# MIT OpenCourseWare

14 Hacker News commenters recommended MIT OpenCourseWare and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, high-quality lecture videos and course materials from MIT, often recommended as a baseline for self-study in technical subjects. Critics say it falls apart in advanced graduate courses.

## Why people recommend it

- High-quality teaching and lectures (3 comments): "The quality of their teaching is so high that it showed me that when my children go to college" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46643973)) "The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49767163)) "MIT OCW does a great job of this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46301988))
- Free, open access courses (3 comments): "Shout outto MIT open courses, and Stanford online for pioneerig this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46308752)) "a good place to find syllabi and often much more for free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50127269)) "Kahn Academy, MitX, opencourseware etc are treasures." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859570))
- Strong baseline for technical subjects (3 comments): "YouTube (or better, MIT's OpenCourseWare) has provided instruction that sets a baseline." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46422307)) "I would recommend following along the MIT OCW course or similar, doing the exercises." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46269798)) "For college-level technical subjects, there are also e.g. many MIT lectures on OCW." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49414365))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Khan Academy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/khan-academy.md): 67 recommend
- [Coursera](https://hackerapproved.com/p/coursera.md): 26 recommend
- [Udemy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/udemy.md): 16 recommend
- [Brilliant.org](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brilliant-org.md): 12 recommend
- [Bloomy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bloomy.md): 12 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://ocw.mit.edu/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "MIT OpenCourseWare", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mit-opencourseware/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).