Open education and course modules

Many colleges and universities are presenting their course offerings freely online, with the stipulations that no credit shall be granted and faculty are unavailable to comment on the coursework or assist learners. Examples of use: lifelong learning, comparing curricula, supporting concept-based learning or instructional design. Courses range from full academic term offerings, to learning modules, lectures, study guides, and notes. Starting with complete courses:

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) makes freely available online course materials that are used in the teaching of more than 1,800 Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate and graduate courses. Likely the model for many other institutions with open education materials.

As mentioned yesterday, Open Yale Courses
Free introductory undergraduate level courses from Yale University in astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, and religious studies. Courses include syllabi, lecture notes, exams, video and audio lectures.

Tufts OpenCourseWare
This OpenCourseWare site provided by Tufts University includes lecture notes, syllabi, extensive bibliographies, and various media presentations. Emphasis on courses in the life sciences.

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Courses on medicine, public health, and life science.

Openlearn : The Open University
Free college-level online courses and educational materials in the arts, humanities, business, education, health, computing, math, language, science, study skills, and technology. Course level and estimated completion time are given for each unit. A feature called LabSpace offers the ability to download and "remix" course materials.

The following offer lectures, learning modules, and/or other course materials:

MIT Lecture Browser
Searchable database of MIT lectures. Keyword search or browse by category. There may be problems with the interface in some browsers.

UC Berkeley on Google Video
Course lectures, events and symposia from UC Berkeley. Topics include the sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, technology, government and public policy.

Connexions
"Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our Content Commons contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals — organized in small modules that are easily connected into larger collections or courses."

OER Commons : Open Educational Resources
Database of free online educational resources for all levels. Includes complete courses, syllabi, demonstrations, tutorials, texts, lesson plans, lectures, and more. Free registration allows site users to save entries and add or share their own descriptive tags.

Also worth a look are the units available at Fathom, provided by Columbia University and iTunes U, a section of the Apple iTunes store with free educational content from many institutions.

Search for OCW
OpenCourseWare Finder
Search hundreds of OpenCourseWare offerings provided by universities or browse OCW courses by subject.