Be an Ivy League Student for Free!

Sept. 22, 2006 — -- You too can soon be taught by great Yale professors, and enjoy that subtle lift of the professorial eyebrow and self-assured body language behind the podium that convey so much more than a dry textbook ever could.

It's all absolutely free and on the Internet -- not some expensive set of tapes or DVDs from a mail-order company.

It's also thanks to digital video -- and a new kind of global university, never mind the diplomas.

Video cameras now whirring in hallowed halls as professors plumb the mysteries of Old Testament heroes, newfangled physics, and ancient principles of political science will make Yale the first elite university to promote online video of its teaching stars showing their stuff.

"We think it may make some of our great teachers even better," said Yale professor Diana E.E. Kleiner, who's directing Yale's new video venture.

"When we ask, 'Can we videotape your lecture' -- a lecture that we tell them may well be seen in China, or some small, developing country -- it forces the professors to think about their lectures even more," Kleiner said to ABC News.

"They may transform how they teach, and their Yale students will then also get an enhanced experience."

"And think of someone in a small town in China for the first time seeing a Western college lecture!" Kleiner said.

"And I often get questions from educators overseas asking advice on how to present courses or how to structure them. Now we will also be able to show them our own Yale professors on the Internet as an example."

Along with "professor-cam" output, Yale will offer course outlines, supporting texts, and even transcripts of the lectures online from its New Haven, Conn., campus -- all available for free starting next year.

Administrators at Yale's nearby sister ivy, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., are impressed.

"It fits our mission. Anything that gets higher education to a wider group of people is a great thing," said Barbara Jan Wilson, Wesleyan's vice president for development.