<h1>City of Boston and edX partner to establish BostonX to improve educational access for residents</h1>
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<h2>Pilot project offers online courses, educational support and jobs training through Boston community centers</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – January 29, 2013 –</strong>
<ahref="http://www.edx.org">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced today a pilot project with the City of Boston, Harvard and MIT to make online courses available through internet-connected Boston neighborhood community centers, high schools and libraries. A first-of-its-kind project, BostonX brings together innovators from the country’s center of higher education to offer Boston residents access to courses, internships, job training and placement services, and locations for edX students to gather, socialize and deepen learning.</p>
<p>“We must connect adults and youth in our neighborhoods with the opportunities of the knowledge economy,” said Mayor Tom Menino. “BostonX will help update our neighbors’ skills and our community centers. As a first step, I’m pleased to announce a pilot with Harvard, MIT and edX, their online learning initiative, which will bring free courses and training to our community centers.”</p>
<p>BostonX builds on edX’s mission of expanding access to education and delivering high-quality courses on its cutting-edge platform using innovative tools and educational techniques. The City of Boston will provide BostonX sites at community centers with computer access and basic computer training, support for internships, career counseling, and job transitioning. Harvard, MIT and edX will work with the city to provide courses selected to eliminate skills gaps, in-person lessons from affiliated instructors, training in online learning best practices and certificates of mastery for those who successfully complete the courses.</p>
<p>“EdX’s innovative content, learning methodologies and game-like laboratories and teaching methods are transforming education, from 16-year-old students in Bangladesh, to community college students at Bunker Hill and MassBay, and now learners across Boston,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Mayor Menino and the City of Boston to provide this first-ever experience and hope that this idea will spread and create a number of CityX’s around the world, including Cambridge, Massachusetts where edX was founded.”</p>
<p>This new pilot with the City of Boston follows another edX project with two Boston-area community colleges. This month, Bunker Hill and MassBay Community Colleges began offering an adapted version of the <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2013_Spring/about">MITx 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming</a> course at their respective campuses. The BostonX initiative goes one step further by allowing, encouraging and supporting residents of all ages, regardless of social status or neighborhood, to participate in life changing educational opportunities.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<h1>Cengage Learning to Provide Book Content and Pedagogy through edX's Not-for-Profit Interactive Study Via the Web</h1>
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<h2>Students taking HarvardX's “PHW207x: Health in Numbers” on edX</h2>
<h2>to get access to Principles of Biostatistics, 2nd Edition</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA — October 17, 2012 —</strong><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning venture founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), today announced its collaboration with <ahref="http://www.cengage.com/us/">Cengage</a><ahref="http://www.cengage.com/us/"> Learning</a>, a leading educational content, software and services company, to provide licensed content to edX students at no cost.</p>
<p>Students who enroll in edX's course <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/PH207x/2012_Fall/about">PHW207x: Health in Numbers </a>, taught by Professor Marcello Pagano of Harvard's School of Public Health, will have access to an online version of the course textbook, <ahref="http://www.cengage.com/search/productOverview.do?Ntt=Principles+of+Biostatistics%7C%7C1294593750742656302174876073224090273&N=16&Ntk=all%7C%7CP_EPI">Principles of Biostatistics, 2nd Edition</a>, written by Marcello Pagano and Kimberlee Gauvreau and published by Cengage Learning. Cengage Learning’s instructional design services will also work with edX to migrate the print pedagogy from the textbook into the on-line course, creating the best scope and sequence for effective student learning.</p>
<p>“edX students worldwide will benefit from both Professor Pagano's in-class lectures and his classic Cengage Learning textbook in biostatics,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “We are very grateful for Cengage's commitment to helping edX learners throughout the world.”</p>
<p>“We're pleased to collaborate with edX and its mission to improve worldwide access to higher education,” said William Rieders, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy & Business Development for Cengage Learning. “Through this collaboration, edX and Cengage Learning are able to bring the best content, services, and delivery to students worldwide.”</p>
<p>PHW207x: Health in Numbers, which began on October 15th, is the online adaptation of material from the Harvard School of Public Health's classes in epidemiology and biostatistics. Taught by Professor Pagano and Earl Francis Cook, Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and at the Harvard Medical School, PHW207x teaches students the principles of biostatistics and epidemiology used for public health and clinical research.</p>
