Going to Harvard from your own bedroom by Merlin John

"In the online world you don't need to fill buildings or lecture theatres with people and you don't need to be trapped into a lecture timetable," says Peter Scott, director of the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute.

Photo: BBC News 

The Open University, the UK's open access university, which allows people to study from home in their own time, has been an international pioneer of degree courses online.

The university, with more than 263,000 students in 23 countries, has become a record breaker on the iTunes U service, which provides a digital library of materials for university students and staff.

Instead of music or movies, Apple's iTunes U provides a download service for lectures and resources from universities around the world.

Top universities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK have been making their materials available, with no charge to the user.

The prospect of learning from Harvard from your own bedroom is getting closer.
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About Merlin John
He is an educational technology writer and founder of agent4change.net.

Source: BBC News