| MIT OpenCourseWare is a remarkable story of an institution rallying around an ideal, and then delivering on the promise of that ideal.
In 1999, MIT Provost Robert A. Brown asked the MIT Council on Education Technology to provide strategic guidance on how MIT should position itself in the distance/e-learning environment. The resulting recommendation - the idea of MIT OCW - is in line with MIT's mission (to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century) and is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership. MIT OCW makes the course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all MIT's undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the Web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. This initiative continues the tradition at MIT, and in American higher education, of open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, and will help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities utilize the Web as a vehicle for education.
Many people contributed to the successful publication of 500 courses this fall, including the MIT OCW staff, our faculty and external advisory boards, and our many partners - those here on MIT's campus and consultants off campus.
But most importantly, MIT OCW could not have published these courses, and will not succeed long-term, without the support of MIT's world-class faculty. Their remarkable dedication to education and MIT's mission is what will sustain MIT OCW long-term.
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