<p>Through edX, the “X Universities”— which now includes UC Berkeley and The University of Texas System in addition to founding institutions Harvard and MIT — will provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet and will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. EdX plans to add other “X Universities” from around the world to the edX platform in the coming months. </p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">edX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on-campus and worldwide. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.</p>
<h2>About Cengage Learning</h2>
<p>Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. The company's products and services are designed to foster academic excellence and professional development, increase student engagement, improve learning outcomes and deliver authoritative information to people whenever and wherever they need it. Through the company's unique position within both the library and academic markets, Cengage Learning is providing integrated learning solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. Cengage Learning’s brands include Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Gale, Heinle, National Geographic Learning, South-Western and Wadsworth, among others. Cengage Learning is headquartered in Stamford, CT. For more information on Cengage Learning please visit <ahref="http://www.cengage.com/">www.cengage.com</a>. <strong></strong></p>
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<p><strong>Contact:</strong> Dan O’Connell</p>
<h1>EdX to offer learners option of taking proctored final exam</h1>
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<h2>edX announces option of proctored exam testing through collaboration with Pearson VUE </h2>
<p>Online learning venture edX continues to transform higher education by announcing today its agreement with Pearson VUE to offer learners the option of taking a proctored final exam. </p>
<p>"Our online learners who want the flexibility to provide potential employers with an independently validated certificate may now choose to take the course exam at a proctored test site," said Anant Agarwal, president of edX. "This option enhances the value of our courses in the real world, helps us maintain our goal of making high-quality education both accessible and practical and thus is a natural evolution of ed's core philosophy of transforming lives through education."</p>
<p>Pearson VUE, a Pearson business, is the global leader in computer-based testing. Due to this new agreement, edX learners now have the option of taking a course final exam at one of over 450 Pearson VUE test centers in more than 110 countries. Proctors at the centers will verify the identity of the examinee and administer the tests. Examinees using the Pearson VUE centers will take the same rigorous exam as online learners and will be charged a modest fee for the proctoring service. EdX will offer the option to test takers for one of its online courses this Fall. </p>
<p>Robert Whelan, president and chief executive officer of Pearson VUE said, "We are thrilled to collaborate with edX and help its learners improve their employability and career prospects. Pearson VUE is also pleased to help edX protect the integrity of their courses by providing the option of proctored exams."</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p> EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions, the founders are creating a new online-learning experience with online courses that reflect their disciplinary breadth. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning-both on-campus and worldwide. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. EdX's goals combine the desire to reach out to students of all ages, means, and nations, and to deliver these teachings from a faculty who reflect the diversity of its audience. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard. </p>
<h2>About Pearson VUE</h2>
<p> Pearson VUE (<ahref="http://www.pearsonvue.com"target="_blank">www.pearsonvue.com</a>) is the global leader in computer-based testing for information technology, academic, government and professional testing programs around the world. Pearson VUE provides a full suite of services from test development to data management, and delivers exams through the world's most comprehensive and secure network of test centers in more than 175 countries. Pearson VUE is a business of Pearson (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), the international education and information company, whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education and the Penguin Group.</p>
<h1>edX Expands Internationally and Doubles its Institutional Membership with the Addition of Six New Schools</h1>
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<h2>edX welcomes The Australian National University, Delft University of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, McGill University, Rice University and University of Toronto to its X University Consortium of the world’s leading higher education institutions</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – Feb. 20, 2013 –</strong>
<ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced today the international expansion of its X University Consortium with the addition of six new global higher education institutions. The Australian National University (ANU), Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, McGill University and the University of Toronto in Canada, and Rice University in the United States are joining the Consortium and will use the edX platform to deliver the next generation of online and blended courses. This international expansion enables edX to better achieve its mission of providing world-class courses to everyone, everywhere, and is the natural next step to continue serving the large international student body already using edX on a daily basis.
