Distance Learning | News

Cornell Enters MOOC Arena with 4 Courses

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/03/13

Cornell University will launch four massive open online courses (MOOCs) next semester. The classes will be the first MOOCs offered by the university, which joined edX in May.

The courses were selected by a subcommittee of the Faculty Senate's Distance Learning Committee from among 15 submissions and are specifically tailored to online learning.

The four courses include:

• Relativity and Astrophysics is scheduled to start February 3;
• Wiretaps to Big Data: Privacy and Surveillance in the Age of Complete Interconnection will kick off March 2;
• Networks, which will "explore game theory, Internet structure, social contagion, the spread of social power and popularity, and information cascades, according to a news release. Networks will begin March 7; and
• American Capitalism: A History is scheduled to begin March 17.

"Since Cornell University's start nearly 150 years ago, the university has embraced its land-grant mission. Now with the advent of MOOCs, Cornell adds progression and more modernity to its mission to serve a broad, even global, community of learners," said Laura Brown, senior vice provost for undergraduate education and chair of the new Distance Learning Committee, in a prepared statement. "MOOCs enhance our visibility for potential graduate and undergraduate students, and they open up and model opportunities for innovation in teaching through online methods that have a wide potential impact within and beyond Cornell."