Opening Doors to Education

This week's class readings including information about the concept of open education. I was very intrigued by the OpenCourseWares (OCW) program started by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). According to Creswell (2008), OCW was developed to provide open access collections of educational materials to universities worldwide. These materials may include lecture notes, videos of lectures, syllabi, exams, and other resources used to teach courses. As I was reading about OCW, I began to wonder the difference between OCW and MOOCs (massively open online classes). Upon doing a quick Google search, I was able to find a pretty good description of both. 

OpenCourseWare vs. Massively Open Online Classes
It's hard to find fault in systems that open the doors of education to the masses. In a day and age when the cost of higher education continues to rise, both OCWs and MOOCs seem like ideal alternatives for those seeking to continue their education. While I don't think traditional (brick and mortar) colleges and universities will be ever be completely replaced, there does appear to be a need to better understand how these open educational tools might redefine higher education as we know it.