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<p>While MOOCs, or massive open online courses, have typically focused on offering a variety of online courses inexpensively or for free, edX's vision is much larger. EdX is building an open source educational platform and a network of the world's top universities to improve education both online and on campus while conducting research on how students learn. To date, edX has more than 700,000 individuals on its platform, who account for more than 900,000 course enrollments. The addition of these new higher education institutions stretching from North America to Europe to the Asia Pacific will double the number of X University Consortium members and add a rich variety of new courses to edX’s offerings:
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<li>The Australian National University, a celebrated place of intensive research, education and policy engagement, will provide a series of <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/ANUx">ANUx</a> courses to the open source platform including Astrophysics taught by Nobel Laureate and Professor of Astrophysics Brian Schmidt and his colleague Dr. Paul Francis, and Engaging India, taught by Dr. McComas Taylor and Dr. Peter Friedlander.</li>
<li>Delft University of Technology, the largest and oldest technological university in the Netherlands, will provide a series of <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/DelftX">DelftX</a> courses under Creative Commons license, including Introduction to Aerospace Engineering by Professor Jacco Hoekstra, Solar Energy by Dr. Arno Smets, and Water Treatment Engineering by Professor Jules van Lier.</li>
<li>École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, one of the most famous institutions of science and technology in Europe, will provide a series of <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/EPFLx">EPFLx</a> courses specially tailored to fit the edX format, originating from its five schools -- Engineering, Life Sciences, Informatics and Communication, Architecture and Basic Sciences.</li>
<li>McGill University, one of Canada's best-known institutions of higher learning and one of the leading universities in the world, will provide a series of <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/McGillX">McGillX</a> courses in areas ranging from science and the humanities to public policy issues.</li>
<li>Rice University, in Houston, Texas, is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Rice's Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology was the world’s first nanotechnology center when it opened in 1991. Rice will initially provide four <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/RiceX">RiceX</a> courses and investigate ways to integrate its learning analytics tools from OpenStax Tutor to enable students and instructors to track their progress in real time.</li>
<li>University of Toronto, one of the most respected and influential institutions of higher education and advanced research in the world, will provide a series of <ahref="https://www.edx.org/university_profile/TorontoX">TorontoX</a> courses including Terrestrial Energy System by Professor Bryan Kanrey, Behavioral Economics by Professor Dilip Soman, The Logic of Business: Building Blocks for Organizational Design by Professor Mihnea Moldoveanu, and Bioinformatic Methods by Professor Nicholas Provart.</li>
</ul>
<p>“We have had an international student community from the very beginning, and bringing these leading universities, from North America and Europe and the Asia Pacific into the edX organization will help us meet the tremendous demand we are experiencing,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “Each of these schools was carefully selected for the distinct expertise they bring to our growing family of edX institutions. We remain committed to growing edX to meet the needs of the world while maintaining a superior learning experience for all.”</p>
<p>Courses offered by institutions on the edX platform provide the same rigor as on-campus classes but are designed to take advantage of the unique features and benefits of online learning environments, including game-like experiences, instant feedback and cutting-edge virtual laboratories. Through edX, the new X Universities will provide interactive education experiences for students around the world. All that is required of edX students is access to the Internet and a desire to learn. By breaking down the barriers of location and cost and enabling the global exchange of information and ideas, edX is changing the foundations of both teaching and learning.</p>
<p>The new member institutions will join founding universities MIT and Harvard, as well as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas System, Wellesley College and Georgetown University in the X University Consortium. ANUx, DelftX, EPFLx, McGillX, RiceX and TorontoX will offer courses on edX beginning in late 2013. All of the courses will be hosted on edX’s open source platform at www.edx.org.
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<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<h2>Content from <ahref="http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781558607354">Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits</a> available free to edX students</h2>
<p><strong>Waltham, MA, September 19th, 2012</strong>–<ahref="http://www.elsevier.com/">Elsevier</a>, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced its plan to provide free content through <ahref="https://www.edx.org/">edX</a>, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched in May.</p>
<p>Students who enroll in edX’s course <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.002x/2012_Fall/about">6.002X: Circuits and Electronics</a> will have free access to an online version of the course textbook, <ahref="http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781558607354">Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits</a>, written by Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey Lang and published under Elsevier’s Morgan Kaufmann imprint.</p>
<p>“We are honored to collaborate with edX,” said Suzanne BeDell, Managing Director, Science and Technology Books, Elsevier. “With this new course, hundreds of thousands of students around the world will have had free access to the cutting-edge content contained in Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits.”</p>
<p>The free version of the textbook was also available in the spring offering of MIT’s 6.002x, before the creation of edX.</p>
