🎓 MIT OpenCourseWare Scraper

🚀 Export MIT's entire free course catalog in seconds. Search by topic, department, or level and get structured data on 2,500+ world-class MIT courses.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-21 · 📊 16 fields per record · 2,500+ courses · Global coverage

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is one of the world's most prestigious free educational resources, offering course materials from nearly every MIT department. This actor connects directly to the OCW search API and extracts structured course data in real time - no browser required, no login needed.

The dataset covers undergraduate and graduate courses from all 30+ MIT departments, spanning engineering, mathematics, science, humanities, economics, and more. Every record includes instructor names, topics, course level, and feature flags for videos, problem sets, and exams.

Coverage: 2,500+ courses from 30+ departments. Undergraduate, graduate, and non-credit levels. All MIT subject areas.

Target Audience / Use Cases

Who	What they build
EdTech developers	Course recommendation engines, curriculum mapping tools
Researchers	Academic dataset analysis, learning outcome studies
Data journalists	Reports on STEM education, free learning resources
Students and learners	Discover MIT courses by topic or department

📋 What the MIT OCW Scraper does

• Searches MIT OpenCourseWare by keyword, topic, or department
• Filters by academic level (undergraduate, graduate)
• Extracts instructor names, departments, course numbers, and full topic trees
• Flags which courses include lecture videos, problem sets, or exams
• Returns direct course URLs for immediate access
• Paginates automatically through all matching results

💡 Why it matters: MIT OpenCourseWare is completely free and has no paywall. This actor makes the entire catalog machine-readable and ready for integration into any application or pipeline.

🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon

⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
searchQuery	string	Search term to find courses (e.g. "machine learning", "calculus")	machine learning
maxItems	number	Maximum courses to return. Free: 10, Paid: up to 1,000,000	10
department	string	Filter by department name (e.g. "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science")	-
level	select	Filter by academic level	All Levels

Example - Search by topic:

{
  "searchQuery": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example - Filter by department and level:

{
  "searchQuery": "algorithms",
  "department": "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science",
  "level": "graduate",
  "maxItems": 100
}

⚠️ Good to Know: Free users are limited to 10 courses per run. Upgrade to paid to access the full catalog of 2,500+ courses.

📊 Output

Each record contains 16 fields:

Field	Type	Description
🖼️ imageUrl	string	Course thumbnail image URL
📚 title	string	Course title
👩‍🏫 instructors	array	List of instructor names
🏛️ department	string	MIT department name
🔢 courseNumber	string	MIT course number (e.g. "6.867")
🔗 url	string	Direct URL to the course on OCW
🎓 level	string	Academic level (Undergraduate / Graduate / Non-Credit)
🏷️ topics	array	All topic tags for the course
📹 hasVideo	boolean	Whether course includes lecture videos
📝 hasProblemSets	boolean	Whether course includes problem sets
📋 hasExams	boolean	Whether course includes exams
📅 lastModified	string	When the course was added to OCW (ISO 8601)
🗓️ term	string	Semester (Fall / Spring / January IAP)
📆 year	number	Academic year
⏱️ scrapedAt	string	Timestamp of data collection
❌ error	string/null	Error message if scraping failed

Sample record:

{
  "imageUrl": "https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-867-machine-learning-fall-2006/6fc42e1b17babba77f04228a00b1e110_6-867f06.jpg",
  "title": "Machine Learning",
  "instructors": [
    "Prof. Tommi Jaakkola",
    "Ali Mohammad",
    "Rohit Singh"
  ],
  "department": "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science",
  "courseNumber": "6.867",
  "url": "https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-867-machine-learning-fall-2006",
  "level": "Graduate",
  "topics": [
    "Engineering",
    "Science",
    "Computer Science",
    "Artificial Intelligence",
    "Mathematics",
    "Probability and Statistics",
    "Cognitive Science",
    "Algorithms and Data Structures"
  ],
  "hasVideo": false,
  "hasProblemSets": true,
  "hasExams": true,
  "lastModified": "2020-03-03T20:45:06.944239Z",
  "term": "Fall",
  "year": 2006,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-22T01:39:36.199Z",
  "error": null
}

✨ Why choose this Actor

Feature	Benefit
🆓 Completely free source	No paywalls, no subscriptions, no logins needed
⚡ Real-time API	Data is always fresh - no stale caches
🔍 Full-text search	Finds courses by topic, concept, or keyword
🏷️ Rich metadata	16 fields including topics, instructors, feature flags
🎓 2,500+ courses	Covers the entire MIT OCW catalog
🔢 Accurate course numbers	MIT-style numbering (6.867, 18.657, etc.)
📹 Feature detection	Instantly identify courses with videos, problem sets, exams

