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Andrea Henshall

Andrea Henshall

Independent Learner

Veteran and PhD student Andrea Henshall has used MIT Open Learning to soar from the Air Force to multiple aeronautics degrees. Katherine Ouellette | MIT Open Learning Andrea Henshall, a retired major in the U.S. Air Force and current MIT PhD student, has completed seven tours of combat, two years of aerial circus performance, and three higher education degrees (so far). But throughout each step of her journey, all roads seemed to point to MIT. Currently working on her doctoral degree with an MIT master’s already in her toolkit, she is quick to attribute her academic success to MIT’s open educational resources. “I kept coming back to MIT-produced open source learning,” she says. “MIT dominates in educational philanthropy when it comes to free high-quality learning sources.” To this day, Henshall recommends MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) and MITx courses to students and her fellow veterans who are transitioning out of the service. A love of flight and a drive to excel Henshall first discovered OCW as she was pursuing her master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Transitioning from an applied engineering program at the United States Air Force Academy to a more theoretical program proved a challenge for Henshall, and her first semester grades got her put on academic probation. During Independent Activities Period, she took Professor Gilbert Strang’s linear algebra courses on OCW, which included both videos and homework. Henshall found Strang very engaging and easy to learn from and found it helpful to work through the homework when they had the solutions available. She was able to lift her grades the following semester, and by the end of her program, she was getting all A’s. Henshall says, “OpenCourseWare really saved me. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to complete my master’s.” Ever since Henshall learned the term “astronautical engineer” in the fourth grade, she knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. That early love of outer space and building things led her to a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering and the Air Force. There she served as a research and development officer, instructor pilot, and chief financial officer of her squadron. But a non-combat-related injury forced her to medically retire from being a pilot. “I was not doing well physically, and it was impossible for me to get hired to be a pilot outside of the Air Force.” After a brief detour as a part-time aerial circus performer, she decided to go back to school. Watch Andrea Henshall’s story about How MIT OpenCourseWare and MITx helped her soar. Learning how to learn Working outside of academia for eight years proved to be a tough transition. Henshall says, “I had to translate the work I had done in the military into something relevant for an academic application, and the language they were looking for was very different from what I was used to.” She thought acquiring more recent academic work might help improve her application. She attended Auburn University for her second master’s degree (this time in computer science and software engineering) and started a PhD. Again she turned to MIT OCW to supplement her studies. Henshall says, “I remembered vividly how much it had helped me in 2005, so of course that’s where I was going to start. Then I noticed that OCW linked to MITx, which had more interactive quizzes.” The OCW platform had also become more robust since she had first used it. “Back then, it was new, there wasn’t necessarily a standard,” she says. Over 10 years later, she found that most courses had more material, videos, and notes that more closely approximated an MIT course experience. Those additional open education resources gave Henshall an extra edge to complete a 21-month program in 12 months with a 4.0 GPA. Her advisor told her that she had the best thesis defense he had seen in 25 years. In 2019, Henshall’s success helped her get accepted to MIT’s PhD program in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, in the Autonomy and Embedded Robotics Accelerated (AERA) lab under the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), with a Lester Durand Gardner Fellowship. Her focus is controls systems with a minor in quantum information. She says, “I’m literally living my dream. I’m at my dream school with my dream advisor.” Working with Professor Sertac Karaman in LIDS, Henshall plans to write her thesis on multi-agent reinforcement learning. But her relationship with online learning is far from over; again she has turned to OCW and MITx resources for the foundation to succeed in subjects such as controls, machine learning, quantum mechanics, and quantum computation. When the pandemic struck the East Coast, Henshall was only nine months into her PhD program at MIT. The pivot to online learning made it difficult to continue building relationships with classmates. But what was a new course experience for many learners during the pandemic felt very familiar to Henshall. “I had a leg up because I already knew how to learn through prerecorded videos on a computer instead of three-dimensional human standing in front of a chalkboard. I had already learned how to learn.” A lifelong commitment to service Henshall plans to return to the Department of Defense or related industries. Currently, she works collaboratively on two major projects related to her PhD thesis and her career path after she completes the program. The first project is an AI accelerator program through the Air Force. Her work with unmanned aerial vehicles (a.k.a. drones) uses a small quadrotor to autonomously and quickly search a building using reinforcement learning. The primary intended use is search and rescue. The second project involves research into multi-agent reinforcement learning and pathfinding. While also intended for search and rescue, they could be used for a variety of non-emergency inspection purposes as well. Henshall is eager to share open education resources. At Auburn she shared OCW materials with her classmates, and now she uses them with the students she tutors. She’s also committed to sharing knowledge and resources with her fellow service members, and is an active member of a number of veterans’ organizations. With the Warrior-Scholar Project, she answers questions from enlisted people going into undergraduate programs, ranging from “What’s parking like?” to “How did you prepare for school?” As a Service to School ambassador, she is assigned to mentor veterans who are transitioning out of the military and looking to apply to graduate school, usually MIT hopefuls or other competitive schools. She’s able to draw from her own application experience to help others identify the core message their application should communicate and finesse the language to sound less like a military brief and more like the “academic speak” they will encounter moving forward. Henshall says, “My trajectory would be so different if MITx and OCW didn’t exist, and I feel that’s true for so many thousands of other students. So many other institutions have copied the model, but MIT was the first and it’s still the best.” Originally published on https://news.mit.edu on March 16, 2022 and reposted from Medium. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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Bernardo Picão