<figcaption>A page view from the online version of <ahref="http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781558607354">Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits</a> made available to students taking edX’s course <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.002x/2012_Fall/about">6.002X: Circuits and Electronics</a></figcaption>
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<p>“Innovative alliances, such as this arrangement with Elsevier Science & Technology Books, are at the core of the edX mission to improve access to higher education for students worldwide,” said Anant Agarwal, co-author of Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits and President of edX. “edX is committed to providing our students with content published under the most rigorous standards. We are very grateful for Elsevier’s commitment to helping edX learners throughout the world.”</p>
<p>Through edX, the <em>“X Universities”</em>– which now includes UC Berkeley in addition to founding institutions Harvard and MIT – will provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet and will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. edX plans to add other <em>“X Universities”</em> from around the world to the edX platform in the coming months.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">edX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on-campus and worldwide. edX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.</p>
<h2>About Elsevier</h2>
<p>Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including <ahref="http://www.thelancet.com/">The Lancet</a> and <ahref="http://www.cell.com/">Cell</a>, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include <ahref="http://www.sciencedirect.com/">ScienceDirect</a>, <ahref="http://www.scopus.com/">Scopus</a>, <aclass="c7"href="http://www.reaxys.com/">Reaxys</a>, <ahref="http://www.clinicalkey.com/">ClinicalKey</a> and <ahref="http://www.confidenceconnected.com/">Mosby’s Nursing Suite</a>, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the <ahref="http://www.scival.com/">SciVal suite</a> and <ahref="http://www.medai.com/">MEDai’s Pinpoint Review</a>, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.</p>
<p>A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, <ahref="http://www.elsevier.com/">Elsevier</a> employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of <ahref="http://www.reedelsevier.com/">Reed Elsevier Group PLC</a>, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).</p>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – January 30, 2013 –</strong>
In the past 10 years, the ability to decode or “sequence” DNA has grown by a million-fold, a stunning rate of progress that is producing a flood of information about human biology and disease. Because of these advances, the scientific community — and the world as a whole — stands on the verge of a revolution in biology. In the coming decades scientists will be able to understand how cells are “wired” and how that wiring is disrupted in human diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer to schizophrenia. Now, with his free online course, <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/7.00x/2013_Spring/about">7.00x Introductory Biology: “The Secret of Life”</a>, genome pioneer Eric Lander, the founding director of the Broad Institute and a professor at MIT and Harvard Medical School, will explain to students around the world the basics of biology – the secret of life, so to speak – so that they can understand today’s revolution in biology.</p>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), brings the best courses from the best faculty at the best institutions to anyone with an Internet connection. For the past 20 years, legendary teacher Lander has taught Introductory Biology to more than half of all MIT students. He has now adapted his course for online education, creating the newest course on the edX platform. The course, 7.00X, is now open for enrollment, with the first class slated for March 5th. This course will include innovative technology including a 3D molecule viewer and gene explorer tool to transform the learning experience. It is open to all levels and types of learners.</p>
<p>“Introducing the freshman class of MIT to the basics of biology is exhilarating,” said Lander. “Now, with this edX course, I look forward to teaching people around the world. There are no prerequisites for this course – other than curiosity and an interest in understanding some of the greatest scientific challenges of our time.”</p>
<p>Those taking the course will learn the fundamental ideas that underlie modern biology and medicine, including genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, recombinant DNA, genomics and genomic medicine. They will become familiar with the structure and function of macromolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins and understand how information flows within cells. Students will explore how mutations affect biological function and cause human disease. They will learn about modern molecular biological techniques and their wide-ranging impact.</p>
<p>“Eric Lander has created this remarkable digitally enhanced introduction to genetics and biology,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “With this unique online version, he has brought the introductory biology course to a new level. It has been completely rethought and retooled, incorporating cutting-edge online interactive tools as well as community-building contests and milestone-based prizes.”</p>
<p>With online courses through edX like 7.00x, what matters isn’t what people have achieved or their transcripts, but their desire to learn. Students only need to come with a real interest in science and the desire to understand what's going on at the forefront of biology, and to learn the fundamental principles on which an amazing biomedical revolution is based – from one of the top scientist in the world. <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/7.00x/2013_Spring/about">7.00x Introductory Biology: The Secret of Life</a> is now available for enrollment. Classes will start on March 5, 2013.</p>
