MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate and graduate level courses online, openly available to anyone. MIT OpenCourseWare can be considered as a large-scale, web-based publication of MIT course materials.
The impact of OCW reaches beyond formal classrooms, as demonstrated by Haitian natives Jean-Ronel Noel and Alex Georges. Noel and Georges planned to create solar panels to serve the needs of their country, but in their R&D process, they required guidance in electrical engineering. Noel found the needed help through OCW. "I was able to use OCW to learn the principles of integrated circuits. It was much better than any other information I found on the Internet." Today their company, Enersa, has made a difference in their community by training and employing 18 people of Cité Soleil and has made a positive impact on the environment by making solar-powered LED lighting available in almost 60 Haitian towns and remote villages.