Graduate Student

MIT OpenCourseWare “changed how I think about teaching and what a university is” Bernardo Picão, a graduate student in physics, has turned to MIT Open Learning’s resources throughout his educational journey. Lauren Rebecca Thacker | MIT Open Learning Bernardo Picão has been interested in online learning since the early days of YouTube, when his father showed him a TED Talk. But it was with MIT Open Learning that he realized just how transformational digital resources can be. “YouTube was my first introduction to the idea that you can actually learn stuff via the internet,” Picão says. “So, when I became interested in mathematics and physics when I was 15 or 16, I turned to the internet and stumbled upon some playlists from MIT OpenCourseWare and went from there.” OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, offers free online educational resources from over 2,500 MIT undergraduate and graduate courses. Since discovering it, Picão has explored linear algebra with Gilbert Strang, professor emeritus of mathematics — whom Picão calls “a legend” — and courses on metaphysics, functional analysis, quantum field theory, and English. He has returned to OpenCourseWare throughout his educational journey, which includes undergraduate studies in France and Portugal. Some courses provided different perspectives on material he was learning in his classes, while others filled gaps in his knowledge or satisfied his curiosity. Overall, Picão says that MIT resources made him a more robust scientist. He is currently completing a master’s degree in physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, where he researches prominent lattice quantum chromodynamics, an approach to the study of quarks that uses precise computer simulations. After completing his master’s degree, Picão says he will continue to a doctoral program in the field. At a recent symposium in Lisbon, Picão attended a lecture given by someone he had first seen in an OpenCourseWare video — Krishna Rajagopal, the William A. M. Burden Professor of Physics and former dean for digital learning at MIT Open Learning. There, he took the opportunity to thank Rajagopal for his support of OpenCourseWare, which Picão says is an important part of MIT’s mission as a leader in education. In addition to the range of subjects covered by OpenCourseWare, Picão praises the variety of instructors. All the courses are well-constructed, he says, but sometimes learners will connect with certain instructors or benefit from a particular presentation style. Since OpenCourseWare and other Open Learning programs offer such a wide range of free educational resources from MIT, learners can explore similar courses from different instructors to get new perspectives and round out their knowledge. While he enjoys his research, Picão’s passion is teaching. OpenCourseWare has helped him with that too, by providing models for how to teach math and science and how to connect with learners of different abilities and backgrounds. “I’m a very philosophical person,” he says. “I used to think that knowledge was intrinsically secluded in the large bindings of books, beyond the classroom walls, or inside the idiosyncratic minds of professors. OpenCourseWare changed how I think about teaching and what a university is — the point is not to keep knowledge inside of it, but to spread it.” Picão, now a teaching assistant at his institution, has been teaching since his days as a high school student tutoring his classmates or talking with members of his family. “I spent my youth sharing my knowledge with my grandmother and my extended family, including people who weren’t able to attend school past the fourth grade,” he says. “Seeing them get excited about knowledge is the coolest thing. Open Learning scales that up to the rest of the world and that can have an incredible impact.” The ability to learn from MIT experts has benefited Picão, deepening his understanding of the complex subjects that interest him. But, he acknowledges, he is a person who has access to high-quality instruction even without Open Learning. For learners who do not have that access, Open Learning is invaluable. “It’s hard to overstate the importance of such a project. MIT’s OpenCourseware and Open Learning profoundly shift how students all over the world can perceive their relationship with education: Besides an internet connection, the only requirement is the curiosity to explore the hundreds of expertly crafted courses and worksheets, perfect for self-studying,” says Picão. He continues, “People may find OpenCourseWare and think it is too good to be true. Why would such a prestigious institution break down the barriers to scientific education and commit to open-access, free resources? I want people to know: There is no catch. Sharing is the point.” “MIT OpenCourseWare ‘changed how I think about teaching and what a university is’” was originally published in MIT News on July 15, 2024.

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Chansa Kabwe

Independent Learner

Learner Chansa Kabwe pursued a rigorous course of study in electrical engineering and computer science to broaden his horizons Angela Pignatiello | MIT Open Learning Chansa Kabwe, a machine learning engineer and MIT OpenCourseWare learner from Zambia, is a shining example of how to forge — or perhaps code — one’s own future. A go-getter from the start, Kabwe cites his father as a driving force behind his early love of math and science. “My education has always been an important part of my life,” he recounts. When he discovered Honda’s ASIMO robot on National Television in the early 2000s, his interest was further piqued. “It was my first time seeing a real-life robot, like in the movies,” says Kabwe, who was between 11 and 12 years old at the time. Amazed, he wanted to learn how to work and play with the robots. Kabwe continued to pursue science through his time at a national technical high school, where he was involved in STEM activities and competitions. Upon graduation he knew he wanted to study robotics, but there were no such programs to speak of in the country at that time. He resolved to major in electronics engineering at the University of Zambia, but that pull towards robotics never left him. During his freshman year of college, Kabwe had free and unrestricted access to the internet for the first time. He searched the rankings of top colleges and engineering programs. Up until then, he had never heard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I saw that for engineering, ever since they had started ranking, MIT had always been number one,” he recalls. “And I was like, okay — they are doing something. Let me check them out.” MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) program intrigued him, and when he came upon MIT OpenCourseWare, he found a series of archived EECS classes as taught in a given term, with all available resources put online. Using outlines from the EECS undergraduate degree track as laid out on the department’s website, Kabwe discovered math, programming, foundations, and elective classes to create his own EECS experience. He decided to dedicate any time reserved for individual studies to learning through these resources. He essentially took on two courseloads — one in his studies at the University of Zambia, and another of his own design through OpenCourseWare. He began with 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming with Prof. Eric Grimson. “This course taught me how to think like a computer scientist — that was the essence of the course,” he says, crediting the course, as well as 6.002 Circuits and Electronics with Prof. Anant Agarwal, with giving him a solid foundation to bring to his university coursework. “I learned from zero; I had never done any programming before. It was very revealing for me,” says Kabwe, who has since become a donor to OpenCourseWare. As his college career progressed, these resources became more and more helpful in his studies. “I didn’t really need to learn any completely new things, especially on the electronics side. Everything in the foundations was covered — I didn’t feel the need to catch up. I was revising.” By senior year, Kabwe found a niche of robotics that spoke to him: artificial intelligence. 6.01 Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science I had introduced him to search algorithms, an important area of AI, and in September 2011, Kabwe started his first course on artificial intelligence, 6.034. “There’s evolution happening in industry and in the world at large,” he says. Now, Kabwe is a machine learning engineer for startup Digest AI, where he builds language models for digital learning assistants. “OpenCourseWare continues to be a big part of my career. My foundation is linked to it — I don’t know if I would be the same engineer today if not for OpenCourseWare,” says Kabwe. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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David G.

