By
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - At a time when online knowledge can be a valuable commodity, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to offer nearly all its course materials on the Internet for free.
The $100 million project aims to make information from MIT's 2,000 courses accessible to everyone within 10 years. The Web site will include lecture notes, course outlines, reading lists and assignments.
Visitors to the site will not earn college credit.
The plan counters a trend toward the "privatization of knowledge," where ideas are owned by companies or institutions, said professor Steven Lerman, chairman of the MIT faculty.
The school is still considering ways to use the Internet to generate revenue, such as selling research updates to alumni, said MIT President Charles Vest. But this venture is essentially altruistic, he said.
"It expresses our belief in the way education can be advanced by constantly widening access to knowledge and inspiring participation," he said.
Other universities offer course materials on the Internet, but the information is often available only to students, and no school has proposed offering all of its course materials online.
The project is voluntary, and some professors may decide not to participate, said Hal Abelson, a computer science professor involved in the project.
Students were receptive to idea of the school giving away the knowledge they pay for.
"There's no sense in covering it up," said Manuel Roth, 27, a graduate student. "If it's general stuff about math and physics, why not?"
