Following Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s lead in OpenCourseWare and Yale University’s Open Yale Courses, Stanford University is offering 10 free online courses in computer-science and electrical-engineering courses this fall. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) provides the Stanford experience with students and educators around the world. SEE offers online access to the school’s popular course sequences: the three-course Introduction to Computer Science taken by the majority of Stanford’s undergraduates and seven more advanced courses in artificial intelligence, robotics, and electrical engineering.
It is quite simple to take any of the SEE online courses. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. SEE courses include lecture videos, reading lists, handouts, quizzes, tests, and even a social network for other SEE students. The course content is offered through a variety of media and formats, including videos on YouTube, iTunes, Vyew, WMV Torrent, and MP4 Torrent. The courses will be covered under a Creative Commons license. Stanford encourages students and educators to use SEE course materials in their own classrooms or for noncommercial purposes. A Creative Commons license allows for free and open use, reuse, adaptation and redistribution of Stanford Engineering Everywhere material.
According to Stanford, SEE encourages educators and students from across the world to “form virtual communities around the classes.” The SEE program could be expanded to include more courses if it proves popular and successful. This is a terrific news for students and educators around the world who can’t afford Stanford’s tuition and want to experience the world class education, they can take Stanford up on the offer. They can now take classes with Stanford students and download lecture videos, handouts, assignments and even exams, almost exactly the same course material available to Stanford students. But of course a big difference is that non Stanford students won’t get any credit.
If you’re ready to start the SEE courses, you can now access these 10 SEE courses [http://see.stanford.edu/SEE/Courses.aspx] here. Good luck.
