OCW@25

Since 2001, MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) has created new opportunities for learners and educators around the world. We’re sharing Open Educational Resources (OER) from MIT and helping to lead and sustain a global revolution in free access to knowledge.

Now in our 25th year, this vital mission has never been more important. MIT OpenCourseWare will continue to share the latest teaching and insights from MIT faculty, and collaborate across the dynamic open knowledge ecosystem to build a world of more vibrant, equitable and inclusive education for all.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free and open collection of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.

Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own lifelong learning, or to teach others. MIT does not offer credit or certification to users of OCW.

No enrollment and always available. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There's no start or end dates, nor any requirement to create an account.

Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Freely modify, remix, and reuse - just remember to cite MIT OpenCourseWare as the source.

“
The most important lesson OCW has taught me is that I can learn anything I want to, and anyone can. The brevity, the content, and the teaching methods of these MIT professors…make it wonderfully fun and that good communication and passion goes a long way.

Sangat High School Student, Canada

“
Sharing MIT educational materials with the rest of the world was not just path-breaking, it was path-making for other institutions to follow.

James Glapa-Grossklag Dean at College of the Canyons

“
I really love the OCW mission of sharing everything that we have from an educational standpoint so that more people can use those materials how they want, and students can directly browse through class material or learn things that pique their interests.

Erik Demaine MIT Professor

Students engaging with MIT OpenCourseWare

Explore Our Impact

Discover how MIT OpenCourseWare is transforming education and expanding access to knowledge for learners and educators across the globe. Read our latest impact report to see the difference we're making.

Read the 2024–25 Impact Report

We’re growing this open education legacy with MIT Learn, the singular hub for all lifelong learning at MIT, which unifies MIT OpenCourseWare, MITx, and many other learning opportunities with AI-enabled guidance and personalizations.

Our Vision for the Future

Knowledge is a Public Good

The principle that knowledge should be available to everyone, free from barriers, sparked MIT OpenCourseWare’s creation in 2001. Realizing this ideal is critical to enabling people to address global educational and societal challenges.

Trustworthy Content in a Rapidly Changing Information Landscape

As artificial intelligence and social media stretch the bounds of facts and truth, human insight and discernment are more important than ever. You can count on MIT OpenCourseWare materials, developed by world-leading educators, being reliable, rigorous, and relevant in an era of misinformation and information overload.

Lifelong Learning for Resilient Lives and Stronger Communities

Education cannot be confined to traditional classrooms nor classic career stages. Free and open knowledge enables continuous learning that carries through disruptions and fosters thriving lives through shifting life circumstances.

Scaling Global Impact Through Innovation and Collaboration

Embracing new technologies to personalize learning, expand language accessibility, and steward MIT’s ethos of openness into the future. Because we’re stronger together, OCW will keep building collaborations with people and institutions around the world who share these values.

Support Us

MIT is committed to openly sharing course materials on OpenCourseWare, free of charge. While OCW is free for anyone to access and use, it is not free to maintain and publish MIT course content.

Support from the Institute provides about half of OCW’s budget, and the remainder is provided by the generosity of donors like you, who give to OCW with a median gift of $25. Gifts directly help OCW distribute, collect, digitize, and share resources from MIT faculty and courses.

As we continue to invest in new content and better ways to reach learners through video, language translations, AI personalization and collaborations, donations to OCW are more important than ever in ensuring the sustainability of our work. Gifts also enable OCW to provide local copies of the OCW site to participating schools, universities, and organizations in bandwidth-constrained regions.

Above all, your gift to OCW demonstrates a commitment to knowledge as a universal public good.

Make your gift.

President's Message

MIT President Sally Kornbluth

We almost take for granted the idea that an enormous amount of outstanding educational content is available to anyone in the world with an internet connection. Yet the fact that this is now the norm has a great deal to do with a groundbreaking project launched at MIT in 2001. OpenCourseWare changed the landscape of education, and it continues to inspire students, teachers and lifelong learners around the globe to follow their curiosity wherever it leads.

Sally Kornbluth
February 2024

OCW Milestones

2001-2005

OCW is announced in The New York Times and in an MIT press conference.
Pilot website of 50 courses followed by 2003 official website launch with 500 courses.
OCW adopts a Creative Commons license.
OpenCourseWare Consortium forms (now called Open Education Global.
The first OCW mirror site is established in Africa.

2011-2015

MIT launches MITx online courses, complementing OCW’s open course materials while extending commitment to open learning.
OCW Educator project begins, sharing the “how” as well as the “what” of MIT education.
OCW website exceeds one billion page views and 200 million lifetime visits.

2021-2025

OCW celebrates its 20th anniversary and two decades of open sharing (video).
New OCW platform with mobile device support, enhanced search and more.
440 OCW mirror sites are installed around the world.
Over 500 million lifetime visits to OCW website and YouTube channel.
OCW Collaborations program supports HBCUs and Community Colleges in developing their use of OCW and other open educational materials.
MIT Learn launches as a singular destination for all of MIT’s lifelong learning opportunities, including MIT OpenCourseWare.

2006-2010

2007: OCW achieves its original goal to represent MIT’s complete curriculum, with more than 1,800 courses. (View celebration video and site on Internet Archive.)
The OCW website exceeds 100 million lifetime visits.
2,000 courses are published.
225 OCW mirror sites are installed around the world.

2016-2020

OCW becomes the most-subscribed .edu channel on YouTube.
New MIT Open Learning Library launches in 2019, offering new, self-paced learning options complementing OCW and MITx.
Chalk Radio podcast launches in February 2020.
OCW supports learners around the world as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts education.

2026+

Over 6 million subscribers to the OCW YouTube channel.
OCW To Go supports offline use on mobile devices for select courses.
Through MIT Learn, enhancements like integrated language translations and AI-based personalization create new learning opportunities.