<p>Dr. Eric Lander is President and Founding Director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, a new kind of collaborative biomedical research institution focused on genomic medicine. Dr. Lander is also Professor of Biology at MIT and Professor of Systems Biology at the Harvard Medical School. In addition, Dr. Lander serves as Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which advises the White House on science and technology. A geneticist, molecular biologist and mathematician, Dr. Lander has played a pioneering role in all aspects of the reading, understanding and medical application of the human genome. He was a principal leader of the international Human Genome Project (HGP) from 1990-2003, with his group being the largest contributor to the mapping and sequencing of the human genetic blueprint. Dr. Lander was an early pioneer in the free availability of genomic tools and information. Finally, he has mentored an extraordinary cadre of young scientists who have become the next generation of leaders in medical genomics. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Dr. Lander was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and of the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 1999.</p>
<p>Previously announced new 2013 courses include:
<ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/8.02x/2013_Spring/about">8.02x Electricity and Magnetism from Walter Lewin</a>
<ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/ER22x/2013_Spring/about">Justice from Michael Sandel</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/Stat2.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Statistics from Ani Adhikari</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/14.73x/2013_Spring/about">The Challenges of Global Poverty from Esther Duflo</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CB22x/2013_Spring/about">The Ancient Greek Hero from Gregory Nagy</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS191x/2013_Spring/about">Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation from Umesh Vazirani</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/PH278x/2013_Spring/about">Human Health and Global Environmental Change, from Aaron Bernstein and Jack Spengler</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to these new courses, edX is bringing back several courses from the popular fall 2012 semester: <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Computer Science and Programming</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/3.091x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Solid State Chemistry</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS188.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Artificial Intelligence</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.1x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service I</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.2x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service II</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS184.1x/2013_Spring/about">Foundations of Computer Graphics</a>.</p>
<h2>About the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard</h2>
<p>The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was founded in 2003 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine with new genome-based knowledge. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods and data openly to the entire scientific community.</p>
<p>Founded by MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to <ahref="http://www.broadinstitute.org">www.broadinstitute.org</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<p>Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and other dignitaries speak at a press conference hosted by edX, the world’s leading online-learning initiative founded by Harvard University and MIT, on Monday, November 19. EdX announced the first-of-its-kind community college partnership with Bunker Hill and MassBay Community Colleges, bringing an innovative blended teaching model to their classrooms.</p>
<p>Left to Right: Dr. John O’Donnell, president of MassBay Community College; Richard M. Freeland, Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education; Anant Agarwal, president of edX; Governor Deval Patrick; Mary L. Fifield, president of Bunker Hill Community College; Paul Reville, Massachusetts Secretary of Education</p>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – November 19, 2012 –</strong>
<ahref="https://www.edx.org/">edX</a>, the world’s leading online-learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), today announced an innovative blended massive open online course (MOOC) offering at <ahref="http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/"target="_blank">Bunker Hill</a> and <ahref="http://www.massbay.edu/"target="_blank">MassBay Community Colleges</a>, the first community colleges to work with edX to bring a new teaching model to the classroom. Through this public/private initiative, community colleges will benefit from edX’s platform, connecting students with leading MOOC professors from around the world.</p>
<p>“Our technology and innovative teaching methods have the potential to transform the way community college students learn, both in and out of the classroom,” said Anant Agarwal, president of edX. “Our work with Bunker Hill and MassBay will enable us to work with other state institutions throughout the country to provide excellent educational opportunities on an ever-tightening budget.”</p>
<p>The collaboration between these two innovative community colleges, both of which have a history of offering online and hybrid courses, and edX was made possible through a $1 million grant from the <ahref="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx"target="_blank">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a>. The grant is part of a $9 million investment announced in June 2012 to support breakthrough learning models in postsecondary education. edX, Massachusetts and the Gates Foundation believe that investing in this initiative will pave the way for further innovations in online and on-campus learning for these and other community colleges around the country. </p>
<p>“MOOCs are an exciting innovation. They hold great promise, but are not without challenges– and we are still discovering their full potential,” said Dan Greenstein, Director of Postsecondary Success at the Gates Foundation. “We believe having diverse options for faculty and students that meet a wide array of learning needs and styles can enhance student engagement, improve educational outcomes, and increase college completion rates. We are eager to learn from and share the data that will be generated from these investments in MOOCs.”</p>
