I was going through the list of universities that have contributed in the open courseware. Somehow I was not surprised that not even a single Indian university has made any contribution. After all One cannot expect the “Curse of Eklavya” (controlling the access to education) to be over so soon.
Satish raised a very valid point:
If government is as much committed to spreading education, as they claim, then why is it that they are never able to print adequate number of Primary School Text Books in time? Worse, Why do they need to copyright it and prevent others from even printing/Xeroxing the first few chapters? (as a stop gap arrangement, while the students are waiting for the official textbooks)
Anyways its been almost 4 years since I have last attended any classes. So I thought I would upgrade my knowledge in few of the areas of my interest:
Introduction to Anthropology
Principals of Macroeconomics
Econometrics
Medieval Economic History
The Ancient World: Rome
The Ancient World: Greece
Writing and Reading the Essay
Financial Management
Introduction to Marketing
Introduction to Operations Management
Some courses which I know i would be interested in, but maybe in future.
Photography and Truth
Introduction to Environmental History
Some courses which i badly need to revisit.
Introduction to Aerospace
Calculus
22 replies on “Some MIT open Courseware courses I am thinking of pursuing”
If indian universities offer the courses for free, then they will not get any money. They want money. Eventhough many people and companies are donating crores of money to IITs, still that money is not enough for them. IITB is charging from Rs.5000-7500 for a course.
http://www.cdeep.iitb.ac.in/live/Courses/rec-course.asp
Best of luck Ankur. Indira Gandhi Open University must be offering some courses although I don’t know what they are worth.
U have a long list :). All the best !!
@Satish…
//If indian universities offer the courses for free, then they will not get any money. //
Why should that be a problem… after all almost all universities r govt funded and will continue to exist even if they do not charge a single penny as fees (education in india is highly subsidized already).. and govt would encourage that.
actually India is suffering from Curse of Eklavya (http://enagar.com/2007/02/07/higher-education/) and if you make the courses free, then more and more people will be enabled to a higher quality of life.
//5000/-//
I agree that is a very steep price to pay esp for a CD which hardly cost 10-15/- to make copies of.
with our per capita income about 35k, thats like 2 months of wages for an average Indian. Also the course content is not very interesting.. all these r basic courses concentrating on theory rather than application..
@pr3na…
my father pursued his MBA from IGNOU. what i could learn from him was that the course content was good and the exams were professional. the only problem was that as there was no classrooms, one did not get a chance to learn from the peers.
I would recommend you to also skim through the MIT’s course list. I am sure you would find 3-4 interesting topics.
@jayan…
it has been 4 years since I have updated my knowledge.. and this backlog has resulted in this long list. if i do not do it now, the list would only increase… or worse my awareness would shrink.
And about the contribution of Indian Universities, i believe we’re definitely gearing up. See this – study by the National Knowledge Commission
@Ankur
//Why should that be a problem… after all almost all universities r govt funded…//
I was sarcastic, when I said that. All IIT’s have enough money that they got from govt, companies, and alumni.
@Jayan
India is very good in many studies like this. But, is there any contribution to the education from any indian university?
In A.P., even high school books are copy righted by the government, and nobody is allowed to publish them, and government never prints school books enough on time. Expecting high level education for free in india is a very high expectation.
@jayan…
I went through the list.. these guys have bloated the cost figures tremendously….
as per their figures it will cost the programme 6 Lakhs for every 40 hour course. but in reality all they can do is share the professor’s lecture notes and audio tape (if video camera is too expensive) his real classroom voice…
similarly it is going to cost them 5cr to put videos online… when all they have to do is upload the videos at you tube for free and share the link.
@satish…
that is what u and I are arriving at… there is no sense of dedication/responsibility in the faculty members.. (and hence no wonder this profession is on a downward tail spin) there is already system in place, infrastructure is there.. and faculty members are in lecture halls for only 5-6 hours a week.. so time is never a constraint….
maybe because they r too complacent..
//In A.P., even high school books are copy righted by the government, and nobody is allowed to publish them,//
excellent point… thanks for sharing.. i had never thought in this angle. (updated the post with this point)
nice course choices and great a find anlur
but as always the real output in the end depends upon the dedication of the student
i agree… already i am halfway through calculus… i hope to finish aerospace basics and calculus this weekend.
btw anlur is a typo? or does it mean something?
typo u shd have figured that l and k r neighbors
wow where do u get the time ? seems like u get a lot of free time at the office
Another interesting thing,
Elite IITs go bankrupt, no salary for Mumbai staff.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/elite-iits-go-bankrupt-no-salary-for-mumbai-staff/56790-3.html?xml
@satish…
mulri manohar singh and IIT had locked horns for a very long time…
so probably that was the reason why funds were withheld. otherwise there has been never a single instance where salaries of central govt employees were not payed in time (although some states regularly default)
@prax…
was just checking.. sometimes u introduce terms totally alien to me.
//wow where do u get the time//
i own my weekends and my evenings… and in absence of distractions (barring internet)… i have more time at my hand than activities.
i guess its one of the benefits of not seeing anyone.
sometimes u introduce terms totally alien to me ???
pray please elucidate
//pray please elucidate//
ur knowledge on GK, history and current affairs far surpasses mine. and what makes it more interesting is that you can cross reference and present them in a way that you can leverage on this database to introduce newer viewpoints in your arguments and rebuttals.
now let me risk of spoiling this by adding too much sweetener….
at Nita’s blog… even though i had very strong view point against the PURI temple… i could not proceed any further because i was clue less what sanatan dharam or the philosophy of Buddhism was. but you were able to continue the debate as an expert….
this is definitely not the best example, but yes the most recent one.
im no expert im a jack of all trades right now
hinduism is such that it takes a lifetime and noone becomes an expert
thanks nyways 🙂
this one abt the open courseware was good.
thanks
“mehow I was not surprised that not even a single Indian university has made any contribution. After all One cannot expect the “Curse of Eklavy” (controlling the access to education) to be over so soon.”
You my friend are missing some wonderful _Indian_ courses!
http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=nptelhrd
@manoj..
welcome to ENagar and thanks for the link 🙂 I feel so proud now
Can somebody please tell me if anyone can persue these courses. Does MIT issue any degrees related to these and are there any exams related to these.
no there are no exams or degrees….
these courses are meant for self study