MIT has been very successful at attracting a large global audiencethat uses the OCW materials in a wide variety of ways. The siteis a repository of educational resources, a reference for scientificand technical information, an educational planning tool, aninformal learning space, and a source of entertainment and inspirationto millions of people. The site has also generated significantbenefit for the existing MIT community with more than 90% ofstudents, 84% of faculty, and 50% of alumni accessing the sitefor a range of academic purposes. In addition, more than a thirdof incoming freshman who knew of the site before choosing theirschool say OCW positively influenced their decision to attendMIT.
This variety of uses, however, presents the greatest challengesin developing a vision for the next phase of OCW's development.
via sciencemag.org