The World’s 50 Best Open Courseware Collections

Do you ever wonder why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) might be more memorable than other technological schools? To become memorable, a school must reach out to people in ways that seem beneficial. Alumni organizations can help spread the word about their alma mater. Great sports teams and debate teams also can help boost a school’s standing. But, another fork to take in the marketing path is through the Internet, as MIT and other schools have done in sharing courses online and without charge.

MIT and other schools are up front about these open source offerings – no one can earn credits from taking the courses, nor can they use the courses to claim a degree. But, when MIT and other colleges opened their virtual gates to allow the average person to get a glimpse behind their ivory towers, these colleges became well known for their altruism and transparency. Open Courseware has become a marketing tool, as it helps schools that use this option to become mroe well known in a local and global community.

That said, the following list represents a handful of hundreds of open courseware initiatives that now exist. The following fifty collections are from English-speaking universities and colleges, located across the U.S. to England, Canada and Australia. Additionally, the list points to open courseware projects such as directories and primary source projects offered by various universities and colleges.

The list is divided into categories and each link is listed in alphabetical order within those categories. This method shows our readers that we do not favor one collection over another.

American University and College Collections

  1. Center for the Study of the Public Domain: Duke Law offers a vast array of materials devoted to their intellectual property rights program.
  2. College of Eastern Utah’s OpenCourseWare: From accounting to psychology, this site contains a number of subjects to absorb.
  3. Columbia Interactive: Columbia University offers a database of selected digital learning resources developed by this college.
  4. Connexions: Rice University offers a rich resource of learning modules that focus on a wide range of subject matter.
  5. Fulbright School OpenCourseWare: Find courseware here that leads into 2011 classes on topics such as microeconomics for public policy, rural transformation and many more global and policy courses.
  6. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: If you want to find updated courseware, lectures, articles and more on global health issues, look no further than this site.
  7. MIT OpenCourseWare: This is where the OpenCourseWare initiative gained steam, and you’ll see why when you learn more about the courses offered by this learning institution.
  8. MSU OpenCourseWare: Michigan State University offers courses online in food safety, horse management, international business and planning and zoning.
  9. Notre Dame OpenCourseWare: Feel free to take advantage of courses that range from Africana studies to theology at this site.
  10. Open Learning Initiative: Carnegie Mellon offers OLI, a site where courses that foster interactivity, such as chemistry, economics and physics, are featured.
  11. Open.Michigan: The University of Michigan is on board with their open courseware project aimed at various courses from engineering to public health.
  12. Sofia: Offered by Foothills College, this project contains courses that range from creative typography to musicianship.
  13. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE): Stanford now offers some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.
  14. TU Delft OpenCourseWare: This open courseware projects focuses on what this school does best – technology, including water management, microelectronics and much more.
  15. Tufts OpenCourseWare: Tufts offers various courses from their schools of dental medicine, meicine, nutrition science, veterinary medicine and much more.
  16. UCIrvine OpenCourseWare: This project, offered by the University of California at Irvine, features courses in business, physical and social sciences and health.
  17. UMass Boston OpenCourseWare: The University of Massachusetts at Boston offers courseware in topics such as biology, history and public policy.
  18. Utah State University: This college’s open courseware site features a variety of instruction from anthropology to university studies and wildland resources.
  19. UW Online Learning: The University of Washington offers courses online, but beware – some courses require fees, while others are part of an open courseware project.
  20. Webcast.Berkeley: The University of California at Berkeley offers Webcasts of current and archived courses, prominent speakers and on-campus events.
  21. Weber State University: This OpenCourseWare project contains courses in subjects such as automotive technology, criminal justice, information systems and technology and more.
  22. Western Governors University: This project contains various courses listed under information technology and liberal arts.

UK, Canadian and Australian Initiatives

  1. Athabasca University: Canada’s Athabasca University offers online courses arranged by undergraduate and graduate level. The range of courses is too large to list here.
  2. Capilano University: This Canadian project features courses in subjects that range from anthropology to philosophy and studio art.
  3. Gresham College: Based in London, this site offers lectures, events, audio and video that enhances their offerings in various subjects.
  4. Open University: This popular open courseware site provides lectures, learning modules and more on a wide range of subjects.
  5. Oxford University Mathematics OpenCourseWare: This project focuses on topics that range from introductions to pure mathematics and complex numbers to algebra, geometry and logic.
  6. Peoples Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni): This project is focused on building public health learning through an e-based model for those who work in low- to middle-income countries. The education is equivalent to master’s degree level.
  7. University of Nottingham: the University of Nottingham provides lectures on a variety of topics as well as learning resources.
  8. University of Southern Queensland: Available courses at this site include an introduction to tourism, technology and society, general science and creation of interactive multimedia.

University Streaming Media

  1. Buffalo State: The State University of New York at Buffalo provides lectures and forums through iTunes as well as through Podcast RSS.
  2. Core Curriculum Video Lecture Series: the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine provides the entire core curriculum program by video at this site.
  3. Knowledge@Wharton: This University of Pennsylvania Web site provides updated lecture series on topics that range from finance and investment to technology management.
  4. Landon Lecture Series: Kansas State University presents a series of videos on public issues.
  5. Lewis & Clark Law School Podcasts: This list is constantly updated and archived, providing listeners with a broad range of lectures on a wide variety of topics.
  6. London School of Economics and Political Science Podcasts: Follow lectures and events from this school from 2006 through 2009. This list is constantly updated and archived.
  7. Pipes: This site offers OpenCourseWare podcasts from MIT, Princeton and Berkeley.
  8. Swarthmore News: You can find a wide range of subject matter on this list, which includes an abstract for each podcast as well as a full lecture.
  9. UCLA Instructional Media Production: Take advantage of live Webcasts of important campus events.
  10. University of British Columbia Podcasts: Gain access to a wide variety of UBC-related digital content, from lectures to student-created music.
  11. University of Virginia Podcasts and Webcasts: Subjects range from academic lectures to the Virginia Festival of the Book.
  12. Washington College of Law Podcasts: Enjoy events, speakers, lectures and more through this site’s selections.

Other Tools

  1. Archive Grid: This portal offers a vital key to social and family research in archives located around the world.
  2. British Academy Portal: Use this portal to find specific courses in humanities and social sciences. It is designed as an entry point for higher education and research.
  3. Google Scholar: Supplement any open course project with abstracts and full documents to support your studies through this search engine.
  4. Internet Archives Open Educational Resources: Explore the links to lectures, OpenCourseWare and forums offered by this resource.
  5. OpenCourseWare Finder: If you’d rather search for a specific course rather than go through numerous collections, use this search engine to find that course and its specific location through links.
  6. Repositories of Primary Sources: Use this site for research, citations and more for repositories located throughout the world.
  7. Research Channel: Watch videos produced by top universities on topics that range from the arts to social sciences.
  8. World Lecture Hall: Sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin, this site is your entry point to free online course materials from around the world.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.