Can you teach yourself?

The other day I was speaking to a friend of mine on the phone. It was a usual conversation with this friend since. We spend a lot of our time talking about engineering, math, computer science, physcis and what some people would "nerdy" stuff. As we kept talking he told me if I had ever heard of MIT OpenCourseWare. And I said no. He began to explain what it is and he also gave me the website, which I will share with you.
MIT OpenCourseWare is this website (published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is for those who are looking to bone up on specific subjects or, if you are ambitious, dedicated and self-motivated... to go through an entire course online. Now, it's not like you are signed up for the course or you pay anything (yes, it's free.) It is courses that were offered in the past to MIT students, undergraduate and graduate level that are now posted to the public. Now, almost all of the coursework, including the syllabus, video lectures, lecture notes from the professors, exams, assignments, texts needed... it's pretty much all there. Just download it and work. There are no time constraints, you work at your own pace
I couldn't believe it when I found it. I was looking through the various majors, the coursework... it just seemed surreal. Now, it's not really an online course if that's what you may be thinking. There's no credit. And, I would be pretty sure that MIT is not going to offer any course online for free. There are a lot of reasons to use the site. For example, say you are an older young adult and you are looking to test out of a certain course. If you study and do the coursework, you can test out of it without having to pay for a class at the university or community college.
I guess it just depends on your style of learning. If you can learn this way and retain what you've learned through this methodology... then I would say, go for it. Especially if you are strapped for cash and time.
I had to mention it because it is an amazing resource, totally unbelievable.
I remember my friend saying "well you're the librarian, you should know about this." And I just shook my head because I knew it was true. It wasn't meant as an offense (what my friend said) but it just made me think.
So, you want to know how to find this... put in your address bar... ocw.mit.edu
Look to the left of the page. And, like I said, this is probably for the older young adults, but it's also for those who want to peek.
And that's about all.
-a highly wired lady