Top Universities Offer Free Lectures Online

May 21 - KGO (KGO) -- To attend the country's most prestigious private colleges, you'll probably need more than $40,000 dollars a year. Even the University of California can cost more than $20,000 dollars. But some of that high-powered education is now available free. You can't get a degree, but you can satisfy your drive to discover.

This U.C. Berkeley class is called "Physics for Future Presidents." It's designed for non-physics majors who want to understand how the world works.

The class is very popular with Cal students, and in the last year, it's also made Professor Richard Muller an international star on the Internet.

Last August, U.C. Berkeley launched a first of its kind partnership with Google Video, providing free university lectures with just a few clicks of a mouse.

Richard Muller, Ph.D., Physics Professor: "I had never expected that my class would reach so many people."

Even more free lectures are available on the university's own Web site and tens of thousands of people are taking notice. Muller gets e-mails everyday from people watching all over the United States and the world.

Prof. Richard Muller: "Why do they watch it? Oh, the letters are so wonderful. I mean they are so grateful, as if I'm giving this to them instead of selling it to them."

Many Cal lecture halls are equipped with cameras that provide close-ups of experiments and shots of the blackboard. The video system was originally set-up for students, but now it's providing a huge variety of material to anyone with Internet access. Everything from poetry readings to a biology lesson where the professor pulls a human brain out of a hatbox.

Prof. Marian Diamond, U.C. Berkeley, Integrative Biology: "I want you to appreciate what you carry in the top of your heads."

Cal says millions of people have viewed their lectures online in the last year. Around the world, more than 120 universities are now posting free educational material on the Internet.

Stanford is one of several universities offering free lectures through Apple's iTunes U. You can download the lectures to your computer or to an iPod. Some have video, some are audio-only.

Scott Stocker, Stanford Web Communications: "I think it's just going to continue to expand, probably in ways we can't even imagine right now."

One part of that future is Open Courseware, a consortium of universities sharing knowledge on the Web. It was launched last year by the Hewlett Foundation in Palo Alto with a donation of $68 million dollars.

Catherine Casserly, The Hewlett Foundation: "It's a way to access a lot of prestigious schools. It's almost like the public library of the 21st century."

M.I.T. was first to sign on. The university will soon have almost its entire curriculum online for free -- 1,800 courses. Some have video of lectures, but there are a lot of other resources too.

Catherine Casserly: "Let's say classics in western philosophy. Here on the left-hand side it shows you the materials -- the syllabus, readings, lecture notes, assignments, exams."

Many university officials say making knowledge accessible is part of their mission.

Christina Maslach, U.C. Berkeley Vice Provost: "Deep at our core, deep in our bones, is the sense that we are an institution responsible to the people and giving back to society is what we are about."

Of course, what you don't get in the free Internet lectures is personal interaction with the professor or college credits for taking the class. What you do get is a chance to learn from experts who are at the top of their field.

Prof. Richard Muller: "I think this is the future of the world for people to be educated, to know what is true and what is isn't, so that they wind up putting their energy on those things that are important."

Free college resources:

Open Courseware, consortium of 120 universities offering free academic content on the Internet:
>> www.ocwconsortium.org

U.C. Berkeley lectures on the Internet:
>> http://video.google.com/ucberkeley.html >> http://webcast.berkeley.edu

M.I.T. courses materials on the Internet:
>> http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

Both U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University have lectures available through iTunes U. You will need to iTunes software to access the material. If you don't have iTunes, not to worry, downloading is simple. Click here to download the iTunes software. (Software available for both PC and Mac).

>> http://itunes.berkeley.edu
>> http://itunes.stanford.edu

Written and produced by Jennifer Olney.

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