Harvard and Stanford (and other big name universities) are in the business of "selling" diplomas, not content. You cannot put on your resume that you "aced" a Harvard iTunes course, but only that you graduated from Harvard. I applaud these institutions for realizing it and allowing others to benefit from the content. Think of it as the public library model -- you can certainly pick up Tocqueville or Newton writing and read it, but it offers no guarantee of your mastery of the material. The diploma (supposedly) gives you that badge.
Yes, I understand that but the question then still is... why would they spend time, money and resources to give you all that material for free? Other institutions in the "diploma business" will surely peek and try to keep up and I do not see or understand the benefit for Harvard, Stanford et al. if we are not talking altruistic purposes.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is fantastic they do it and I applaud them - it is just really surprising and I am wondering about their motives, just my own (economic) curiosity.
I believe that it is about being adopters to new technology. Some of these things will be incorporated into the future of learning.
No Ivy League school is suffering from profits and, as was posted, the degree from the school holds the most value. It also would help future potential students be aware of what is demanded of them in these academic institutions and potentially give them a chance to learn more should they choose to do so.
I think the prestige of a university is tied more to the quality of their research, their legacy as an institution and the reputation of instructors they attract (which need not have anything to do with actual ability to instruct) than the quality of the content or instruction. I don't think the other institutions in the "diploma business" can replicate that as easily.
In one word: reputation. These schools want to be seen as social-responsibility leaders, etc. I don't want to sound so negative about it, but there's some element of publicity these institutions are seeking.
Think of this: how many people criticized Steve Jobs for not getting involved in charity, although he had billions in the bank? Do you think it looks good for Harvard University, with over $15bn in endowment to not do any good will project?
Lastly, some of these schools already offer remote learning via video. Putting the videos on iTunes is a sunk cost.
Disclosure: I went to one of those "big name" institutions as an undergrad, grad student, and I also worked there. Few are the projects that are TRULY out of the goodness of somebody's heart
You said "Other institutions in the 'diploma business' will surely peek and try to keep up and I do not see or understand the benefit for Harvard, Stanford et al. if we are not talking altruistic purposes."
My response was on the point of whether other institutions in the "diploma business" would peek to keep up. I was merely stating why Harvard, Stanford, MIT and the like have nothing to fear by opening their courseware. My intentions were merely to diffuse the notion that replicating instruction would suffice to compete with Harvard.
As to why they do it, I think other comments have covered that.
