As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
— Benjamin Franklin, from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapter X
Open Course refers to the sharing of educational materials with minimal restrictions, usually in the context of new digital technologies available through the World-Wide Web. Its purpose is the broadest possible dissemination of knowledge, in keeping with academic tradition and counter to the current trend toward the commercialization of education.
The principles of Open Course are described more fully here: The Open Course Organization and the TLT Group.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a major promoter of Open Courses: MIT Open Courseware.
Varsity Notes provides an independent directory of freely available course materials.
The Open Course License is not fully developed yet, so for now the following will have to suffice: Open Course License 0.1.
(Note: not all of these resources adhere to the Open Course License, but are in some way freely available.)
Other suggestions for inclusion here are welcome, please send them to the publisher.
Copyright 2002-2006 Scott R. Anderson, Ph.D.
Last update: 2006 January 23
Please send questions, comments, suggestions, or corrections to srca@mindspring.com.
The material on this website may be reused as described under the Open Course License.