Academic Earth makes debut on the web

Here’s a cool new way to get your fix of university courses and lectures–Academic Earth, a YouTube for the egghead set, is featuring videos of courses and lectures from top universities. Universities on the menu right now: UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

All of this material is already available on other websites or on iTunesU., but the presentation on Academic Earth is pretty slick. You can search by subject, by university or by your own search criteria. Check out their playlists for collections on particular themes like “understanding the financial crisis,” or “wars throughout history.”

This project is the brainchild of entrepreneur Richard Ludlow, recently profiled here in Business Week. While the initial content is free, he reportedly plans to make money by selling ads and related educational services such as tutoring.

(Hat tip to Open Culture .)