New Year's Resolution -- Take Astronomy Courses at MIT... For Free

01/03/2008 01:03AM

New Year's Resolution -- Take Astronomy Courses at MIT... For Free

MIT's initiative to openly publish course content and make it available for free on the internet, appropriately named the "OpenCourseWare" (OCW)Program, celebrated a major milestone this past month. Core teaching materials--including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams from virtually all MIT courses -- 1,800 in total -- are now available online. Valuable course material is offered in Engineering, Architecture, Humanities, Management, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and of course everyone's favorite -- Astronomy.


Comments:

While distance learning models are hardly a new innovation, those offered by MIT are evidently a breakthrough in offering cutting edge knowledge with free access for anybody wishing to learn. What a wonderful idea and a pleasant surprise for the new year!

There's also a new feature of iTunes called "iTunes U". This allows you to watch the MIT (as well as many other univerisities) video lectures inside iTunes or downloaded to your video iPod or iPhone. <br><br>I watched an MIT Astronomy lecture on Black Holes and the guest lecturer was Alan Guth! Very cool stuff!<br><br>Mike

I have winzip, but I can't get the course to open. What else might I need? Thanks.
Wayne:<br><br>WinZip should work.<br><br>Here's an excerpt from the MIT FAQ:<br><br>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/help/faq4/index.htm<br><br>What are the technical requirements for viewing MIT OpenCourseWare course materials?<br>To best view and use the site, MIT OpenCourseWare has adopted the following guidelines:<br><br>Our site works on the Macintosh, Unix, and Windows platforms. <br>Although higher-speed connections are preferable, slower connections, such as 28.8 kbps modems, should allow users to view most materials on the sites; however, downloading materials will take a longer period of time. <br>MIT OpenCourseWare has tested the site with the following browsers: <br>Internet Explorer version 6.0+ (Windows) <br>Safari version 1.2.2+ (Mac OSX) <br>Firefox 1.0+ (all platforms) <br>Mozilla 1.7+ (all platforms) <br>Some special content file types require specialize software to use; an extensive list is included on the MIT OpenCourseWare Technical Requirements page. <br><br><br>I have downloaded an MIT OpenCourseWare course, but I can't access the materials. After decompressing the zip file, exactly what are the steps that follow?<br>OpenCourseWare zipped file downloads contain the same documents that are in the web version of an OCW course. The value of the download is that you can review the OpenCourseWare materials on your computer even when you're not online.<br><br>Unzip the course package with decompression software such as WinZip or StuffIt. Windows will let you navigate into a zip file, but the links will not work. <br>Navigate into the unzipped folder, until you find the Welcome.htm file. <br>Open the Welcome.htm file in your browser and you will be redirected to the offline version of the MIT OpenCourseWare course. <br>You may need to download file decompression software, such as WinZip or StuffIt, to open the zip file.<br><br><br>Hope this helps,<br><br>Guy Pirro<br><br><br>--------------------------------------<br><br><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="italic"><i>wayne douglas said:</i><br><br>I have winzip, but I can't get the course to open. What else might I need? Thanks.</div></blockquote>