<p>How does MIT look at OCW?</p>
<p>If you have successfully completed a course, how will that be viewed if you put it on your application ?</p>
<p>hmmm... I've always looked at OCW as a kind of guide. I don't particularily learn much from it, because the courses I am interested in all require either </p>
<p>A) A lot of time
B) I need a professor</p>
<p>Sorry, but once you get to that level, I think it really helps to have a prof explain his notes.</p>
<p>Still, OCW is pretty awesome.</p>
<p>How do you successfully complete a "course?" I thought they don't give credit for OCW.</p>
<p>OCW fans may be excited to hear that The</a> Tech Museum of Innovation's 2005 Education Award Laureate is ...</p>
<p>MIT's OpenCourseWare !</p>
<p>The citation is [url=<a href="http://www.techawards.org/laureates/stories/index.php?id=110%5Dhere%5B/url">www.techawards.org/laureates/stories/index.php?id=110]here[/url</a>] and the list of laureates and nominees is [url=<a href="http://www.techawards.org/laureates/%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.techawards.org/laureates/]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>
[quote]
Tech Award Laureates</p>
<p>Innovators using technology to make the world safer and healthier, more prosperous and just.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow! I'm glad to here MIT's efforts are finally reaping the recoginition they deserve. OCW is really growing. For example, a teacher in one of my classes in Bangalore, India, was structuring some of his lectures off of the OCW Physics EM course! </p>
<p>It's really moving to see the many areas MIT has influenced. Now, underdeveloped countries around the world can benefit from the lectures of some of the brightest minds.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention, Im currently taking two of the courses (intro bio and physics em, soon I'll move on to linear algebra!). While I might not make it into MIT, I can at least benefit from some their courses!</p>
<p>I haven't really seen many college lectures, but are they as engaging as MIT's? For example, professor Walter Lewin is always doing demos! He's often even interacting with the students and asking them to explain concepts. Is this common, or do most universities strictly lecture at you? Students, please share experiences.</p>
<p>I can tell you that it really depends on the professor and their teaching styles. For example, most lectures at my univ ARE just as engaging as I have seen in OCW videos, but some (like multivar or GenEE1) are just that - LECTURES. When a professor takes time to explain stuff, the lecture gets interactive automatically. E.g. in my GenCS1 class, we don't have any course textbook. Everything that we learn is from attending lectures and later the course notes/slides. However, in the multivar class, the prof reads off his slides (slides in math!) and then that is it.</p>
<p>Then comes physics. In almost all the lectures we have at least one or two interesting experiments and demonstrations. It's as interesting as Lewin's 8.02 for instance. However, in the Gen.Elec.Engg. class, it's the same story - reading off lecture slides. You end up relying on tutorials and learning from TAs than professors.</p>
<p>For me, the important difference between classes at school and classes at univ has been that here you must act on your own. You cannot rely on the teacher to tell you about everything. An interesting thing our CS prof said - "What if you don't understand something? You stare at it. And then you stare at it some more." Similarly, you cannot assume that everything taught in the lectures is all that you require. E.g. in MATLAB course, the first problem set itself asked us to plot taylor polynomials of 6th to 12th degrees. Now students' math backgrounds are diverese and many had no idea what a taylor series was. Solution? Google! [but yeah the prof heard about this and explained it lucidly, later]</p>
<p>So, yeah, most univ courses at premiere univs ARE just as interactive, except that it mostly depends on the kind of faculty the univ has.</p>