 | One goal of the Open Yale Courses project is to make the viewers "be able to see and hear each lecture as if they were sitting in the classroom," says director Diana E.E. Kleiner. Among the offerings is Professor Langdon Hammer's class on modern poetry. |
Some of the University’s most popular undergraduate courses are now
freely available to anyone in the world with access to the Internet through
a project called “Open Yale Courses,” which was launched Dec. 11.
T H I S
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Now anyone can ‘audit’ popular
Yale courses via Internet
“Open Yale Courses” presents unique access to the full content of
a selection of college-level courses and makes them available in various formats,
including downloadable and streaming video, audio-only and searchable transcripts
of each lecture. Syllabi, reading assignments, problem sets and other materials
accompany the courses.
The production of the courses for the Internet was made possible by a grant from
the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The seven courses in the sciences,
arts and humanities — which were recorded live as they were presented in
the classroom to Yale students — will be augmented with approximately 30
additional Yale courses over the next several years.
“Information technology allows the knowledge and passion of leading Yale
faculty to reach everyone who wishes to explore these subjects,” says President
Richard C. Levin. “We hope students, teachers and anyone with an interest
in these topics, no matter where they live or what they do, will take full advantage
of these free and easily accessed courses.”
Diana E.E. Kleiner, the Dunham Professor of the History of Art and Classics and
director of the project, notes that the full content of all the courses is now
readily available online and may be accessed at the users’ convenience.
“We wanted everyone to be able to see and hear each lecture as if they
were sitting in the classroom,” Kleiner says. “It’s exciting
to make these thought-provoking courses available so broadly for free. While
education is best built upon direct interactions between teachers and students,
Yale believes that leading universities have much to contribute to making educational
resources accessible to a wider audience. We hope this ongoing project will benefit
countless people around the world.”
Kleiner says the courses reflect the broad liberal arts education provided by
Yale College, which encourages critical thinking, intellectual exploration and
creativity. She notes that Yale plans for future Open Yale Courses to include
music and the arts.
Hewlett Foundation President Paul Brest says that the availability of the Yale
courses has significance far beyond the University.
“Making the talents of Yale’s faculty available for free on the Internet
is an important step toward the Hewlett Foundation’s goal of providing
access to knowledge and educational opportunities throughout the world,” Brest
says. “Truly, all the world is becoming a classroom.”
The URL for Open Yale Courses is: http://open.yale.edu/courses.
The first courses available through Open Yale Courses are:
• “Astronomy 160: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics,” with
Professor Charles Bailyn
• “English 310: Modern Poetry,” with Professor Langdon Hammer
• “Philosophy 176: Death,” with Professor Shelly Kagan
• “Physics 200: Fundamentals of Physics,” with Professor Ramamurti
Shankar
• “Political Science 114: Introduction to Political Philosophy,” with
Professor Steven Smith
• “Psychology 110: Introduction to Psychology,” with Professor
Paul Bloom
• “Religious Studies 145: Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew
Bible),” with Professor Christine Hayes
To encourage the widest possible use of the courses, the license that covers
most of the lectures and other course material on Open Yale Courses is Creative
Commons’ Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. This license
permits the free use or repurposing of the Open Yale Courses material by others.
Under this license, users may download and redistribute the Open Yale Courses
material, as well as remix and build upon the content to produce new lectures
or other educational tools. Commercial use of the Open Yale Courses material
is prohibited.
The Open Yale Courses project is produced and supported by the Yale Center for
Media and Instructional Innovation (CMI2), which promotes the innovative use
of technology to enhance learning at Yale and beyond.
One of Professor Shelly Kagan's philophy classes is part of Open Yale Courses. This new venture will allow foreign students to gain insight into how subjects are taught in American universities.
Open Yale Courses allows the public, in effect, to audit the Yale College courses
for free online. There is no “enrollment” in the courses, and Yale
does not offer credit for those who use the course materials.
Yale also has developed partnerships to enable these resources to be widely utilized
in academic settings around the world.
In India, Yale is working with the Indo-U.S. Inter-University Collaborative Initiative
in Higher Education and Research’s Amrita satellite network to broadcast
courses to universities throughout India.
China Education Television (CETV) has agreed to broadcast individual lectures
on CETV in that nation. CETV broadcasts are viewed by millions of Chinese.
Individual faculty members at universities around the world will use Open Yale
Courses in their classrooms. Faculty at the following universities are participating:
University of Bahrain, Instituto de Tecnologia de Buenos Aires — ITBA (Argentina),
Fudan University (China), University of Ghana, Jimma University (Ethiopia), Tec
de Monterrey (Mexico), University of Mumbai (India), Peking University (China),
University of Tokyo (Japan) and Waseda University (Japan).
“We applaud Yale for making available their most valuable resource, the
knowledge of their faculty, to contribute to improve the quality of the teaching
in the world,” says Patricio Lopez, president of the Virtual University,
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico. “We look forward to benefiting from and
contributing to this effort.”
Yale Vice President Linda K. Lorimer, who is responsible for the University’s
Office of Digital Content, commented, “Open Yale Courses gives us a new
opportunity to share our intellectual treasury with everyone and for free. We
welcome other universities, high schools and non-governmental organizations to
use these and future courses we will post on the Internet.”
Open Yale Courses will be featured in the more than 300 American Corners located
in libraries and universities abroad. American Corners is a public diplomacy
project of the U.S. Department of State, and each day thousands of young people
come to American Corners to pick up a book about life in the United States, learn
about U.S. colleges and universities, or watch a video about the United States.
American Corners are often located outside of the capital city or in remote areas
of the country. With Open Yale Courses available at American Corners, students
and lifelong learners will be able virtually to audit a class taught by one of
the top professors in the world.
Open Yale Courses also will offer secondary school students who are considering
applying to study in the United States the opportunity to see how subjects are
taught in an American university. Toward this end, educational advisers throughout
the Middle East will be trained in their advising workshop next spring on how
to use open educational resources, including Open Yale Courses, to prepare students
for academia in the United States.
In addition to Open Yale Courses, Yale provides a growing library of free video
and audio offerings on the Internet featuring Yale faculty and distinguished
visitors to campus. This free resource includes a large variety of public talks,
interviews and musical performances. 
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Fossil from giant sea scorpion found
Paleontologist named next Peabody director
Yale senior and Law School student win Rhodes Scholarships
Renovation of Yale Bowl celebrated at The Game
Victor Vroom is named the inaugural BearingPoint Professor
Jonathan Feinstein appointed the John G. Searle Professor
Going the Distance: Scientist takes students to the Amazon . . .
Kissinger to take part in symposium on . . .
Venezuela’s future under Hugo Chávez will be explored . . .
Museum celebrates 200th anniversary of fall of ‘Weston’ meteorite
An old classic is seen through a modern lens at Yale Rep
Babies’ preference for altruists suggests social evaluation . . .
Monsanto expands support for center’s plant research
A likeness
Symposium will examine the architecture of Yale’s 22 libraries
Special events to highlight holiday season in New Haven
Gallery of gifts
Back to ‘The City’
Memorial service for Dr. Melvin Lewis
Yale Books in Briefs
Campus Notes
Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News
Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home