Students to access MIT material

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare makes the MIT Faculty’s course materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate subjects available, free of charge, to any user in the world

Kampala

Ugandan students can now access educational materials used at one of the world’s top universities.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare(OCW) makes the MIT Faculty’s course materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate subjects available, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world through the Web site http://ocw.mit.edu.

However, in an effort to make these educational materials more accessible to students and educators from Uganda and the East African region with an inadequate Internet connection, the Uganda Christian University is now hosting a local copy of the materials, made available through the MIT Mirror Site Programme. “I believe these materials will provide a valuable resource for students in Uganda and beyond to access to world-class curriculum in various fields,” says Prof. Stephen Noll, UCU’s Vice Chancellor.

A fundamental part of OCW’s mission is to extend the reach and impact of OCW materials throughout the world. Much of OCW’s outreach efforts have focused on developing countries, where OCW materials are largely underutilised due to limited Internet connectivity.

OCW has installed a small number of mirror sites, or local copies of OCW content, at educational institutions such as the Uganda Christian University, and evaluation data show that these mirror sites are having a significant positive impact on teaching and learning throughout the developing world. “We are pleased that the Uganda Christian University will be able to provide our content to the educators and learners of Uganda and the East African region,” said Cecilia d’Oliveira, the Executive Director of the OCW project.

“We understand that the MIT faculty’s course materials are only useful if people have access to the materials, whether that be via the Internet, or the Uganda Christian University’s campus network. We look forward to learning from educators and students throughout Uganda and East Africa what difference these materials make in their teaching and learning.”
Educators with access to the localised version of OCW on the Uganda Christian University network have been advised to utilise the OCW materials for curriculum development, while students and self-learners may draw upon the materials from virtually all MIT courses for self-study or supplementary use.

The Uganda Christian University is hosting the OCW mirror site at http://mit.ucu.ac.ug. MIT is the top rated university in the world, according to the latest rankings released by webometrics. It is followed by Harvard University and Stanford University of USA.