Going to Harvard {or Open U.} from your own bedroom (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Merlin John

"In the online world you don't need to fill buildings or lecture theatres with people and you don't need to be trapped into a lecture timetable," says Peter Scott, director of the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute.

The Open University, the UK's open access university, which allows people to study from home in their own time, has been an international pioneer of degree courses online.

The university, with more than 263,000 students in 23 countries, has become a record breaker on the iTunes U service, which provides a digital library of materials for university students and staff.

Instead of music or movies, Apple's iTunes U provides a download service for lectures and resources from universities around the world.

Top universities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK have been making their materials available, with no charge to the user.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12766562

[pnwmom]

1. Lectures are one thing. Discussions and labs are another.

Lectures are just a small part of the teaching that's taking place at good colleges and universities.

[exboyfil]

2. Actually the labs are pretty good too

My 8th grade daughter and I watched them (mostly out of Berkeley) while she was performing dissections. It was a great learning experience for her. If nothing more I would strongly recommend individuals watch the labs in advance for courses they are going to take. I still remember how clueless I was when I walked into a lab in college. Actually seeing it done and explained really helps.

Of course many labs cannot be done at home. I don't have a wind tunnel for example. Some Chemistry experiments are dangerous without proper equipment (fume hoods, etc).

The lectures are very useful for homeschooling as well. The parent serves as a recitation instructor (a T.A.). Not so good if the parent is not also keeping up with the material. I enjoy downloading the mp3 and listenting to the lectures when I run (works well for history type courses - not so well for courses with lots of math).

Discussion sections can happen either through texting methods (chat boards etc) or even through things like Skype.