Congratulations, you've just been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)! You now have the ability to learn from some of the most respected educators and scientists in the world. Did I mention that your education will be free?

These are the benefits of something that has been around for five years now, but to which I've just been introduced. It's called MIT OpenCourseWare. Since 2002, MIT has been posting its course materials from undergraduate and graduate courses online, free for download to the general public. Now, with over 2 million monthly visits and virtually all MIT courses available on the site, it has become one of the most useful learning tools online. The online courses contain class notes, exams, and often video or audio lectures. As a result, the outsider's MIT experience certainly approaches, if not approximates, the real thing.

No, you won't get course credit. Nor will your study culminate in a coveted MIT degree. But you will have free reign among the course materials, to pick and choose the ideas and theories you want to learn. It's all the benefits of the college education, but without the pesky assignments and deadlines.

Talk about practicing what you preach. Educational institutions are supposed to be mission-driven. They are supposed to further education, social responsibility, and knowledge to whatever extent possible. However, many institutions today seem to become lost in the search for more prestige, students with higher SATs, and increased endowments. Don't get me wrong; I see the benefit in furthering an institution itself in order to improve its educational capacity. But that goal can't compare to OpenCourseWare's mission to provide free, high-quality education to anyone with a desire to learn. Why don't all colleges and universities do the same?

Perhaps most impressive is that 59% of MIT OpenCourseWare's page visits come from outside North America. Significant percentages of OpenCourseWare visitors come from South Asia, Africa, South America, and other regions that previously had less access to the same kinds of materials. Many of the materials are translated into multiple languages, and the site encourages global thinking whenever possible. MIT reports that it has now received users (not just visitors) from more than 215 countries, territories, and city-states (PDF) around the world.

So, wherever you are, take a look at the site and decide what you want to learn today.

Cherry-picking some courses that might be of interest to some of us environmental-types:

• Global Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy
• Past and Present Climate
• International Environmental Negotiation
• Introduction to Urban Design and Development
• Environment and Society
• And the home OpenCourseWare site

Visitors from all over the world use OpenCourseWare