A neat idea, but what can I get from MIT courses that I can't get at the local library?
You can do this sitting in your jammies....... oops sorry. Forgot who I was talking to. ;-)
You can play on the MIT Online Basketball Team. ;->
Seriously, this is a boon to homeschoolers. You don't have to search for the stuff elevant to your subject.
Local libraries have scant technical resources.
Actually, I've perused some of their courseware. Basically, it's just lecture notes, no big thing. You have to buy the text book with your own dough. Some of the lecture notes are mostly just hand drawn vugraphs. You do get problem sets, some solutions.
You cannot contact the faculty; you don't get a beaver ring, or a grade or a transcript.
I have found some excellent courseware on the Web, MIT's didn't really impress me.