Distance Learning | News

EdX Expands Course Offerings for Spring

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 01/02/13

Not-for-profit online learning initiative edX has opened registration for spring classes, adding several courses in the humanities and social sciences for the first time.

Launched by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2012, spring will be the second semester for the online platform and will include courses from the University of California, Berkeley, which joined the initiative last July.

Spring courses include:

• Justice, from Michael Sandel, political philosophy instructor at Harvard;
• Introduction to Statistics, which will be led by Ani Adhikari, recipient of UC Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award;
• The Challenges of Global Poverty, from MIT Economist Esther Duflo;
• The Ancient Greek Hero, from Harvard's Gregory Nagy;
• Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation, led by UC Berkeley Computer Scientist Umesh Vazirani; and
• Human Health and Global Environmental Change, led by Harvard's Aaron Bernstein.

Harvard will also offer Copyright, an experimental course designed to take "advantage of different combinations and uses of teaching materials, educational technologies, and the edX platform," according to information released by the schools. The course will be taught by William Fischer III, and will explore copyright  law in the United States and current debates about how it should be reformed. Unlike other edX courses, which are open to anyone, Copyright will cap enrollment at 500 students who will be selected through an application process set to begin in late January.

“EdX is both revolutionizing and democratizing education," said edX President Anant Agarwal. "In just eight months we've attracted more than half a million unique users from around the world to our learning portal. Now, with these spring courses we are entering a new era--and are poised to touch millions of lives with the best courses from the best faculty at the best institutions in the world."

Other institutions that have joined edX include The University of Texas System, Wellesley College, and Georgetown University.

More information is available at edx.org.