I'm a student (and researcher) at Caltech — and very excited to hear about this. I hope Caltech continues to push for open access. I know that many undergraduates would like to have course lectures posted freely online like MIT's open courseware.
I do wonder, how common is such a policy at other institutions? I assume this must be uncommon, since it's apparently newsworthy?
They're becoming more common. The entire University of California system already has a similar policy, of institutional open-access archival by default, but with a waiver process for a handful of cases where the author thinks it's needed: http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-policy/
Unfortunately, few Caltech classes have lectures that are actually worth it to be posted online (unlike the MIT ones, who are IMO far superior in teaching quality, for the most part)
I attended Caltech about 35 years ago. I kept my notes, but looking at them now without recalling the context of the lectures makes them a bit on the incomprehensible side.
I sure wish those lectures had been recorded and I could refresh my memory on the more interesting ones.
I've also seen some of the MIT online videos, and my recollection is the Caltech lectures I attended were of comparable quality.
Indeed. It is becoming less uncommon, especially in the UK where I work with a national policy to require research papers arising from tax payer funded work to be published using OA. Also, the Universities are really leading the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_mandate
It's a big topic at my institution, and here at the Libraries it's constantly being pushed and advocated with faculty and through conferences we play a part in.
I do wonder, how common is such a policy at other institutions? I assume this must be uncommon, since it's apparently newsworthy?