Recently Bill Gates has emphasized the importance of web learning resources. At the recent Techonomy conference, Bill Gates has predicted the availability of the best lectures of the world on the web for free and people will use it. According to him, the rising cost of university education and intimidating books will hasten the process.
Link to Bill Gates Talk
All the universities have been providing the lecture notes and handouts for free for years. Recently there have been moves by MIT and Stanford and others to provide the lecture videos for free as well. I have been a big fan and user of the video contents from MIT and Stanford. But in my point of view learning via web fulfills only half of the benefits of a full time education. At universities a lot of learning does happen outside the classroom. The rich interaction with faculty and fellow students plays an important role in one’s learning.
On the other hand for people like me who cannot attend universities, the lecture videos and learning resources help to learn new things and enhance ones knowledge and skills.