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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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 TECH REVIEW 
2

Website Lets You Into Harvard—Free

Academic Earth offers video lectures from top schools

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(Newser) – No notes, no homework, and you can wear your PJs the entire time you "sit in" on Harvard classes—online. Academic Earth's online classes are "unexpectedly irresistible," Farhad Manjoo writes for Slate. "It's like Hulu, but for nerds." The company's collection of videotaped lectures from schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford is a "geeky procrastinator's dream." Participants can search classes by subject and even get access to course handouts and transcripts.

The video quality is generally good, but sometimes it's hard to hear student questions, Manjoo writes. Another downside: There are tons of science and economic courses, but not a lot of humanities offerings. "Academic Earth is more of a pastime than a replacement for college," he writes, but you can't beat listening to "the world's experts talking about stuff they're passionate about."

Harvard Yard.
Harvard Yard.   (AP Photo/Lisa Poole,File)
University of California-Berkeley professor Richard A. Muller teaches a physics class that is also available on online.
University of California-Berkeley professor Richard A. Muller teaches a physics class that is also available on online.   (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle, Brant Ward)
Stanford University student Kristen Lence studies on the campus in Palo Alto, Calif., last spring.
Stanford University student Kristen Lence studies on the campus in Palo Alto, Calif., last spring.   (PRNewsFoto/Apple/Court Mast)
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Many of the professors are great teachers, and, unlike in college, I can go to class on my own time—which ensures that I'm not too sleepy to understand what's going on. - Farhad Manjoo, Slate

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2 comments
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Sgt_Toadstool
Feb 22, 09 11:55 AM CST
Congratulations to Harvard for doing this. This combined with MIT's Open Course Ware marks the beginning of the "freedom of education" era we're hopefully entering into. Reply
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Forderon
Feb 22, 09 1:26 PM CST
Agreed. This is a real treat for nerds like me. I've been a fan of MIT Open Courseware for years but they didn't have video until recently. Yale's does have video lectures but it's limited. This site combines all the universities in one place. It'll only get better as they add more content. Reply
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