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April will mark the 10th anniversary of MIT OpenCourseWare, the university's initiative to provide free and open access to its core academic content - the syllabi, lecture notes, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, and even a selection of video lectures from over MIT 2,000 courses.

Over the past decade, MIT has shared its course materials with over100 million individuals, and MIT OCW is laying out an ambitious roadmap for the next decade, with the goal of expanding its reach ten-fold: "to reach a billion minds."

MIT OpenCourseWare is launching five new courses today that mark a new model for one of the world's premier open educational resources. These OCW Scholar courses are designed for use by independent learners, and like the other material made available through MIT OCW, are freely available for anyone to pursue.

These aren't distance learning classes - there is no instructor, no contact with MIT, no credit. But the courses are meant to be stand-alone offerings, not requiring any additional materials for learning.

Like many sites and services, MIT OpenCourseWare has released some of its user statistics from 2010. An initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) provides open access to the core academic content - syllabi, lecture notes, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, and video lectures - from over 2300 MIT courses, almost the entire curriculum of the school.

The figures show strong growth for what is one of the world's premier open educational resources, with an increase in visits and visitors between 2009 and 2010.

Posted by MIT OpenCourseWare's Steve Carson, here are some of the statistics from MIT OCW's 2010:

When Bill Gates said recently that in the next five years the best education will be found online, I'm not sure he was thinking about Facebook as the educational platform of the future. But the London School of Business and Finance is, and today the school announces a new course that will make its MBA course materials available online for free, delivered via a Facebook app.

As an undergraduate at Sacramento State, Ryan Stevens founded NoteUtopia in order to provide a mechanism for students to buy, sell, and share their university course notes. Stevens graduated last spring and NoteUtopia officially launched in August. But less than six weeks into the startup's history, NoteUtopia has received a cease-and-desist letter from the California State University system, charging that the company violates a provision of the state education code.

When it first launched, the tech and business worlds were transfixed on Linden Labs' Second Life as a new marketplace. Science fiction fans flocked to the site for its Snow Crash and Matrix-like neo-apocalyptic feel. And finally, educators arrived to build inexpensive and immersive learning environments. While the hype has certainly dissipated with Second Life, the librarian and educator community remains. Today Linden announced the first statewide roll out of a virtual learning environment. Funded by a grant from the University of Texas State's Transforming Undergraduate Education Program the company will provide a huge space for faculty, students and researchers to explore a virtual undergrad degree program.

Microsoft's Education Labs launched a new project this afternoon and it's better on trees and the environment. The group just announced a new Math Worksheet Generator where teachers can generate math problems and email them in paperless Word format to their students. In addition to Math Worksheet Generator, the group also announced plans for two additional projects to be released in the Fall.

While the down economy continues to hurt funding to our schools, more and more teachers are looking to web-based services to help educate their students. Whether it's through open resource projects like CK-12, virtual classrooms like those in Second Life, or through the repurposing of tools like Twitter, millions of teachers are finding innovative resources to engage their students. If you're a teacher, here are seven great tools to get you started.

A decade ago distance learning was experimental at best. Only a few courses were offered online, instructors were often slow to respond, and at the end of it, there was always the chance that employers would scoff at your credentials. With faster internet connections and accredited institutions embracing online education, a lot has changed since then. Distance learning service provider 2tor hopes to shift the paradigm even further. Judging by the $10 million dollar Series A round they've just closed with RedPoint Ventures, Novak Biddle and City Light Capital, they're poised to build something substantial.

A computer science professor at an Australian University is doing something revolutionary with YouTube - he's offering students who can't attend his classes college credit for watching his videos. Richard Buckland, a senior lecturer at the University of NSW in Sydney, Australia, was frustrated that high school students with a passion for computing and capable of studying at the college level were not able to make the commute to the university fit into their school day. Buckland then decided to turn YouTube into a remote classroom where the students could attend lectures virtually and then complete coursework just as his other students do.