Funding, Grants & Awards

MITx Grant Program Funds 8 Digital Learning Projects

• By Leila Meyer
• 03/17/16

The Office of Digital Learning (ODL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has selected eight projects to receive funding through the Spring 2016 MITx Grant Program.

The MITx Grant Program funds the development and operations of digital learning modules that use the edX platform in support of MIT schools and departments. The program opens twice annually. The first MITx Grant Program funded eight proposals in August 2015, and this second call for proposals opened in November. In this call, "applicants were encouraged to focus on teaching using digital methods in ways that are not possible in the traditional classroom, that allow the student to experience learning in new ways, and to be tested on his/her progress in learning with new kinds of assessments," according to information on the program's site. The MITx Faculty Advisory Committee reviewed the proposals and selected the projects to be funded.

The projects funded through the Spring 2016 MITx Grant Program include:

• Fundamentals of materials science and engineering;
• Foundations of information policy;
• Molecular biology: RNA processing and translation;
• Quantum mechanics;
• Atomic and optical physics II;
• Contemporary African democracy;
• Linear differential equations; and
• Visualizing the Philippines.

The ODL received 18 proposals from 14 MIT departments and centers. The quality of all 18 proposals was very high and exceeded expectations, according to a news release on MIT's site,  but "budgetary constraints limited the number of proposals that could be funded." The MITx Faculty Advisory Committee advised the remaining grant applicants on alternate routes for their projects.

The projects funded through the Spring 2016 MITx Grant Program will begin development this summer.