Academic Earth

AcademicEarth.org, a user-friendly portal for OpenCourseWare video from multiple leading universities, was selected Monday by Time.com as one of the 50 Best Websites of 2009.  The young startup was included in a collection of some of the internet's leading companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and NetFlix.

“We are extremely honored to be in such great company in the TIME.com Top 50 Websites of 2009,” said Richard Ludlow, Founder and CEO of Academic Earth.  “We’ve been truly astonished by the initial response to site’s launch; in the first 6 months since it opened to the public, the site has received more than 2.5 million visits from internet users representing more than 200 countries.  We are very pleased to play even a small role in extending high-quality learning opportunities to people around the globe.”

The efforts of Academic Earth and other organizations have led to increasing public awareness of OpenCourseWare in recent months, with media outlets including FastCompany, Slate, and US News and World Report publishing articles on the open education movement.  Academic Earth has also recently been featured as one of PC Magazine's Top 100 Websites, and one of BusinessWeek's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurship Ventures.

The site continues to expand its collection of university courses, focusing recently on the field of history.  Highlights include African American History: Modern Freedom Struggle and Darwin’s Legacy, both from Stanford; Science, Magic, and Religion from UCLA; and Nonviolence: from Gandhi to Martin Luther King from UC Berkeley.

Additionally, the site now includes two sub-sections intended to help high school and college students with their studies.  The Advanced Placement Test Prep section highlights 10 college courses which overlap with the curricula for 8 different AP tests; the new Pre-Med section offers 10 courses to assist pre-medical students with core courses in the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Calculus, Organic Chemistry, and Physics.