[e-drug] Open Courseware on pharmaceuticals

["Hilbrand Haak" <haakh@chd-consultants.nl>]

E-DRUG: Open Courseware on pharmaceuticals
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[Interesting initiative indeed. For drug related courses, see for example
pharmacology:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Health-Sciences-and-Technology/HST-151Spring-2005/
CourseHome/index.htm or Prinicples and practice of drug development
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Chemical-Engineering/10-547JFall-2005/CourseHome/
WB]

Dear E-druggers, 

I saw a remarkable news item on one of the internet forum discussions I
subscribe to: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is currently
working to put the contents of its full curriculum online (see
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html ). Anyone interested is free to review it and
MIT explains that by doing so it hopes to contribute to world development. 

So far the contents of readers, notes and literature lists of some 1500 MIT
courses can be studied online, and by the end of this year the full
curriculum of all 1800 MIT courses should be available. The caveat is that
attending online courses does not qualify for an academic degree, and it is
also not possible to correspond with teaching staff. Nevertheless, the site
was visited some 1.5 million times last year, which may indicated that the
initiative is appreciated. Most visitors (some 60%) are from outside the
USA, but even MIT-students admitted that they frequently use the site to
prepare for exams and to write papers.

I find this a very welcome development, as I always believed in freely
available scientific information and course materials. And as quality
teaching is much more than making teaching materials available, I believe
that there is little against training institutions putting all their
materials online. I could even imagine that it may boost demand for active
course participation!

I hope other universities, and course organizers who advertise in E-drug,
follow the MIT initiative and make their materials available online. This
way people who do not have the resources or time to attend actual courses,
can at least study the teaching materials online. For those who can afford,
they probably want to physically attend courses and learn from the
materials, their classmates and the interactions with teaching staff. 

Hilbrand

Hilbrand Haak
Consultants for Health and Development
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