April 15, 2008 (Vol. 28, No. 8)
URL:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu
Rating:
Strong Points: Very good quality
Weak Points: Non-downloadable videos
Summary:
Thinking of beefing up your general undergraduate education? Better yet, do you know someone who would like to do so, but can’t afford to go to school? If so, then the UC Berkeley site above will be of interest. Similar to other efforts at MIT Open Courseware initiative (ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm), but with more multimedia content, the UC Berkeley Webcast page provides podcast (downloadable mp3 audio) and/or Webcast (streaming Real video) for its courses on a term-by-term basis. The most recently listed term had 45 courses ranging from general biology to general biochemistry (and many others, to boot). The choice of Real video is unfortunate, because it requires streaming, but the quality of the videos is nice. I use videos (QuickTime) that can be downloaded for my classes (see here – oregonstate.edu/instruction/bb350/schedule.html), but the quality of my videos pales, due to lack of a dedicated cameraperson. Thus, there’s a bit of yin and yang at the UC Berkeley site. Overall, though, who can complain about free education?
