor who was the principal engineer during the construction of the Aswan Dam. Or learning about deep sea drilling from a professor who has actually done deep sea drilling. Or building a bridge over an active fault zone. The essence of the lifetime experience that these teachers bring to the classrooms can not be contained in any text books.

[Khadgar]

I've self-taught myself far more on the Internet than all my teachers combined.

[Rasulis]

I've self-taught myself far more on the Internet than all my teachers combined.

Without knowing your field of specialty, it is hard to argue with this kind of statement. I just don’t see the word self-taught being applicable to the medical and engineering fields where the consequences of failure can be horrendous.

[Deleted]

I had a quick look at some of the available courses in my field and it turned out that they don't even have all slides available. Just "selected excerpts". Disappointing.

[ro9ue]

I went to a research college. Which means I spent about 2.5 years in a lab, and by graduation I had my name on 8 published papers, 3 of them as primary author.

That's one of the reasons why brick and mortar institutions exist and will continue existing. Granting access to material is often not enough in and onto itself and they exist to concentrate brains and to create networks for them.

Yeah I agree with you. There are certain things you just need the hands on experience and focused guidance. But there are also quite a few fields where I'm not convinced a degree is worth it. The arts/creative fields in particular.

Law/science/medical fields = definitely need the degree and the brick and mortar experience.

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Without knowing your field of specialty, it is hard to argue with this kind of statement. I just don’t see the word self-taught being applicable to the medical and engineering fields where the consequences of failure can be horrendous.

Yeah I agree there are exceptions. But I can only agree with the person you quoted here from my own experience. I certainly wouldn't go to a surgeon for something if they are "self-taught". There are fields where community/group-think are required.

[hrugner]

Last I checked it wasn't formatted very well. You'd have lectures that aught to have been pruned down, or references to other lectures that weren't easily searchable. Has it improved quality recently?

[xenogear3]

This is another "Link Achievement" thing.