Open courseware, learning materials developed specifically for instructors and students to use for free, is gaining a place in the spotlight as the growth of online education has created a new use and demand for the online teaching resources.

Though these courses don’t usually count toward degrees, they can be a useful addition to an instructor’s curriculum in a degree program. Online teachers can be very flexible in their use of open courseware. Some may simply suggest that students use the free materials as supplemental material. Others may adapt the course content to fit their classes or pull entire online lectures for their students.

While there are numerous sources of open courseware, the OpenCourseWare Consortium is likely one of the most known. It boasts course content from hundreds of national and global universities. Each institution is required to publish at least 10 “free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses,” according to the consortium site.

Open courseware provides online instructors with an opportunity to discover how other instructors are teaching particular courses and to provide students with more well-rounded instruction. Online instructors and students can take advantage of the unlimited supply of information and educational resources on the Internet today.