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Feature	This Actor	Manual browsing	Other scrapers
Structured JSON output	✅	❌	Partial
Full topic tree	✅	❌	Rare
Instructor names	✅	Manual	Rare
Feature flags (video/exams)	✅	Manual	❌
Pagination support	✅	Manual	Partial
Free to run	✅	✅	Varies

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free Apify account (includes $5 credit)
2. Open the MIT OpenCourseWare Scraper actor
3. Enter a search query (e.g. "machine learning", "thermodynamics")
4. Optionally filter by department or level
5. Set your maxItems limit
6. Click Start and download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

💼 Business use cases

EdTech Platform Development

Build course recommendation systems by using MIT OCW data as a training dataset. Match users' learning goals to relevant MIT courses based on topics, level, and available materials.

Academic Research and Analysis

Analyze trends in MIT's curriculum over time. Track which topics appear most frequently across departments, or identify gaps in available course materials.

Learning Path Automation

Combine this actor with Coursera or Udemy scrapers to create multi-platform learning paths. MIT OCW provides foundational academic content while other platforms offer certifications.

Content Aggregation and SEO

Build educational resource directories that surface free MIT content alongside paid alternatives. MIT OCW's reputation makes it a high-quality anchor for any learning portal.

🔌 Automating MIT OCW Scraper

Connect this actor to your favorite automation tools:

• Make (formerly Integromat): Trigger a course collection run on a schedule and pipe results to Google Sheets or Airtable
• Zapier: Send new course discoveries to Slack, Notion, or any CRM
• Apify Scheduler: Run weekly to catch newly published courses
• REST API: Call directly from your application using the Apify API

🌟 Beyond business use cases

Academic Research

Study the evolution of computer science curricula at MIT. Analyze which topics have gained or lost prominence across decades of course offerings.

Creative Projects

Build a "random MIT course" discovery app, or create personalized MIT study plans based on career goals and current knowledge.

Non-profit and Education Access

Help underserved communities find free, high-quality MIT content. Use topic filtering to surface courses relevant to specific workforce development programs.

Experimentation and Learning

Practice data analysis with a clean, structured dataset from one of the world's most respected universities.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

You can ask Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant: "What can I do with MIT OpenCourseWare course data?" or "How do I filter MIT courses by department using the Apify API?" - and point it to this actor's documentation for context.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🎓 Is MIT OpenCourseWare really free? Yes. OCW is completely free and requires no login or registration. All course materials are openly licensed.

📦 How many courses does it cover? The MIT OCW catalog contains 2,500+ courses across all MIT departments.

🔍 Can I search by topic like "machine learning" or "quantum mechanics"? Yes. The searchQuery field supports full-text search across course titles, descriptions, and topic tags.

🏛️ Can I filter by department? Yes. Use the department field with the exact department name (e.g. "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science" or "Mathematics").

🎓 Can I get only undergraduate or only graduate courses? Yes. Set level to "undergraduate" or "graduate" to filter results.

📹 How do I find courses with lecture videos? Query normally and filter output by hasVideo: true. Courses with lecture videos are clearly flagged in the output.

📊 What format can I export data in? JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML - all standard Apify dataset export formats.

⏱️ How long does a run take? A run returning 100 courses typically completes in under 10 seconds. The OCW API responds quickly.

🔄 Is the data real-time? Yes. Every run fetches fresh data directly from the MIT OCW API. No caching.

🌐 Does it work without a proxy? Yes. MIT OCW is a public educational site with no bot protection. No proxy required.

💰 What's the cost? Free users get 10 courses per run. Paid users can retrieve up to 1,000,000 courses. See Apify pricing for platform costs.

🔗 Can I get the full course URL? Yes. Every record includes a direct url field linking to the course on ocw.mit.edu.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Export MIT OCW data to:

Platform	Use
Google Sheets	Spreadsheet analysis
Airtable	Database and CRM
Notion	Knowledge management
Slack	Team notifications
Zapier	Workflow automation
Make	Advanced integrations
REST API	Custom application integration
Webhooks	Real-time event triggers

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Udemy Scraper	Extract Udemy courses with pricing, reviews, and instructor data

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for scrapers covering 100+ websites across education, e-commerce, finance, and more.

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This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by MIT or MIT OpenCourseWare. All data is sourced from publicly available information on ocw.mit.edu. Use responsibly and in accordance with MIT OCW's terms of service.