MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
Open access to MIT course materials — facts, history, and impact.
Overview
Short description
OCW provides free, open publication of MIT course materials — syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams.
Source: https://ocw.mit.edu/about/
Image attribution: MIT OpenCourseWare logo
Another free to use learning platform
History
Key dates
- 1999–2001: Project development and public launch in 2001.
- 2001: OCW launched with ~50 courses; now hosts thousands of courses.
Sources: MIT OCW timeline & news archives
Scale & Impact
Reach
Millions of learners globally; materials used by educators and self-learners.
Traffic: OCW reports tens of millions of visits annually (varies by year).
Content & Subjects
Types of materials
Undergraduate & graduate lecture notes, problem sets, exams, video lectures (where available).
Subjects span engineering, science, humanities, and more.
Licensing & Reuse
Open access
Most OCW content is published under Creative Commons licenses enabling reuse with attribution.
See OCW licensing pages for details.
Notable courses
Examples
- Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (6.0001)
- Linear Algebra (18.06)
- Classical Mechanics (8.01)
Many courses include full problem sets and exams.
Administration
Operated by
MIT Open Learning / MIT Office of Digital Learning partners
Contact & organizational info at ocw.mit.edu