Anyone utilize MIT's Free Open Course site?

[SherryTX]

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/about/about/index.htm

I apologize if this has already been posted somewhere else here - I didn't see it, but may have missed it.

For those that don't already know, MIT has several courses available online for free - you won't get credit or a certification, but the information can be pretty cool.

Here is the blurb from the site:

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.

What is MIT OpenCourseWare?
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

OCW is not an MIT education.
OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.

This part of the site here, focuses on course that may be helpful to high school teachers and students:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm

[denver747]

I might use these for High school elective classes - "The Anthropology of Sound" might work well for for musically inclined 9th grader. Did you have any further thoughts or responses on the classes?

[benmackenzie]

Hi,

I've followed their introductory physics and linear algebra courses. The lectures are absolutely top rate - the best ever produced, in my opinion. I think their courses in calculus, linear algebra and physics would be perfect for a fairly advanced and motivated high school student.

[Musicmom]

Ds used MIT's Introduction to Biology (7.012). It was excellent. The lectures were fantastic--these professors are cutting edge in their field. This particular course (with these professors) I've heard is one of the most popular bio courses at MIT--they say it covers AP Bio in the first 3 weeks and then gets into "the interesting stuff" :001_smile: The problem sets were hard, and we did hire a local grad student as a tutor to help ds over the rough spots and answer any questions (the subject matter was completey over my head!) Ds enjoyed the course a great deal, even though he's not a big biology fan. So why did we pick biology? We picked it because it was one of the more complete and accessible courses (and ds had just done Apologia physics the year before.) You need to look carefully as not all of the OCW courses have enough pieces available to really use it as a course. This one had all the video lectures, the problem sets, practice tests (which we used as real tests), answer keys for both problem sets and practice tests, and a text that was easy to find used on Amazon. Not all of the OCW courses are this complete.