<p>“I thank the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and edX for understanding the importance of innovative thinking in order to better prepare our students for the jobs of the 21st century global economy,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “A stronger community college system fuels our economy by connecting well-prepared students with employers.”</p>
<p>Beginning in the spring 2013, Bunker Hill and MassBay Community Colleges will offer an adapted version of the <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2012_Fall/about">MITx 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming</a> course at their respective campuses. This unique learning experience will allow students to benefit from virtual courses, enhanced by in-class supporting materials and engaging breakouts. The collaboration aims to build upon edX and community college data-driven research to examine the advantages of a blended classroom model that utilizes edX’s MOOC content, consisting of innovative learning methodologies and game-like educational experiences.</p>
<p>“Community college professors are both teachers and mentors to our students. The blended classroom model allows our professors greater one-to-one contact with our students, allowing for greater course content mastery and application,” stated Dr. John O’Donnell, president of MassBay Community College.</p>
<p>According to BHCC President Mary L. Fifield, “The invitation to participate in edX comes on the heels of several highly successful classroom-based student success initiatives at our College that have increased student persistence by as much as 32 percent. The timing couldn’t be better.”</p>
<p>Through its open source platform, edX enhances teaching and learning by using research on how students learn and transformative technologies that facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. EdX’s ultimate goal is to provide access to life-changing knowledge for everyone around the world.</p>
<p>For more information or to sign up for a course, please visit <ahref="https://www.edx.org/">www.edx.org</a>.</p>
<h2>About Governor Patrick’s Community College Priorities</h2>
<p>Governor Patrick has prioritized strengthening and unifying the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ community college system in order to be more responsive to employer needs for skilled workers and help get people back to work. This past summer, the Governor signed legislation that set aside $5 million for community colleges to be used for four main purposes: the development of efficiency measures that may include consolidation of IT platforms and services; the creation of innovative methods for delivering quality higher education that increases capacity, reduces costs and promotes student completion; engaging in statewide and regional collaborations with other public higher education institutions that reduce costs, increase efficiency and promote quality in the areas of academic programming and campus management; and improving student learning outcomes assessments set forth by the Board of Higher Education under the Vision Project.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">edX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions, the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on campus and worldwide. edX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.</p>
<h2>Georgetown becomes sixth institution to join global movement in year one, Broadens course options and brings its unique mission-driven perspective to the world of online learning</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA — December 10, 2012</strong>— EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT), announced today the addition of <ahref="http://www.georgetown.edu">Georgetown University</a> to its group of educational leaders who are focused on providing a category-leading, quality higher education experience to the global online community. </p>
<p>“It is a privilege to partner with edX and this extraordinary collection of universities,” said Dr. John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University. “Our Catholic and Jesuit identity compels us to work at the frontiers of excellence in higher education, and we see in this partnership an exciting opportunity to more fully realize this mission. Not only will it enrich our capacity to serve our global family–beyond our campuses here in Washington, D.C.–but it will also allow us to extend the applications of our research and our scholarship.”</p>
<p>Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, is one of the world’s leading academic and research institutions, offering a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. Students receive a world-class learning experience focused on educating the whole person through exposure to different faiths, cultures and beliefs. Georgetown University will provide a series of GeorgetownX courses to the open source platform and broaden the course offerings available on edx.org.</p>
<p>“We welcome Georgetown University to edX,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “Georgetown has a long history of research and educational excellence, with a demonstrated commitment to the arts and sciences, foreign service, law, medicine, public policy, business, and nursing and health studies. Georgetown, with its distinguished presence around the world including a School of Foreign Service campus in Qatar, shares with edX a global perspective and a mission to expand educational opportunities.”</p>
<p>Through edX, the “X Universities” will provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet. They will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies and game-like experiences can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. The University of California, Berkeley joined edX in July, the University of Texas System joined in October, and Wellesley College joined earlier in December. </p>
<p>“Georgetown University is an excellent addition to edX,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “It brings important strength in many areas of scholarship and has long had an especially powerful voice in public life and discourse. The edX community stands to benefit greatly from what Georgetown will offer.”</p>
<p>“EdX is an innovation that will expand access to high-quality educational content for millions around the world while helping us better understand how technology can improve the academic experience for students in classrooms across our campuses,” said Harvard President Drew Faust. “Georgetown’s commitment to technology enhanced learning, its excellence in education, and its long history as an institution dedicated to public service make it a welcome addition to edX.”</p>
