Where Learning is Free

MIT to be online

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | March 10, 2007

MIT intends to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free.

Scholars -- and amateur scholars -- are coming in droves; this month, the site could receive 1.5 million visits.

"It's exceeded our expectations," said Anne Margulies, the official at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who heads up the online curriculum program called OpenCourseWare.

MIT began putting courses online in 2001; more than 1,500 are already available, and all of its 1,800 courses should be posted by the end of this year.

So far, the most popular online course has been an introduction to electrical engineering, Margulies said, but visitors to the site can also school themselves on such subjects as cell-matrix mechanics, holographic imaging, hip-hop, and How to Make (Almost) Anything. click title