Teenager inspired by MIT OpenCourseWare and MITx to learn computer programming — and teach others Sixteen-year-old David teaches himself how to code and pays it forward to his community Stefanie Koperniak | MIT Open Learning For David G., a sixteen-year-old from Southern California, career inspiration appeared in an unexpected way. He was scrolling through YouTube Shorts during his winter break when he saw a video about MIT OpenCourseWare. The person in the short explained how he learned to code from real MIT classes on this online platform. And the best part? These resources were all free. David was instantly intrigued. Although he was already an avid consumer of technology, he hadn’t previously thought of computer programming as something he could learn. But since the video linked to 6.0001 Introduction to Programming in Python — taught by Professors Ana Bell, Eric Grimson, and John Guttag — he went to the course website and did just that. “It was really pure chance,” says David. He was only browsing YouTube to occupy his time. He didn’t expect to jumpstart an online learning journey. “I learned how to code from MIT without having stepped on campus.” The impact of accessible educational resources David lives in a vibrant Latinx community that “blends the best of both sides of the border,” he says. “I love the murals that are all over, and the amazing taco stands that you can find if you know where to look.” He says the community tends to be lower income families, which means less funding for educational opportunities. “I know not a lot of people in my immediate area really know about coding, and the people who know about it might be too afraid to start because it sounds scary or complicated,” David says. “I think it’s definitely a skill that will serve someone well in the current economy.” Thanks to the 6.0001 introductory course, the concepts of coding seemed much simpler than David had anticipated. “The basic types of variables made sense to me: a string is basically words, an ‘int’ is a number, and a floating point number is just a number with a decimal,” he says. “At the time, I felt as though I had made a breakthrough in life when, realistically, I had learned the computer science equivalent of the ABCs.” But that was the catalyst propelling David towards a new possible future: a career where he develops programs that solve problems and help people. David will be matriculating at a local community college this fall, and ultimately plans to study AI and machine learning. Although he had originally planned to pursue an education and career in law, his fascination with technology has only grown since discovering MIT’s online learning content. He explored more of the MIT Open Learning Library, which provides free online courses from MIT, including OpenCourseWare and MITx. He completed both 6.00.1x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python and 6.00.2x Circuits and Electronics. As someone who likes to work through material quickly, David says he appreciated how the MITx courses were structured and the in-depth coverage of each topic. “First, I watched the video. Immediately afterwards, there was an exercise to help me cement the idea,” says David. “This was paced in a way that helped me to learn, then test and review my learning as I went along.” Paying it forward David saw the transformative power of free open-access education firsthand. Now he plans to pay forward what he’s gained from MIT’s open learning courses by trying to help make coding education more accessible in his own community. His local library is soon opening a small STEM center, and he plans to volunteer to teach coding to young students there. Not only does he want to share what he learned in 6.00.1x and 6.00.2x, he hopes to open their minds to the amazing world of computers and programming. “I really believe in the idea that knowledge not put to use is useless knowledge, and to me the most useful way to use my coding knowledge is to share it with other people,” he says. “My hope is that I can use my knowledge to make coding understandable to kids in my community.” He is turning again to MIT OpenCourseWare as he prepares for college in the fall, studying 18.01 Single Variable Calculus and 8.01SC Classical Mechanics. “It’s so amazing to be able to access these lectures and courses, to think that I can be ‘sitting’ in an MIT lecture from wherever I am,” says David. “It’s such an incredible opportunity.” Teenager inspired by MIT OpenCourseWare and MITx to learn computer programming — and teach others was originally published in MIT Open Learning on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Doğa Kürkçüoğlu

Doğa Kürkçüoğlu

MIT OpenCourseWare sparks the joy of deep understanding With the help of MIT’s online resources, Doğa Kürkçüoğlu, now a staff scientist at Fermilab, was able to pursue his passion for physics. Lauren Rebecca Thacker | MIT Open Learning From a young age, Doğa Kürkçüoğlu heard his father, a math teacher, say that learning should be about understanding and real-world applications rather than memorization. But it wasn’t until he began exploring MIT OpenCourseWare in 2004 that Kürkçüoğlu experienced what it means to truly understand complex subject matter. “MIT professors showed me how to look at a concept from different angles that I hadn’t before, and that helped me internalize information,” says Kürkçüoğlu, who turned to MIT OpenCourseWare to supplement what he was learning as an undergraduate studying physics. “Once I understood techniques and concepts, I was able to apply them in different disciplines. Even now, there are many equations I don’t have memorized exactly, but because I understand the underlying ideas, I can derive them myself in just a few minutes.” Though there was a point in his life when friends and classmates thought he might pursue music, Kürkçüoğlu — a skilled violinist who currently plays in a jazz band on the side — always had a passion for math and physics and was determined to learn everything he could to pursue the career he imagined for himself. “Even when I was 4 or 5 years old, if someone asked me, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I would say a scientist or mathematician,” says Kürkçüoğlu, who is now a staff scientist at Fermilab in the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center. Fermilab is the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. “I feel lucky that I actually get to do the job I imagined as a little kid,” Kürkçüoğlu says. OpenCourseWare and other resources from MIT Open Learning — including courses, lectures, written guides, and problem sets — played an important role in Kürkçüoğlu’s learning journey and career. He turned to these open educational resources throughout his undergraduate studies at Marmara University in Turkey. When he completed his degree in 2008, Kürkçüoğlu set his sights on a PhD. He says he felt ready to dive right into doctoral-level research thanks to so many MIT OpenCourseWare lectures, courses, and study guides. He started a PhD program at Georgia Tech, where his research focused on theoretical condensed matter physics with ultra-cold atoms. “Without OpenCourseWare, I could not have done that,” he says, adding that he considers himself “an honorary MIT graduate.” Memorable courses include particle physics with Iain W. Stewart, the Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professorship in Science Professor of Physics and director of the Center for Theoretical Physics; and Statistical Mechanics of Fields with Mehran Kardar, professor of physics. Learning from Kardar felt especially apt, because Kürkçüoğlu’s undergraduate advisor, Nihat Berker, was Kardar’s PhD advisor. Berker is also emeritus professor of physics at MIT. Once he completed his PhD in 2015, Kürkçüoğlu spent time as an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University and a postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined Fermilab in 2020. There, he works on quantum theory and quantum algorithms. He enjoys the research-focused atmosphere of a national laboratory, where teams of scientists are working toward tangible goals. When he was teaching, though, he encouraged his students to check out Open Learning resources. “I would tell them, first of all, to have fun. Learning should be fun — another idea that my father always encouraged as a math teacher. With OpenCourseWare, you can get a new perspective on something you already know about, or open a course that can expand your horizons,” Kürkçüoğlu says. “Depending on where you start, it might take you an hour, a week, or a month to fully understand something. Once you understand, it’s yours. It is a different kind of joy to actually, truly understand.” “MIT OpenCourseWare sparks the joy of deep understanding” was originally published in MIT News on September 17, 2024.

