Well, you have to do some work. I have enrolled, using the username mrstabtacular (or something. actually I’m not 100% sure what it was, it was a new username I chose for it, and I have already forgotten it but it’s a bit like that edit: I think it was mrstabtastic edit2: never mind about the darn username, we’re going to get a qualification from MIT!). The course starts on March 5th.
MITx course 6.002 - the very first.
Anyone else going to sign up?
Oh, that’s unspeakably cool. 
I just wish the first course was in something I hadn’t already taken though…
That sounds awesome - I’d take it but I’d have to go back and relearn calculus n’ stuff first. 
I’ll prolly fail miserably, but I did sign up.
A free course that relies on the honor system? I’m skeptical that the certificate will be worth more than the paper it’s printed on. But still, it’s an interesting concept. I’m just not interested enough in the subject matter to sign up for that class.
Welp, I’m in.
I’m just worried because the last time I tried to grok electronics (vis-a-vis solid-state radiation detectors) I ended up completely unable to make heads nor tails for how it worked - and came perilously close to deciding that it really was the result of pure fairy magic.
We’ll see how it goes this time.
Nuts, I don’t meet the requirements for the course. Maybe in the fall there will be some.
There are also classes at Stanford (see the bottom of this page) and Udacity, which was founded by a former Stanford professor who quit his job to teach online full time.
I wonder how strong the requirements will be - I wish I had a few more months worth of time so I could do the online physics class, plus the math. I wonder why they don’t let you just go at your own pace?
It can’t be pure fairy magic. There’s too much math involved.
Maybe it’s applied fairy magic.
Thanks for the link, Ultrafilter–I just enrolled in the search engine class. Should be interesting
Been there, done that. But when I took it the course was called 6.001, circuit theory for CS majors (back then Course VI Option 3) who didn’t have to face real resistors and capacitors and stuff.
It also wasn’t free. 
However you can’t do effective hacks of the sort we did on line.
Note that the recommended (but not required) paper textbook was written by Anant Agarwal, the professor for the course. So if this is a popular offering and a fraction of those participating buy the book, he stands to make some money.
Count me in as another one who’d love to do the course, but doesn’t have the requisite math background. I had trouble with my linear algebra course in university (I don’t think I passed), and I’ve never had any calculus or differential equations.
For now they’re running it that way, but they’re eventually going to work out a deal with Prometric for actual proctored tests.
I don’t quite meet the requirements, but I’m taking it anyway. I’ll start brushing up now on that stuff.
Interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t think I remember enough calculus.
It might not be worth much, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I do find the subject interesting enough in itself that I’d like to study it, but I benefit a lot from structured study with essays, exams, goals and marks rather than just reading around stuff.
And woo! I signed up. I might soon be an MIT student! 
Well, not really, but kinda, so that’s still cool.
I’d like to go back and relearn my calculus… and then keep going. I was hoping the first course would be an Intro to Calculus course. I’m really rusty.
Maybe I’ll wait until they offer the necessary calculus. I’d definitely need a review.