MIT OpenCourseWare
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 11 online learning platforms by recommenders
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.
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.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
High-quality teaching and lectures
“The quality of their teaching is so high that it showed me that when my children go to college”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “I Learned Everything I Know About Programming” “The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too.”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “The Secret Life of Circuits” “MIT OCW does a great job of this”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Coursera to combine with Udemy” Free, open access courses
“Shout outto MIT open courses, and Stanford online for pioneerig this.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Coursera to combine with Udemy” “a good place to find syllabi and often much more for free”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “How to Formalize All of Mathematics” “Kahn Academy, MitX, opencourseware etc are treasures.”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe” Strong baseline for technical subjects
“YouTube (or better, MIT's OpenCourseWare) has provided instruction that sets a baseline.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “UK accounting body to halt remote exams amid AI cheating” “I would recommend following along the MIT OCW course or similar, doing the exercises.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)” “For college-level technical subjects, there are also e.g. many MIT lectures on OCW.”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling”
Other online learning platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other online learning platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khan Academy | 67 | 17 | 80% | 12 | 7 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Coursera | 26 | 37 | 41% | 6 | — | — |
| Udemy | 16 | 44 | 27% | 5 | 10 yrs4 owners | — |
| MIT OpenCourseWareThis page | 14 | 2 | 88% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Brilliant.org | 12 | 3 | 80% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
15 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a good place to find syllabi and often much more for free”
“Kahn Academy, MitX, opencourseware etc are treasures.”
“I skipped those classes in college and learned from MIT OCW and random tutorials.”
“The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too.”
“OCW doesn't know about any of this, as far as I can tell.”
“For college-level technical subjects, there are also e.g. many MIT lectures on OCW.”
“few people took the online credential seriously, despite whatever skills they acquired”
“Some universities had their own platforms like MIT Open Courseware.”
“It would be quite outstanding if MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center released their core courses on OpenCourseWare.”
“The quality of their teaching is so high that it showed me that when my children go to college”
“YouTube (or better, MIT's OpenCourseWare) has provided instruction that sets a baseline.”
“Shout outto MIT open courses, and Stanford online for pioneerig this.”
“MIT OCW does a great job of this”
“I would recommend following along the MIT OCW course or similar, doing the exercises.”
“Even MIT OCW falls apart once you get into some advanced graduate courses.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.