<p>GeorgetownX will offer courses on edX beginning in the fall of 2013. All of the courses will be hosted from edX’s innovative platform at <ahref="http://www.edx.org">www.edx.org</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p>edX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning-both on-campus and worldwide. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.</p>
<h2>About Georgetown University</h2>
<p>Georgetown University is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs from its home in Washington, D.C. For more information about Georgetown University, visit <ahref="http://www.georgetown.edu">www.georgetown.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Walter Lewin, legendary MIT physics professor, demonstrates, in his inimitable fashion, one of the many laws of physics covered in his new course on edX.</p>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – January 22, 2013 –</strong><ahref="http://www.edx.org">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced today a new course from the legendary Professor Walter Lewin who, for 47 years, has provided generations of MIT students – and millions watching online – with his inspiring and unconventional lectures. Now, with this edX version of Professor Lewin’s famous course Electricity and Magnetism (Physics), people around the world can experience it just like his students on the MIT campus. MITx <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/8.02x/2013_Spring/about">8.02x Electricity and Magnetism</a> is now open for enrollment and classes will begin on February 18, 2013.</p>
<p>“I have taught this course to tens of thousands and many tell me it changed their lives,” said Walter Lewin, Professor of Physics at MIT. “Teaching is my passion: I want to open peoples’ eyes and minds to the beauty of physics so they will begin to see the world in a new way.”</p>
<p>In <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/8.02x/2013_Spring/about">8.02x Electricity and Magnetism</a>, Professor Lewin will teach students to “see” the world instead of just “looking at” it. He will make them “see” natural phenomena such as rainbows in a way they never imagined before. Through his dynamic teaching, enthusiasm and great sense of humor, Professor Lewin has an innate ability to make difficult concepts easy. The New York Times has crowned him a “Web Star” and noted how his lectures, with their engaging physics demonstrations, have won him devotees around the world. While this course is MIT level, edX and Professor Lewin encourage even senior high school students from around the world to watch his lectures and take the course.</p>
<p>“Walter Lewin is an international treasure,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “His physics lectures on the MIT campus were already legendary before he put them online and they became an international sensation. We know edX learners will be awestruck by his provocative and enlightening course.”</p>
<p>In addition to the basic concepts of Electromagnetism, a vast variety of interesting topics are covered, including Lightning, Pacemakers, Electric Shock Treatment, Electrocardiograms, Metal Detectors, Musical Instruments, Magnetic Levitation, Bullet Trains, Electric Motors, Radios, TV, Car Coils, Superconductivity, Aurora Borealis, Rainbows, Radio Telescopes, Interferometers, Particle Accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, Mass Spectrometers, Red Sunsets, Blue Skies, Haloes around Sun and Moon, Color Perception, Doppler Effect and Big-Bang Cosmology.</p>
<p>Professor Lewin received his PhD in Nuclear Physics at the Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands in 1965. He joined the Physics faculty at MIT in 1966 and became a pioneer in the new field of X-ray Astronomy. His 105 online lectures are world-renowned and are viewed by nearly 2 million people annually. Professor Lewin has received five teaching awards and is the only MIT professor featured in "The Best 300 Professors" by The Princeton Review. He has co-authored with Warren Goldstein the book "For the Love of Physics" (Free Press, Simon & Schuster), which has been translated into 9 languages.</p>
<p>Previously announced new 2013 courses include: <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/ER22x/2013_Spring/about">Justice from Michael Sandel</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/Stat2.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Statistics from Ani Adhikari</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/14.73x/2013_Spring/about">The Challenges of Global Poverty from Esther Duflo</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CB22x/2013_Spring/about">The Ancient Greek Hero from Gregory Nagy</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS191x/2013_Spring/about">Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation from Umesh Vazirani</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/PH278x/2013_Spring/about">Human Health and Global Environmental Change, from Aaron Bernstein and Jack Spengler</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to these new courses, edX is bringing back several courses from the popular fall 2012 semester: <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Computer Science and Programming</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/3.091x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Solid State Chemistry</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS188.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Artificial Intelligence</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.1x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service I</a>; <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.2x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service II</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS184.1x/2013_Spring/about">Foundations of Computer Graphics</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<%blockname="title"><title>MIT and Harvard announce edX</title></%block>
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<h1>MIT and Harvard announce edX</h1>
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<h2>Joint venture builds on MITx and Harvard distance learning; aims to benefit campus-based education and beyond</h2>
<p>Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced edX, a transformational new partnership in online education. Through edX, the two institutions will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners.</p>
