Image
courtesy of Andrew Ho and Isaac Chuang.
MIT and Harvard
release working papers on open online courses (MIT
News)
MIT and Harvard University today announced the release
of a series of working papers based on
17 online courses offered on the edX platform. Run in
2012 and 2013, the courses analyzed drew upon diverse
topics — from ancient Greek poetry to electromagnetism
— and an array of disciplines, from public health to
engineering to law.
The working paper series features detailed reports
about individual courses; these reports reveal
differences and commonalities among massive open
online courses (MOOCs). In the coming weeks, data sets
and interactive visualization tools will also be made
available.
Led by Isaac Chuang, a professor of electrical
engineering and computer science at MIT, and Andrew
Ho, an associate professor in Harvard’s Graduate
School of Education, the collaborative research effort
was in service of a mutual goal — “to research how
students learn and how technologies can facilitate
effective teaching both on-campus and online” — part
of a mission statement established when MIT and
Harvard joined to form edX, the not-for-profit online
learning platform, in May 2012.
The papers analyze an average of 20 gigabytes of data
per course and draw on interviews with faculty and
course teams as well as student metrics.
Key takeaways
Takeaway 1: Course completion rates, often seen as a
bellwether for MOOCs, can be misleading and may at
times be counterproductive indicators of the impact
and potential of open online courses.
> Read the complete
article
Image of
helium neon laser turned on.
MIT offers a number of outreach programs for
high school students and teachers. One such program is
the Lambda Project which
brings chemistry to life for local high school
students.
The project recently introduced students to laser spectroscopy.
Students worked in an MIT lab and learned about waves,
nanometers, and picoseconds.
You can learn about these subjects on our Highlights
for High School and OCW sites:
>
Visit Highlights for High School
Professionals can register now for “Tackling the
Challenges of Big Data”
MIT will offer its first online professional course,
Tackling the Challenges of Big Data, to a global
audience beginning March 4. The four-week online
course, aimed at technical professionals and
executives, will tackle state-of-the-art topics in big
data ranging from data collection, storage, and
processing to analytics and visualization, as well as
address a range of real-world applications.
Teaching the course will be 12 faculty experts from
the world-renowned MIT Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory at the School of Engineering.
The course will be offered through MIT Professional
Education, the arm of MIT that provides professional
education and training for science, engineering, and
technology professionals. It will be the first of a
new line of professional programs to be delivered
globally using the open-source online education
platform edX.
The course will provide companies and organizations
the ability to offer training and education to their
employees on big data – a topic that confronts most
industries today. Upon completion, participants will
receive an MIT Professional Education certificate of
completion and access to MIT Professional Education’s
expansive professional alumni network. The cost is
just $495.
> Learn more and
register today
Last fall MITx
introduced certificates using the new edX ID
verification system, which provides additional
identity assurance for work completed on the edX
platform.
ID verified certificates were available for students
participating in last fall's 6.002x Circuits and
Electronics course at a cost of $100.
This spring, MITx will offer ID verified
certificates on a wider selection of MITx
courses, including 16.110x Flight Vehicle
Aerodynamics, 15.071x The Analytics Edge, 15.390x
Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?, and
6.002x Circuits and Electronics.
ID verified certificates are also required for
component courses of MIT's new XSeries programs,
which provide recognition for the completion of a
series of MITx courses.
> View MITx
courses offering ID verified certificates.
"Education is the only
thing that will ultimately solve all of the world's
issues.
The courses that MIT provide are used by people all
over the world.
Beyond feeding the hungry, because you can't learn if
you are starving, education is the cause I am most
passionate about.
MIT OpenCourseWare will become one of my charities of
choice going forward. Great cause!"
- Laurie, Independent Learner, USA
> Read more
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