Twenty years of MIT Open CourseWare

One thing that can be pointed out about MIT’s move twenty years ago, was the categorical way in which it steered online learning in a non-commercial direction.

It has been twenty years since Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that they were going to put their entire course catalog online. That sparked a global Open Educational Resources Movement, which changed the world of education for good.

Apart from making some of the most reputed courses and best practices in the world freely available, MIT’s step triggered a flurry of similar activities by other educational institutes, educators, NGOs, international organizations and thought leaders from around the world. It has also enabled setting up innovative Educational models and platforms.

Any talk of the ‘legacy’ of the MIT’s Open CourseWare can be had only in the context of the question of the future of Open learning and in some ways, the future of online learning itself. With so many disruptive elements still emerging in the pandemic and the post-pandemic world, that future seems to be very much an open question.

But one thing that can be pointed out about MIT’s move twenty years ago, was the categorical way in which it steered online learning in a non-commercial direction.