Tufts helps push OpenCourseWare.

OPENCOURSEWARE IS MUCH LIKE e-books and legal filesharing--a promising idea whose time has been slow in coming. Initially, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology grabbed a lot of attention in 1999 when it kicked off its effort to make course materials and lectures available online, free, to other scholars and learners. The response, though, seemed to take a quiet, slow-moving advance after the initial fanfare.

Now Tufts University (Mass.) has joined the movement. The university has uploaded materials from six health science courses and will add materials from its dental and international relations schools this fall. A $200,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is funding this pilot program.

"[MIT] approached us," explains Mary Lee, M.D., an associate provost for Tufts. "A key MIT faculty member had a daughter at Tufts' veterinary school. They wanted OCW to add curricula in life sciences and thought our health sciences content would be a nice complement to what they already offer." To date, the MIT OCW project has published online materials for 1,100 courses.--J.M.A.