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Emmanuel Kasigazi

Emmanuel Kasigazi

Indepedent Learner

“I get the chance to not only watch the future happen, but I can actually be a part of it and create it,” says Ugandan entrepreneur Emmanuel Kasigazi. Duyen Nguyen | MIT Open Learning Like millions of others during the global Covid-19 lockdowns, Emmanuel Kasigazi, an entrepreneur from Uganda, turned to YouTube to pass the time. But he wasn’t following an influencer or watching music videos. A lifelong learner, Kasigazi was scouring the video-sharing platform for educational resources. Since 2013, when he got his first smartphone, Kasigazi has been charting his own learning journey through YouTube, educating himself on subjects as diverse as psychology and artificial intelligence. And it was while searching for the answer to an AI-related question that Kasigazi first discovered MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW). “Here they were, all these courses by one of the best — if not the best — schools in tech in the world, and they were free. For a long time I couldn’t believe it. I told everyone I knew." “The search results showed MIT lectures, and I thought, ‘Which MIT is this?’” recalls Kasigazi, who admits he was initially skeptical as he opened the OCW YouTube channel. To his amazement, he found hundreds of courses there — not only clips, but complete lectures that he could follow alongside the students in MIT classrooms. He searched for more information on OCW and tried the channel on different browsers to triple-check its credibility. “Here they were, all these courses by one of the best — if not the best — schools in tech in the world, and they were free. For a long time I couldn’t believe it. I told everyone I knew,” he remembers. For Kasigazi, the channel became a gateway to other open education resources, including the OpenCourseWare website and MITx courses, both part of MIT Open Learning. “I always had the questions — I grew up on science cartoons like ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ and ‘Pinky and the Brain’ — so I would go on YouTube to try to find answers to these questions, and I found this whole other world,” he says. OCW launched its YouTube channel in 2008, and this August passed 4 million subscribers. While introductory computer science, math, and physics are the most-visited courses on the OCW website, the most popular YouTube videos reflect a more diverse range of interests, including a lecture about piloting a fighter jet aircraft, an introduction to the human brain, and an introduction to financial terms and concepts. Through this extensive collection, Kasigazi explains that he’s been able to explore “the things I love,” while also studying cloud computing, data science, and AI — fields that he plans to pursue in graduate studies. He says, “This is what OpenCourseWare has enabled me to do: I get the chance to not only watch the future happen, but I can actually be a part of it and create it.” Understanding humanity through the liberal arts When Kasigazi was young, a beloved aunt recognized his natural curiosity and steered him toward the best schools. “I owe her everything,” he says, “everything I am is because of her.” Thanks to his excellent grades he received an academic scholarship from the Ugandan government to attend Makerere University, one of the top universities in sub-Saharan Africa, where he earned a degree in information systems. Having pursued IT for its practical applications, Kasigazi admits that he was initially more interested in the science and theory behind computers than “the coding bits of it.” “I love the concept of it — how we are trying to make these machines,” he says, explaining that he’s long been drawn to the social sciences and humanities, particularly psychology and philosophy. “I’m interested in how we work as human beings, because everything we do is for, with, and around human beings,” says Kasigazi, who considers psychology to be foundational to almost every field. “Whatever it is you’re teaching these kids, they’re going to be dealing with people. So first teach them what people think, how they act — that was my drive to love psychology.” Kasigazi has also turned to OCW to brush up on his coding skills, watching 6.0001 (Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python) lectures with Professor Ana Bell and reviewing the instructor-paced version with Professor Eric Grimson now on MITx. “I am proud to say MIT OCW has made me fall in love with coding … it makes sense like it never has before,” he says. Nurturing a worldview In 2014 Kasigazi moved to South Sudan, which had only recently emerged from a civil war as an independent nation. Fresh out of university, he was there to teach computer skills and graphic design — some of his students included members of the new country’s government — but his time in South Sudan quickly became a learning experience for him, too. “When you grow up in your community, you have this bubble. We all experience it — it’s a human thing,” he reflects. “For the first time, I realized that everything I knew is not a given. Everything I grew up knowing is not universal.” With his worldview newly broadened, he began to nurture his interest in psychology, philosophy, and the sciences, watching crash courses, explainer videos, and other content on the subject. “It’s entertainment, to me, at the same time that it’s a passion,” he says. Today Kasigazi runs his own company, which he started in 2012 with friends and resumed when he returned to Uganda seven years ago. Since coming across the OCW YouTube channel, Kasigazi has worked through all of the freely available MIT psychology courses. Professor John Gabrieli’s 9.00SC (Introduction to Psychology) have particularly resonated with him, even prompting him to reach out to Gabrieli. “As much as I’d been getting some knowledge on psychology over the years online, it wasn’t as deep and as interesting or captivating as your classes were,” he wrote. “From your teaching style, to the explanations, to the topics, to how you make people understand a topic, to the experiments mentioned and referenced, to how you approach questions and later make one think deeper about them.” “The message from Emmanuel is deeply touching about the joy of learning,” says Gabrieli, who is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute. “I am so grateful to OCW for making this course on psychology open to the world, and to Emmanuel for so delightfully sharing what this course meant to him.” New courses are added regularly to both the OCW website and YouTube channel. Kasigazi, who’s currently enjoying 9.13 (Introduction to the Human Brain) from professor and McGovern Institute investigator Nancy Kanwisher, looks forward to discovering what new worlds of knowledge they’ll open. Reposted from https://news.mit.edu on November 7, 2022. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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eTekkatho

By Duyen Nguyen | MIT Open Learning Myanmar’s education landscape is changing, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Tekkatho Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that uses digital technologies to bring world-class educational resources to local institutions and communities. Supported by a grant from the Omidyar Network, Tekkatho sets up free, self-contained digital libraries—eTekkatho—and other education infrastructure across the country, making access to materials like MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) possible even in places with little to no connectivity. eTekkatho is able to include OCW content among its many resources through OCW’s Mirror Site Program, which delivers free copies of the OCW website to over 400 non-profit educational organizations working in under-resourced parts of the world, for installation on their local networks. Currently set up in 23 universities and six community libraries across the country, eTekkatho’s impact on learners in Myanmar has been remarkable. Over 10,000 people—from students to educators—have attended an eTekkatho training course, where they learn how to access, browse, and download educational and research materials. With thousands of resources now at their fingertips, students grow confident in taking the initiative in their education, becoming proficient in self-study and independent learning. As of 2017, over 100,000 individual ebooks, video lessons, datasets, lectures, and other educational content have been downloaded from eTekkatho library. OCW is one of the most popular resources that eTekkatho provides. At Phaung Daw Oo, a monastery school in Mandalay that offers free education to over 7,000 children, students like Kyaw Win Khant turn to the eTekkatho digital library to research their assignments, develop their IT skills, and prepare for college and work. “Of course I use eTekkatho! It’s really useful for my studies,” says Kyaw, who was motivated to study chemistry after finding resources on the subject through the digital library. Through watching OCW lectures, Kyaw says he also improved “[his] communication skills.” As head of IT for the Tekkatho Foundation, May Thet Khine Nyein has overseen the establishment of many of the eTekkatho libraries and witnessed how increased access to learning opportunities and tools has changed the education experience for both students and teachers in Myanmar. “MIT OCW helps students to learn not only the subject materials but also how to give presentations,” May observes, while educators use eTekkatho to strengthen their subject knowledge, taking advantage of teacher training resources and incorporating materials like OCW lectures into their own lessons. At the heart of the Tekkatho Foundation’s mission is the belief that access to the best and most up-to-date resources in education will transform minds, as well as opportunities, and pave the way to a more empowered society. “Myanmar was isolated for a long time,” May says. “Now we have the opportunity to take our place in the world.” eTekkatho is leveraging resources like OCW to open up this opportunity to all parts of the country.

