Developing countries need information, and they need to develop infrastructure and institutions. MIT officials also hope that other universities will follow the MIT example, making their own course materials available for free on the Web. Universities have assumed that students wishing to receive college credit will be willing to pay the required tuition to unlock the course materials. MIT is careful to distinguish OpenCourseWare from distance education. We are providing our core materials that are the infrastructure that undergirds an MIT education.
Real education requires interaction, the interaction that is part of American teaching.
Vest said that he did not expect the initiative to undercut interest in attending MIT or willingness to pay MIT s tuition rates. Vest and MIT press releases cite overwhelmingly positive support from the faculty. Participation by individual faculty is voluntary, but the administration feels that the majority of faculty members will participate. Intellectual property rights have always been a serious concern for faculty at universities. At most institutions, faculty members retain intellectual property rights for books they publish based on their own research.