EdX Expands Course Offerings for Spring -- Campus Technology

Distance Learning

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.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

HPE and Nvidia Announce Expanded AI Infrastructure Partnership

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Nvidia have expanded their partnership to accelerate enterprise artificial intelligence adoption through new modular infrastructure and turnkey AI platform offerings.
1EdTech: 6 Key Steps for a Successful Credentialing Program

A new report from 1EdTech Consortium outlines recommendations for creating microcredential programs in schools, colleges, and universities.
Maricopa Community Colleges Adopts Platform to Combat Student Application Fraud

In an effort to secure its admissions and financial processes, Maricopa Community Colleges has partnered with A.M. Simpkins and Associates (AMSA) to implement the company's S.A.F.E (Student Application Fraudulent Examination) across the district's 10 institutions.
Linux Foundation to Host Protocol for AI Agent Interoperability

The Linux Foundation has announced it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol project, an open standard originally developed by Google to support secure communication and interoperability among AI agents.