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Evelyn Laurito

Sara Sezun | MIT OpenCourseWare “The online courses I am augmenting my teaching with are very helpful. More content for less work helps me concentrate more on the teaching.” For the past several years, Evelyn Laurito has been using OCW materials in her classes. A Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines, Laurito has been teaching for more than thirty years. Approximately ten years ago, the University of Santo Tomas faculty decided to incorporate Blackboard into their classrooms. A software program designed for traditional residential classes, Blackboard allows instructors to add online content to their class materials. Laurito served as Content Development Manager for this initiative. After learning about OCW from the Internet, she recommended it to her fellow faculty members. “I gave presentations to our faculty and would always say, ‘They don’t have to reinvent the wheel,’ because the website provides open courses where they can find very useful materials for their lectures.” Laurito teaches mostly undergraduate chemical engineering courses including Plant Design, Particulate Technology, and Environmental Science and Engineering. Over the years, she has utilized OCW materials from courses on the environment, ecology, and wastewater treatment. Laurito’s first experience with OCW was through an Introduction to Chemical Engineering course. She says, “I just linked my resources in Blackboard there, and I did not have to do much preparation for materials for teaching, because it was already fairly complete.” By saving time in lesson preparation and explanation of concepts, Laurito can spend more time in direct interaction with her students. “I can just assign it (OCW readings) to my students and then ask questions during class, a sort of flipped classroom.” Along with her regular course load, Laurito co-teaches “Globalization: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective.” This online course is organized by the International Council of Universities of St. Thomas (ICUSTA), of which Laurito’s school is a member. ICUSTA students from a variety of fields, such as business, international relations, and engineering, take the class to gain an international perspective on issues related to globalization. The course is divided into twelve modules, all taught by professors from ICUSTA schools. Laurito teaches a module called “Current State of the Global Environment and Energy Resources.” At the moment, Laurito is utilizing OCW materials for her Industrial Waste Management and Control class, which she describes as a “web-enhanced course.” In addition, Laurito finds OCW useful in keeping knowledge of her field current. She says, “I continue to check out new courses offered by MIT and download them.”

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June Odongo

Independent Learner

Entrepreneur creates career pathways with MIT OpenCourseWare June Odongo uses free, online MIT courses to train high-quality candidates, making them job-ready. Sara Feijo | MIT Open Learning When June Odongo interviewed early-career electrical engineer Cynthia Wacheke for a software engineering position at her company, Wacheke lacked knowledge of computer science theory but showed potential in complex problem-solving. Determined to give Wacheke a shot, Odongo turned to MIT OpenCourseWare to create a six-month “bridging course” modeled after the classes she once took as a computer science student. Part of MIT Open Learning, OpenCourseWare offers free, online, open educational resources from more than 2,500 courses that span the MIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum. “Wacheke had the potential and interest to do the work that needed to be done, so the way to solve this was for me to literally create a path for her to get that work done,” says Odongo, founder and CEO of Senga Technologies. Developers, Odongo says, are not easy to find. The OpenCourseWare educational resources provided a way to close that gap. “We put Wacheke through the course last year, and she is so impressive,” Odongo says. “Right now, she is doing our first machine learning models. It’s insane how good of a team member she is. She has done so much in such a short time.” Making high-quality candidates job-ready Wacheke, who holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nairobi, started her professional career as a hardware engineer. She discovered a passion for software while working on a dashboard design project, and decided to pivot from hardware to software engineering. That’s when she discovered Senga Technologies, a logistics software and services company in Kenya catering to businesses that ship in Africa. Odongo founded Senga with the goal of simplifying and easing the supply chain and logistics experience, from the movement of goods to software tools. Senga’s ultimate goal, Odongo says, is to have most of their services driven by software. That means employees — and candidates — need to be able to think through complex problems using computer science theory. “A lot of people are focused on programming, but we care less about programming and more about problem-solving,” says Odongo, who received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and an MBA from Harvard Business School. “We actually apply the things people learn in computer science programs.” Wacheke started the bridging course in June 2022 and was given six months to complete the curriculum on the MIT OpenCourseWare website. She took nine courses, including: Introduction to Algorithms; Mathematics for Computer Science; Design and Analysis of Algorithms; Elements of Software Construction; Automata, Computability, and Complexity; Database Systems; Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making; Introduction to Machine Learning; and Networks. “The bridging course helped me learn how to think through things,” Wacheke says. “It’s one thing to know how to do something, but it’s another to design that thing from scratch and implement it.” During the bridging course, Wacheke was paired with a software engineer at Senga, who mentored her and answered questions along the way. She learned Ruby on Rails, a server-side web application framework under the MIT License. Wacheke also completed other projects to complement the theory she was learning. She created a new website that included an integration to channel external requests to Slack, a cross-platform team communication tool used by the company’s employees. Continuous learning for team members The bridging course concluded with a presentation to Senga employees, during which Wacheke explained how the company could use graph theory for decision-making. “If you want to get from point A to B, there are algorithms you can use to find the shortest path,” Wacheke says. “Since we’re a logistics company, I thought we could use this when we’re deciding which routes our trucks take.” The presentation, which is the final requirement for the bridging course, is also a professional development opportunity for Senga employees. “This process is helpful for our team members, particularly those who have been out of school for a while,” Odongo says. “The candidates present what they’ve learned in relation to Senga. It’s a way of doing continuous learning for the existing team members.” After successfully completing the bridging course in November 2022, Wacheke transitioned to a full-time software engineer role. She is currently developing a “machine” that can interpret and categorize hundreds of documents, including delivery notes, cash flows, and receipts. “The goal is to enable our customers to simply feed those documents into our machine, and then we can more accurately read and convert them to digital formats to drive automation,” Odongo says. “The machine will also enable someone to ask a document a question, such as ‘What did I deliver to retailer X on date Y?’ or ‘What is the total price of the goods delivered?’” The bridging course, which was initially custom-designed for Wacheke, is now a permanent program at Senga. A second team member completed the course in October 2023 and has joined the software team full time. “Developers are not easy to find, and you also want high-quality developers,” Odongo says. “At least when we do this, we know that the person has gone through what we need.” Read the Original Article This article was republished with permission from the MIT News Office

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Kyle Lee

Duyen Nguyen | MIT Open Learning Within two weeks of taking his first college-level physics course, Kyle Lee knew that he wanted to be a physicist. Now a PhD candidate at SUNY Stony Brook, Kyle says that the way physicists think, combining physical intuition and mathematics to find creative solutions to problems, is what drew him to the field. He would quickly learn to problem-solve like a physicist. While he enjoyed his first physics course, Kyle found the classes at his community college to be insufficient and began looking online for other resources. That’s when he came across MIT OpenCourseWare, and his newfound dream started to become a reality. After graduating from high school, he wasn’t sure about what he wanted to study—or even if college was the right path for him. His family came to the United States from South Korea when he was young so that he could have better opportunities. But despite doing well in school, Kyle received little guidance. He owned a telescope and would drive to the California deserts to look at the stars, but his interests in exploration hadn’t yet taken shape. He took a semester off before enrolling in a nearby community college. “I became desperate to find something to be passionate about,” he says. “I didn’t think about grades and just took classes I thought I would enjoy.” An aptitude test pointing him to electrical engineering—a career he’d never even heard of—landed him in the physics class where he’d find his calling. “I knew I had to distinguish myself if I wanted to be a physicist,” he recalls. Through OCW, Kyle discovered not only MIT’s physics and math courses, but the world of free and open digital educational resources. With the advanced knowledge he gained from the lectures and other course materials on OCW and similar platforms—and the confidence that this gave him—Kyle knocked on the door of a physics professor at UC Irvine to ask for a research position. After that, the doors continued to open for Kyle. He was accepted to Chapman University’s newly established physics program, where his excellent grades and the research he was doing at UC Irvine earned him a full scholarship. For Kyle, coming from a working-class immigrant background, this was the only path to affording an education at a four-year institution. It’s a path that he’s worked hard to pave. But along the way, OCW has been there to help. Today, Kyle still consults OCW resources to remind himself of certain concepts. “During my PhD, I took Effective Field Theory,” a graduate-level course available on both OCW and MITx, “which has had a huge impact on my work,” he says. And recently, the MIT department of physics invited Kyle to speak at the Theoretical Physics Seminar on campus, where he shared his work on quantum chromodynamics, a theory of the strong nuclear force. There, he met many of the leading physicists whom he’d admired for years. As he prepares to complete his PhD, Kyle reflects, “I strongly believe in OCW’s mission to make this sophisticated knowledge available globally. It really has changed the entire path of my educational career.”

