The Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to make materials for nearly all its courses available for free over the Internet in the next 10 years.
Many universities see the Internet as a way to deliver revenue-generating distance education.
No credit will be offered in connection with online course materials. The Web site MIT OpenCourseWare will include lecture notes, course outlines, reading lists and assignments for each course. Over the next decade, the project expects to provide materials for more than 2,000 courses across MIT's entire curriculum, including engineering, arts, humanities, science and social sciences. The project is voluntary, and some professors may elect not to participate, Abelson said. The school said the project will begin as a pilot program over the next two years, starting with the design of the software and services needed to support the project.