videolectures.net is a repository of video lectures given by recognized scientists from around the world. It is aimed at promoting knowledge sharing within the scientific community and towards the general public. Opposed to the general miss belief in developing economies that knowledge and information means power (money), the trend of sharing information seems to grow (fortunately!!!).
Few years ago (notice that I am not talking about decades), the access to free resources and information over the internet was not as abundant as it is today. As I remember, an inflection point was established by Wikipedia in the early 2000´s and of course Youtube, back in 2006. Those initiatives established the basis for the social networks, which currently are the most common ways to share information, thoughts, and opinions. The scientific community has joined that tendency, perhaps after having realized that science is concerned to the action of every single individual.
The Opencourse Ware initiative
Back in the 1990´s, providing online education was an idea that seemed a profitable alternative to the traditional courses offered by correspondence. During the early 2000´s this idea became feasible and the amount of online courses offered grew considerably. But yet, the potential of internet did not seem well exploited. Then, the MIT got an idea: Why not to post the entire contents of the MIT material to the public? for free!!! (check here for the 2001´ post at the New York Times).
From my perspective, these kind of initiatives have various advantages (in order of importance):
a) For lecturers:
- The contents of lectures can be improved by reviewing the contents from colleagues at other universities.
- It is open the discussion among colleagues at different geographical locations.
b) For students:
- The access to other perspectives is vital to develop a wide criteria.
- Students can self-evaluate their own level of knowledge, by comparing the contents delivered at their class (e.g., in UMSA, Bolivia) to the contents delivered at institutions with very high reputation (e.g., MIT, USA). Thus, students should be able to suggest the topics and contents that they consider are relevant to their professional education.
Why should knowledge be shared?
Personally, I follow the line that motivates the development of the Opencourse initiative: "To aspire to make open educational resources like MIT OpenCourseWare the tools to bridge the global gap between human potential and opportunity, so that motivated people everywhere can improve their lives and change the world".
The Opencourse Ware (OCW) initiative around the world
There area several programmes that have joined this initiative. Some of those which have released material of their engineering courses are:
In the USA:
1. MIT: A total of 2000 courses at 36 Departments, including audio/video courses, and translated courses in Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish, Persian and Thai.
2. University of California, Irvine: 8 collections in 10 categories
3. University of California, Berkley: webcasts and podcasts, perhaps the simplest way (yet effective, less time investment).
4. Yale University: Among the courses concerned to engineers, it is worth seeing the materials on, environmental politics and law.
5. University fo Michigan: One course available (engineering): Chemical engineering.
In Japan: 23 universities are part of the consortium (Tohoku U. is missing!!!). Few links in comparison with the material available at MIT, which is understandable given that English is not their first language.
1. University of Tokyo: 6 courses in Engineering.
2. Tokyo Institute of Technology: 18 courses in Civil Engineering.
3. Other universities have few courses available online (Engineering): Hokkaido University, Kyoto University, Kyushu University, etc.
In China: With focus on Chemical Engineering, Medicine, Geography, Literature, and others.
In Korea: Material in Korean language.
The Netherlands:
1. Delft: An interesting collection on water and engineering. However, the material provided is still limited.
2. Tufts: Interesting material on, for example, biology of water and health, water and diplomacy. Most of the material provided is a small fraction of the material actually provided in the lectures.
In Mexico:
1. Tecnológico de Monterrey: very few courses available online. All in Spanish.
In Spain:
1. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid: Material is available for several fields . However, similarly to other universities, the contents is still limited. All contents is provided in Spanish.
The Opencourse Ware initiative has not yet reached its peak after 10 years of its conception. Few universities seem to have a serious compromise with it. It seems unlikely that in the future their attitude will change. The reasons may vary and should be respected.
Free-access to material used in lectures around the world is an exciting opportunity for people with limited access to resources. It is also an interesting alternative to share and improve the contents of lectures. Inspired in videolectures.net, posts from the members of the Water LED Group at Tohoku dai were aimed to that, demonstrating that very few resources and time need to be invested to have fun and provide meaningful tools at the same time.
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