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Matt Zand

By Megan Maffucci | MIT Open Learning As a mentor, tutor, and coding bootcamp instructor, Matt Zand has recommended OCW resources to help his students—from teenagers to adults—succeed. Matt Zand is passionate about helping students gain proficiency in computer literacy. In the past few years, he has worked with students as a volunteer coach, through one-on-one tutoring, and by teaching coding bootcamps and classes at Washington D.C.-based computer training companies such as Coding Bootcamps and High School Technology Services. Matt’s students include high schoolers, adults looking to develop professionally, and independent learners who simply want to learn. Working with such a range of backgrounds, he sees his coding bootcamps as a foundation that students can build on as they continue to learn on their own. In the course of his instruction, Matt explored a range of online learning content to be able to point students to additional resources and tutorials beyond his classes. Being able to pull from a body of open source resources like Khan Academy and OCW helps him find high-quality materials to best suit their individual needs. “After a high school student finishes my class, my goal is to give them resources to learn it in-depth by themselves as a part of continuing education. When I saw and reviewed the course structure and materials of MIT OpenCourseWare, I knew I found what I was looking for. Over the years, I learned that teaching computer programming and STEM-related classes must be followed by fun and hands-on exercises. Many online sites are lacking such features.” With all the free resources available today, Matt finds that the structure of OCW materials helps his students reinforce their training with more advanced concepts. Among the courses he recommends are MIT’s introductory courses in computer and data science, and programming in Java, Python, and C. This has been especially true for disadvantaged students he serves whose schools don’t offer programming classes and who can’t afford extracurricular training. One course that has been particularly valuable is 6.046J / 18.410J Design and Analysis of Algorithms, which offers something extra to help prepare students for a competitive job market. Learning to program is not the difficult part, he says, but knowing how to design algorithms is what sets candidates apart, and this is something that many coding programs and bootcamps don’t provide. Matt enjoys supporting his students’ drive to continue learning at their own pace through OCW and other platforms, and has watched several of his students go on to launch their careers at prominent companies like Google. And for an instructor like Matt, helping your students grow is what it’s all about.

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Michael Pilgreen

Michael Pilgreen

Indepedent Learner

For MIT OpenCourseWare and MITx MicroMasters learner Michael Pilgreen, risk-taking and hands-on learning opened new doors in finance Duyen Nguyen | MIT Open Learning Even before joining a financial technology startup, Michael Pilgreen believed in taking risks and investing long-term — especially when it came to his education and career. For six years, Pilgreen worked in creative production management, specializing in painting, metalworking, and installations. He’d established himself in the art world with large collaborative projects like a mosaic made entirely of sequins for the Chili’s Care Center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, and never imagined himself working in a STEM field. But in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic brought his creative projects to a halt, Pilgreen found himself “unemployed, distraught, and confused, searching for a sense of purpose and direction.” That search led Pilgreen, a self-described “math nerd,” to financial technology — and to MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW). “I knew a lot of top universities in the world had started posting their courses and materials online to encourage global collaboration and learning,” Pilgreen recalls. “So, once I knew I wanted to learn finance and computers, I focused on the birthplace of financial engineering — MIT — and tried every way possible to consume information from MIT.” After watching Professor Andrew Lo’s introduction to finance lecture, Pilgreen was hooked. He completed Lo’s finance theory classes and dived into Professor Gary Gensler’s courses, including “Fintech: Shaping the Financial World” and “ Blockchain and Money.” The more time he invested in familiarizing himself with the field, the more certain he felt of his decision — and his ability — to break into the financial technology industry. Pilgreen jokes that the career switch would’ve required him to use a side of his brain he hadn’t tapped into since high school. But as he absorbed Gensler’s lectures and course materials, the graduate of Rhodes College realized that his liberal arts background could be an asset. “I knew I had the ability to grapple with big ideas and concepts, and saw the opportunity for innovation in the international capital markets,” he says, crediting the OCW courses with teaching him the “language and rhythm of the financial world.” The next step was to build his technical skills. Again, Pilgreen turned to OCW, this time exploring its catalog of computer science courses, including “ Introduction to Computer Science and Programming,” “ Mathematics for Computer Science,” and “ Introduction to Algorithms.” “All these courses laid the foundation for my technical knowledge and ability to understand complex engineering problems very quickly,” Pilgreen says. “I felt like I knew enough to be dangerous — and started applying to various local wealth management firms.” While cold-calling prospective employers might seem risky to some, for Pilgreen, it was another form of investing in himself and his future. He would call up three to five firms a day to ask about their use of technology and to get a sense of how he could apply his evolving knowledge and skills. “The more I learned, the more time I invested, and the more conversations I participated in — the more I felt like what I was doing was purposeful,” he says. With the finance and computer science courses on OCW giving him a solid foundation, Pilgreen continued investing in his learning by enrolling in the MITx MicroMasters program in finance. He also began studying for several financial certification exams, including the CFA, SIE, Series 7, and Series 66. Through MIT, Pilgreen learned of DataCamp, a platform offering courses in data science and machine learning. He signed up for that, too, and became so absorbed in developing his data skills that for several weeks, he was one of DataCamp’s top learners. “It was really as if I was in school full-time with all my studying but without the debt,” Pilgreen says, explaining that he was dollar-cost averaging, or regularly investing a fixed amount in Bitcoin, at the time to fund his enrollment in MicroMasters and the supplemental data science courses. For Pilgreen, the biggest risks result in the biggest rewards. While completing the finance MicroMasters program, he received two job offers — one from an established wealth management firm and another from BondCliQ, a financial technology startup that was just getting off the ground. Pilgreen went with the riskier option, seeing it as an opportunity for more hands-on learning, another kind of investment in himself. He started at the company in March 2021 after completing a two-month training program, learning the ropes of institutional trading in a sales role before moving into an engineering position to lead the startup’s architecture migration effort. Now a senior engineer at BondCliQ, Pilgreen reflects on the journey that began nearly two years ago with OCW. He says, “I feel nothing but gratitude for my instructors, the organizers, and the facilitators of both OCW and the MicroMasters. I am on the cusp of greatness and it was derived from learning.” Originally published on https://news.mit.edu on June 24, 2022 and reposted from Medium. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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Mussie Demisse

