Elaborative course content and flexible learning network
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has started promoting OpenCourseWare projects since 1999, providing course materials from MIT to the public free of charge via the Internet.

MIT organized OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC) in 2002. Many colleges became the members of the organization one after another and joined the promotion of OCW, opening the professional knowledge from each college to the world. So far OCWC has been composed of over 250 colleges and non-profit organizations in 46 countries.

OpenCourseWare (OCW) is provided by colleges and its original idea is to unlock and to share knowledge. It’s not like formal courses in colleges and differ from teaching by correspondence or distance learning. Learners can set up target and choose their own learning styles. In short, OCW is not like a tour group but an independent travel. People can freely arrange time and organize schedule by themselves.

To keep abreast with the opening of educational resources and to be in line with internationally renowned universities, the science department of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University(NYCU) started promoting OCW in 2006. In April 2007 NYCU became the first university in Taiwan to join OCWC, and establish its OCW platform.

On June 5, 2007, NYCU OCW was officially released, publishing course materials online free of charge. It has released 303 courses, including 278 full audio and video courses, from 2007 to 2016. All of the course materials are available on the OCW website (https://ocw.nycu.edu.tw). To provide a better learning experience, courses on NYCU OCW are set up like traditional courses. Providing complete class material, including class syllabus, agenda, course audio, and video, etc.

For users of OCW, the platform allows them to understand the learning content in advance to arrange and plan their learning schedule. Users can also cross-reference from other courses to help clarify unclear concepts and participate in additional learning. For those students who have already taken the courses, self-learner, and people with careers, they can take the courses to review again.

For teachers, OCW not only allows them to concentrate on academics and teaching but also publish high-quality course materials. New teachers can also use it as a reference for lesson preparation and teaching.

OCW provides students and self-learners a multi-learning platform, in the hope that everyone can equally and freely acquire knowledge and achieve the goal of lifelong learning.