That's a bit harsh. While simply posting the MIT site without comment rather goes against the ethos of a discussion forum, the link is one that could be of interest and value to many members here. I would argue that the OP should have offered some commentary and, perhaps, initiated a discussion on such courses.
Yes you may be right. But I was feeling harsh at the time and I do actually think posters have no business to put up links with zero explanation.
It was for information only. Didn't expect any discussion. Plus I thought the thread title explained what the link was about. But anyway, Do people think that these online courses are of any value? Discuss. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I have not done any of the courses, but I have downloaded some material for a couple of the MIT courses. They seem to me an excellent way of bringing a little more structure to ones self-education than semi-random meandering through websites and online papers. I have seen positive discussion of them by seemingly knowledgeable people on other forums. The main challenge may be choosing a course where content and level are appropriate to ones needs. On the topic of just posting things, it is accepted practice on some forums. I have never like it, but that is subjective objection, not an objective one.
I think that posting educational resources is a valuable thing, so I strongly applaud Boris for pointing out MIT's 'open courseware'. My reaction to the OCW is that it probably receives more attention that it deserves. Most of the classes only include bare syllabi and lists of readings that must be purchased from places like Amazon. Most universities post their syllabi in this manner, it isn't unique to MIT. These aren't online classes. They don't award academic credit. What I would like to see is more content. I've occasionally found course websites where professors post full sets of written lecture notes for their classes, along with full-texts of supplementary readings, journal articles and all kinds of illustrations. In these unusual cases, it's possible to actually teach yourself a lot of the material, for free. But you have to search for these outstanding examples.
UC Berkeley used to make lecture videos of many of its classes available for free online. I believe that they have recently stopped this, though the older archived ones are still available. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/series#c,s Now Berkeley is participating in something called EdX that offers all kinds of classes from prominent universities around the world for free, with video lectures and online exams. If you complete the online exams (I'm guessing they are automated and computer scored), they will award you a certificate of completion that you can show your employer, put on your CV or whatever. It isn't formal university credit awarded by these universities, though, But you can apparently get Charter Oak State College in Connecticut to award third-party assessment credit for some of them though, that should be transferable to other universities in the United States. EdX is something worth checking out. I just discovered it today, looking for the Berkeley videos. https://www.edx.org/
