OpenCourseWare (OCW), the free online open course created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is now 20 years old and has benefited hundreds of millions of people around the world. “It’s one of the things MIT does well for people around the world,” said the head of MIT’s digital education department. “
Back in April 2001, MIT took the bold step of launching the project. Charles Vest, then chairman of MIT, said, “In an era when everyone is driven by profit, our OpenCourseWare is swimming against the tide. But it is consistent with my understanding of MIT’s values. It expresses our philosophy about how education should evolve: to keep making knowledge accessible to more people and to encourage people to participate (in learning).”
In the 20 years since the program’s inception, MIT’s OCW has become a pillar of the open education industry, a model of MIT’s educational culture, and a valuable resource for hundreds of millions of students around the world. Large numbers of people of all ages and from all walks of life have found in these programs a passion for learning, a rich treasure of knowledge, a refresher or enhanced career skills.
At West’s initiative, MIT launched the OCW website that year to make courses and materials available to people completely free of charge. In less than a year, OCW grew into a pilot site offering 50 courses.
Today, OCW offers more than 2,570 courses covering MIT undergraduate and graduate students, featuring lecture notes, case studies, post-class assignments, live lecture videos, and other audiovisual materials from 1,735 faculty members in 33 academic units. 2020 statistics show that OCW already has 210 million users, 70 percent of whom are from outside the U.S.
Dick KP Yue, chair of the OCW organizing committee, said, “In the digital age, educational institutions like MIT have a responsibility and an opportunity to reach learning communities beyond their campuses. the OCW carries MIT’s mission to keep expanding the audience for knowledge.”
After the recent world pandemic, the OCW team has a clearer mission and goals. In the first three months of the Covid-19 epidemic, schools and businesses were all closed and hundreds of millions of people around the world had to stay home and minimize going outside. During this period, monthly visits to OCW’s website soared to 2.2 million, a 75 percent increase compared to 2019.
At the end of this year, OCW will launch its new NextGen platform to focus on the student experience and provide more flexible interactive multimedia instructional materials to serve more users around the world. The new platform improves functionality in material search, browsing, downloading and material integration, and adds multi-device support, particularly for cell phone use.
OCW General Manager Curt Newton said, “As we look ahead to next year, the next five years, and even the next 20 years, our goal is to keep pace with the evolution of education and learning at MIT and to provide the best possible learning experience to an increasing number of students.”
On April 7, MIT Open Education celebrated its 20th anniversary with an online conference where OCW administration, MIT faculty and students shared their stories and offered suggestions for the future.
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