On the site there are syllabuses, lecture notes from about 15,000 lectures, about 9,000 homework assignments, 900 exams, reference materials, and when available, video lectures.
An estimated 35 million people have accessed the course materials.
Even more interesting is to consider where the traffic is being generated from: China, India, and South Korea, in fact 60% of users are from outside the U.S.
Since the MIT initiative began the project is suggestive of the openness with which leading Universities are approaching the creation and dissemination of knowledge. Moreover, the brains that want to tap American knowledge arise from Asia.
The openness of MIT is quite a sea change from the restricted 19th century notion of exclusive, restrictive knowledge as practiced by elites. And importantly, those most hungry for the knowledge, in Asia, are indicative that the balance of world power is shifting Eastward.
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