From Ethiopia to community college to MIT, Mussie Demisse ’21 is on a mission to use his love of learning to solve big problems. Duyen Nguyen | MIT Open Learning Minutes before finding out he’d been accepted to MIT, Mussie Demisse ’21 was shaking Governor Charlie Baker’s hand. Demisse was at an awards ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, being honored as one of the 2018 “29 Who Shine,” a select group of graduates from the Commonwealth’s higher education system who’d made an impact at their institution and in the community. For Demisse, Bunker Hill Community College, where he’d spent the previous two years studying computer science, represented both. “I really matured there,” he says, explaining that, at one point, he’d held three jobs at the college while also serving on student government and participating in various academic clubs. Bunker Hill was also where Demisse got his first peek at the rigorous yet vibrant nature of an MIT classroom and began picturing himself in such an environment. In a linear algebra course, Demisse’s professor, Jie Frye, would regularly give out challenging quizzes that piqued his curiosity. “As kind of a motivator she would tell us this is the same quiz that MIT students take,” he recalls. “They’re learning the same material, so don’t beat yourself up, be proud of what you’re able to accomplish.” Demisse asked where his professor had gotten the MIT quizzes. The answer wasn’t a secret connection, it turned out, but something called MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW). “She was one of my favorite professors at Bunker Hill,” Demisse says. “She emphasized that it’s possible for us to pursue our dreams — which isn’t as much of a thing, I think, in community college. There’s a lot of stigma, and I feel like that sometimes keeps people from applying to things. She was very intentional about making sure that we knew we could, and we should try.” Demisse says OCW wasn’t the first time his interests had led him to MIT. But it was the final push he needed to apply to the school that he’d long set his heart on. Demisse grew up in Ethiopia, where he’d been involved in the Ethiopian Space Science Society, and when he arrived in Boston after high school, that childhood passion brought him to the MIT Astrophysics Colloquia. Learning that the colloquia welcomed members of the public to their weekly events, Demisse attended for a few months. Though he admits that he could understand only the first 10 minutes or so of every talk, he says, “I saw a part of MIT that was very much about advancing knowledge — done in such a supportive and cooperative way that I thought to myself, ‘Wow, it would be really cool if I could be a part of this community.’” After the materials on OCW showed him he had not only the drive but the aptitude to turn this dream into a reality, Demisse began researching initiatives like MIT D-Lab, the lab dedicated to designing solutions for tackling poverty, and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). “That’s when I said, it must be MIT,” he recalls. Demisse graduated from MIT this spring with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science. But before coming to Bunker Hill and embarking on the path that would lead him to MIT, Demisse longed for opportunities to apply himself in the ways that his linear algebra professor described — to turn his aspirations into actions. Growing up, Demisse had witnessed the devastating effects of global inequalities like poverty. But Ethiopia was also, he explains, where he’d learned that, when you recognize a problem, it falls upon you to do something about it. When it came time to choose his major at Bunker Hill, Demisse had no shortage of motivation. He knew it’d have to be something that would allow him to serve not only the Ethiopian community but underprivileged communities around the world that share similar challenges. Computer science struck Demisse as the perfect intersection of his goals, interests, and abilities. “It’s kind of a claim of responsibility for the issues that I’ve lived through or seen people that I care about go through,” he says. Through OCW, Demisse found another outlet to channel this desire to help others. “I became somewhat of an evangelist for OCW,” he says, remembering reaching out to friends in Ethiopia who were also looking for resources to make a difference in their communities. “I especially targeted the ones that felt like they wanted more, but couldn’t get it,” Demisse says. “And it really made me happy to do that because this is the same complaint I had when I was back home — you acknowledge the problems you know you want to invest yourself in, and you know you can build the discipline, but sometimes you feel like there’s nowhere to exert that discipline, that motivation. And I think OCW and similar platforms really allow you to build your capabilities to do what you can to solve the problem that you think is most important.” Demisse also credits OCW with preparing him for life as an MIT student. “I think professors at MIT have this way of highlighting how hundreds of years of knowledge was built out — this focus on intuition — in order for students to project into the future, for students to be the next discoverers,” he observes. “And in OCW I saw this. I began to grasp the importance of knowing more than just the facts. Coming to MIT, this was fostered so much more.” At MIT, Demisse joined the African Students Association, where he found another community to inspire him. He participated in UROP, completing a project with MIT D-Lab, the lab that Demisse had dreamed of joining years before. He’s taken an entrepreneurship class that has given him the tools to think about building social ventures in Ethiopia. Demisse also joined the MIT OpenCourseWare Faculty Advisory Committee as an undergraduate representative. Bringing insights from his own experiences to the committee, Demisse advocates for more student involvement in the future of OCW. If the goal of OCW is to capture and share with the world as much of MIT as possible, he explains, then engaging the student community is paramount. Demisse also emphasizes the need for OCW, and MIT more broadly, to continue pioneering the open education resources movement. Now that he’s graduated he plans to continue working with OCW, focusing on increasing collaboration with community colleges and increasing access to universities in Africa. Ultimately, Demisse sees open education resources as a way to bring people hope — the same hope he felt when he opened the email from MIT Admissions offstage at the State House and saw the word “congratulations.” Originally published on https://news.mit.edu on July 14, 2021. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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Paige Dote

Peter Chipman | OCW Digital Publication Specialist and OCW Educator Assistant It was a great pleasure to learn that MIT’s Math Department has named Paige Dote as one of five winners of this year’s Teaching and Learning Award. Dote, who has just finished her second year as an undergraduate math student, has a demonstrated passion for open education. She first formed a connection with MIT OpenCourseWare in the spring of 2021; after realizing how much valuable content is created for academic courses but never made available online, she began working with instructor Dr. Casey Rodriguez to share lecture videos and other materials from Dr. Rodriguez’s course 18.100A Real Analysis on OCW. MIT students have long been valued contributors of OCW materials, ranging from course notes that complement faculty materials to sample coursework such as essays and group projects that help bring a course to life for OCW users. We’re experimenting now with programs to encourage even more student contributions and create new ways for students to support OCW’s mission. In October 2021, Dote joined MIT graduate student Ashay Athalye and OCW staffers Curt Newton and Sarah Hansen to discuss these efforts in a panel discussion on “When Students Create OER: What We’ve Learned and What’s Next at MIT OpenCourseWare” at the OpenEd ’21 conference. During the Independent Activities Period in January 2022, Dote taught her first course at MIT, the three-week 18.S097 Introduction to Metric Spaces. (As you might guess, it’s unusual for for-credit courses at MIT to be taught by undergraduates, and it’s extremely unusual for such a course to be taught by a student in their second year.) In keeping with her commitment to open education, she generously shared the materials from the course, including the lecture notes and problem sets, on OCW. Above and beyond that, she agreed to answer a set of interview questions on her approach to teaching 18.S097; in that interview, which you can read in its entirety on the course’s Instructor Insights page, she describes her vision of the ideal role of students in the educational ecosystem: “I wish students took more of a part in the classroom,” she comments, “and I believe this can be better encouraged by professors.” We couldn’t agree more! Here’s hoping that Paige’s efforts will inspire a new generation of educational innovators among her fellow students, and that she herself will continue her work on behalf of open education in coming years, both as a student and as a teacher. Originally published at https://www.ocw-openmatters.org on June 20, 2022. We hope you’ve been inspired by this story and by OCW’s effort to meet the needs of learners eager to enhance their knowledge, lift up their communities, and change the world for the benefit of everyone. Please consider supporting our work with a donation or if giving isn’t possible right now, we’d love to hear how OCW has made a difference in your life or classroom. We’d appreciate it!

