Many universities see the Internet as a way to deliver revenue-generating distance education.
No credit will be offered for online course materials. Over the next decade, the project expects to provide materials for over 2,000 courses across MIT's entire curriculum, including engineering, arts, humanities, science and social sciences. We see it as source material that will support education worldwide, including innovations in the process of teaching and learning itself. Vest said the idea is particularly appropriate for a research university such as MIT, where ideas move quickly from the laboratory to the curriculum, even before they are published in textbooks. The project could also help developing countries improve their higher education systems, MIT said.