M.I.T. considers charging for its online lectures

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that it is considering charging for access to online lectures and class notes, which are currently available free on the Web.

Speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Institutional Management in Higher Education conference in Paris this month, Lori Breslow, director of M.I.T.’s Teaching and Learning Laboratory, said that free access “may not be the best economic model, so we are now looking seriously at new e-learning opportunities.”

Long a leader in the Open Course Ware movement, which provides free and open access to high-quality educational materials, M.I.T. has come under increasing financial pressure because of the fall in the value of its endowment.

From a high of $10.1 billion in 2008, M.I.T.’s endowment has shrunk to $7.6 billion. According to University World News, an online newsletter, putting courses behind a paywall is one of a number of measures designed to deliver $150 million in cuts over the 2009-12 period. — D.D. GUTTENPLAN