MIT and Harvard launch a ‘revolution in education’
May 3, 2012
MIT and Harvard announced on Wednesday an ambitious new partnership called called edX to deliver online education to learners anywhere in the world.
The edX venture will provide a wide variety of interactive courses from both Harvard and MIT — for free — to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. A first set of courses will be announced in early Summer, to start in Fall 2012.
Online tools developed for edX will also supplement the lectures, seminars and labs available to MIT’s and Harvard’s own students, and will provide detailed data about how well different parts of lessons are understood and what areas may require further explanation.
Anant Agarwal, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and president of the newly formed edX, called the new initiative a “historic partnership.” Online education, he said, is creating a “revolution” driven by “the pen and the mouse,” adding that edX is “disruptive, and will completely change the world.” The new possibilities afforded by today’s technology, he said, have created “the biggest change in education since the invention of the printing press.”
Agarwal, who is currently teaching the pilot course of MIT’s online-education program MITx, talked about the unexpected popularity of that class, “Circuits and Electronics,” despite its relatively challenging subject matter. The class, known as 6.002x, has attracted more than 120,000 registrants — ranging from high-school students to at least one octogenarian — and has spawned groups that have spontaneously formed worldwide to work together.
Agarwal said that while some universities have teamed up with for-profit companies to provide online classes, edX’s not-for-profit model is similar to one of the world’s most successful examples of online learning: Khan Academy, a set of online lessons aimed at K-12 students founded by MIT alumnus Salman Khan ’98, MEng ‘98. Khan “was a leader” in developing innovative ways of teaching online, Agarwal said.
MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif led an effort over the last five years that looked into ways to move the MIT classroom experience into an online environment, which culminated last December in the announcement of MIT’s online education initiative, called MITx. The goal of that project, as well as of the new edX collaboration, he said, “is to strengthen and enrich what we do on campus” by making use of the lessons learned about effective teaching methods, as well as the specific tools created for the online classes.
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Comments (8)
by wyatt
One of the comments on the Chronicle of Higher Ed website from an MIT student stated, “The $60 million will fund not just the courses but also the analysis of what works in online courses and what doesn’t. They’re making Cambridge the Los Alamos of online education — minus, hopefully, the radiation.” Online education has been going on for some time. Technology, increased adoption, and making courses freely available have given online education a needed boost. Surprisingly, older adult learners actually make up a majority of the overall population within online education. Online education offers the needed flexibility to be done anywhere, at anytime, and able to adapt to different learning styles. This fits into working adults and those with families that may not be near a university. Besides free education, now more than ever students can compare costs and stretch their loans and financial aid that much further. As mentioned in comments already we will also be increasing our collective intelligence.
by Ted Rodosovich
Take a look at Arthur C. Clarke’s “Profiles of the Future” from a while back.
by dharam gokhool
using and embedding technology to democratise and reinvent education is an excellent idea
how about designing a project for younger children(3-5/6 years..the idea catch them young !
by aus
Don’t be silly. Millions of people are not going to begin working toward life extension and AGI just because Harvard and MIT put a few video lectures and course notes online.
This is a step closer to a transhuman future, but just a small one.
by Singu2023
I don’t think most people, even in the H+ and Singularity movements, yet understand that with this announcement, that this day, May 2, 2012, may mark the most important point in human history. If hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people begin working in the health and AGI projects, then aging may soon be ended, and the Singularity achieved in less than ten years.
MIT and Harvard have only announced that this is the beginning, and that they are going to be linking up with the rest of the world’s universities to open source just about all efforts. Even many people living in their 70s and 80s today now have a good chance of seeing the Singularity occur.
A real revolution just started, and nobody seems to get it yet. Personally, as soon as I heard it, I nearly jumped through the roof!
by GatorALLin
I hope they allow takers of these courses to vote or let the great courses float to the top…so the best ones get the most attention. It would be cool if the very best way to teach a course was to float to the top. Keep up the great work!
by nfordkrz
This article is written like MIT and Harvard invented the concept of free online education. I’ve already completed and am currently taking several such classes by Stanford and Udacity.
by aus
This is quite serious business. Online education is getting bigger and better by the month it seems.