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Sujood Eldouma

Turning adversity into opportunity How a love for math and access to MIT Open Learning’s online learning resources helped a Sudanese learner pursue a career in data science. Carolyn Tiernan | MIT Open Learning Sujood Eldouma always knew she loved math; she just didn’t know how to use it for good in the world. But after a personal and educational journey that took her from Sudan to Cairo to London, all while leveraging MIT Open Learning’s online educational resources, she finally knows the answer: data science. An early love of data Eldouma grew up in Omdurman, Sudan, with her parents and siblings. She always had an affinity for STEM subjects, and at the University of Khartoum she majored in electrical and electronic engineering with a focus in control and instrumentation engineering. In her second year at university, Eldouma struggled with her first coding courses in C++ and C#, which are general-purpose programming languages. When a teaching assistant introduced Eldouma and her classmates to MIT OpenCourseWare for additional support, she promptly worked through OpenCourseWare’s C++ and C courses in tandem with her in-person classes. This began Eldouma’s ongoing connection with the open educational resources available through MIT Open Learning. OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, offers a free collection of materials from thousands of MIT courses, spanning the entire curriculum. To date, Eldouma has explored over 20 OpenCourseWare courses, and she says it is a resource she returns to regularly. Sujood from Sudan: An Open Learner’s Story Video: MIT OpenCourseWare. Listen to the interview here. “We started watching the videos and reading the materials, and it made our lives easier,” says Eldouma. “I took many OpenCourseWare courses in parallel with my classes throughout my undergrad, because we still did the same material. OpenCourseWare courses are structured differently and have different resources and textbooks, but at the end of the day it’s the same content.” For her graduation thesis, Eldouma did a project on disaster response and management in complex contexts, because at the time, Sudan was suffering from heavy floods and the country had limited resources to respond. “That’s when I realized I really love data, and I wanted to explore that more,” she says. While Eldouma loves math, she always wanted to find ways to use it for good. Through the early exposure to data science and statistical methods at her university, she saw how data science leverages math for real-world impact. After graduation, she took a job at the DAL Group, the largest Sudanese conglomerate, where she helped to incorporate data science and new technologies to automate processes within the company. When civil war erupted in Sudan in April 2023, life as Eldouma knew it was turned upside down, and her family was forced to make the difficult choice to relocate to Egypt. Purpose in adversity Soon after relocating to Egypt, Eldouma lost her job and found herself struggling to find purpose in the life circumstances she had been handed. Due to visa restrictions, challenges getting right-to-work permits, and a complicated employment market in Egypt, she was also unable to find a new job. “I was sort of in a depressive episode, because of all that was happening,” she reflects. “It just hit me that I lost everything that I know, everything that I love. I’m in a new country. I need to start from scratch.” Around this time, a friend who knew Eldouma was curious about data science sent her the link to apply to the MIT Emerging Talent Certificate in Data and Computer Science. With less than 24 hours before the application deadline, Eldouma hit “Submit.” Finding community and joy through learning Part of MIT Open Learning, MIT Emerging Talent at the MIT Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) develops global education programs that target the needs of talented individuals from challenging economic and social circumstances by equipping them with the knowledge and tools to advance their education and careers. The Certificate in Computer and Data Science is a year-long online learning program that follows an agile continuous education model. It incorporates computer science and data analysis coursework from MITx, professional skill building, experiential learning, apprenticeship options, and opportunities for networking with MIT’s global community. The program is targeted toward refugees, migrants, and first-generation low-income students from historically marginalized backgrounds and underserved communities worldwide. Although Eldouma had used data science in her role at the DAL Group, she was happy to have a proper introduction to the field and to find joy in learning again. She also found community, support, and inspiration from her classmates who were connected to each other not just by their academic pursuits, but by their shared life challenges. The cohort of 100 students stayed in close contact through the program, both for casual conversation and for group work. “In the final step of the Emerging Talent program, learners apply their computer and data knowledge in an experiential learning opportunity,” says Megan Mitchell, associate director for Pathways for Talent and acting director of J-WEL. “The experiential learning opportunity takes the form of an internship, apprenticeship, or an independent or collaborative project, and allows students to apply their knowledge in real-world settings and build practical skills.” Determined to apply her newly acquired knowledge in a meaningful way, Eldouma and fellow displaced Sudanese classmates designed a project to help solve a problem in their home country. The group identified access to education as a major problem facing Sudanese people, with schooling disrupted due to the conflict. Focusing on the higher education audience, the group partnered with community platform Nas Al Sudan to create a centralized database where students can search for scholarships and other opportunities to continue their education. Eldouma completed the MIT Emerging Talent program in June 2024 with a clear vision to pursue a career in data science, and the confidence to achieve that goal. In fact, she had already taken the steps to get there: halfway through the certificate program, she applied and was accepted to the MITx MicroMasters program in Statistics and Data Science at Open Learning and the London School of Economics (LSE) Masters of Science in Data Science. In January 2024, Eldouma started the MicroMasters program with 12 of her Emerging Talent peers. While the MIT Emerging Talent program is focused on undergraduate-level, introductory computer and data science material, the MicroMasters program in Statistics and Data Science is graduate-level learning. MicroMasters programs are a series of courses that provide deep learning in a specific career field, and learners that successfully earn the credential may receive academic credit to universities around the world. This makes the credential a pathway to over 50 master’s degree programs and other advanced degrees, including at MIT. Eldouma believes that her experience in the MicroMasters courses prepared her well for the expectations of the LSE program. After finishing the MicroMasters and LSE programs, Eldouma aspires to a career using data science to better understand what is happening on the African continent from an economic and social point of view. She hopes to contribute to solutions to conflicts across the region. And, someday, she hopes to move back to Sudan. “My family’s roots are there. I have memories there,” she says. “I miss walking in the street and the background noise is the same language that I am thinking in. I don’t think I will ever find that in any place like Sudan.”

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