Go to uni with Google Video

Online video is no longer just fun and games: you might actually learn something.

The University of California at Berkeley said on Tuesday that it is using Google Video to deliver college courses, including lectures and symposia, free of charge. It is the first university to have its own featured page on Google Video, campus officials and Google said in a statement.

Initially, the university has put up a library of more than 250 hours of video for public viewing. Most of it previously was not available online, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said.

Google Video, launched earlier this year, is an index of user-generated and professional video content, both free and paid.

Visitors will find half a dozen Berkeley courses in their entirety, including 'Physics for Future Presidents', 'Integrative Biology', and 'Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business', featuring a lecture by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Also available are a range of public events and academic symposia on topics ranging from climate change to synthetic biology. The university plans to add more material to the Google Video site in the coming months.

'Coursecasting' is a growing trend in educational technology, enabling students and the general public to download audio and video recordings of class lectures to their computers and portable media devices. Berkeley has been offering a limited set of material since 2001.

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