I didn't attend MIT, but the existence of OCW is exactly what made me wince a bit reading this. This guy really experienced professors refusing to record lectures to encourage attendance? That doesn't track with MIT being a pioneer among US universities in recording lectures and making them freely available, not just for their own students, but for anyone anywhere with an Internet connection. I used OCW extensively when going back to school for grad school, even though it was not at MIT. Those resources are terrific and invaluable.
('18 alum) Yeah I agree. We even had internal-only versions of OCW with more recent recordings and more material.
Although I agree that professors were not accessible, and TAs were often not that helpful. But, I never felt like I didn't have the resources I needed. I just lacked enough time.
I did feel like i would have been able to _learn_ better from a smaller school with fewer students, and teachers hired for teaching instead of research. But I still don't think that would have outweighed the benefit of the MIT community and resources.
I'm not in the USA but my universities in the 90s used to offer at least 5 online 5-year courses (CE, EE, Chemical, Mechanics and Energy) and you would have to go only one month a year for the labs. Now they offer ZERO. It wouldn't surprise me that some professors feel "offended" that people choose to follow the lectures online instead of taking the "advantage" of his prestigious person.