<p>EdX will build on both universities’ experience in offering online instructional content. The technological platform recently established by MITx, which will serve as the foundation for the new learning system, was designed to offer online versions of MIT courses featuring video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories, and student paced learning. Certificates of mastery will be available for those motivated and able to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material.</p>
<p>MIT and Harvard expect that over time other universities will join them in offering courses on the edX platform. The gathering of many universities’ educational content together on one site will enable learners worldwide to access the course content of any participating university from a single website, and to use a set of online educational tools shared by all participating universities. </p>
<p>EdX will release its learning platform as open source software so it can be used by other universities and organizations who wish to host the platform themselves. Because the learning technology will be available as open-source software, other universities and individuals will be able to help edX improve and add features to the technology.</p>
<p>MIT and Harvard will use the jointly operated edX platform to research how students learn and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. The edX platform will enable the study of which teaching methods and tools are most successful. The findings of this research will be used to inform how faculty use technology in their teaching, which will enhance the experience for students on campus and for the millions expected to take advantage of these new online offerings.</p>
<p>“EdX represents a unique opportunity to improve education on our own campuses through online learning, while simultaneously creating a bold new educational path for millions of learners worldwide,” MIT President Susan Hockfield said.</p>
<p>Harvard President Drew Faust said, “edX gives Harvard and MIT an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically extend our collective reach by conducting groundbreaking research into effective education and by extending online access to quality higher education.”</p>
<p>“Harvard and MIT will use these new technologies and the research they will make possible to lead the direction of online learning in a way that benefits our students, our peers, and people across the nation and the globe,” Faust continued.</p>
<h2>Jointly Owned Not-for-Profit Structure</h2>
<p>The initiative will be overseen by a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be owned and governed equally by the two universities. MIT and Harvard have committed to a combined $60 million ($30 million each) in institutional support, grants and philanthropy to launch the collaboration. </p>
<p>MIT’s Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Anant Agarwal, who has led the development of the MITx platform under the leadership of MIT provost L. Rafael Reif, will serve as the first president of edX. </p>
<p>At Harvard, Provost Alan Garber will direct the Harvardx effort and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith will play a leading role in working with faculty to develop and deliver courses. </p>
<p>It is anticipated that near-term course offerings from a range of Harvard and MIT schools will be included on the edX platform.</p>
<h2>Research to Enhance Residential Model</h2>
<p>EdX will enhance the traditional residential model of undergraduate education on both campuses by supporting an unlimited number of experimental online approaches to teaching that can be used by Harvard and MIT faculty and which will benefit students in Cambridge and Boston. It will also have the benefit of providing global access to some of the world-class instruction that already occurs in Cambridge and Boston, but which is only one aspect of the full Harvard College and MIT experience.</p>
<p>“The campus environment offers opportunities and experiences that cannot be replicated online,” said Hockfield. “EdX is designed to improve, not replace, the campus experience.” </p>
<p>EdX will be separate from ongoing distance learning initiatives at both institutions, including MIT OpenCourseWare and courses offered by schools at Harvard such as the Harvard Extension School, the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Medical School.</p>
<h2>First Courses by Fall 2012</h2>
<p>The universities will work to develop further the online learning platform already begun with MITx and to populate the edX website with courses from the MIT and Harvard faculty. During the early stages, the two universities will work cooperatively to offer as broad an initial set of courses as possible. A first set of courses is scheduled to be announced in early summer and to start in Fall, 2012.</p>
<p>“We are already moving forward quickly,” said Anant Agarwal. “There’s a lot of energy in the air, and the teams at Harvard and MIT can’t wait to collaborate.”</p>
<h1>EdX expands platform, announces first wave of courses for spring 2013</h1>
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<h2>Leading minds from top universities to offer world-wide MOOC courses on statistics, history, justice, and poverty</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – December 19, 2012</strong>—EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT), announced today its initial spring 2013 schedule including its first set of courses in the humanities and social sciences – introductory courses with wide, global appeal. In its second semester, edX expands its online courses to a variety of subjects ranging from the ancient Greek hero to the riddle of world poverty, all taught by experts at some of the world’s leading universities. EdX is also bringing back several courses from its popular offerings in the fall semester.</p>
<p>“EdX is both revolutionizing and democratizing education,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “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.”</p>
<p>Building on the success of its initial offerings, edX is broadening the courses on its innovative educational platform. In its second semester – now open for registration – edX continues with courses from some of the world’s most esteemed faculty from <ahref="http://www.berkeley.edu">UC Berkeley</a>, <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard</a> and <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">MIT</a>. Spring 2013 courses include:</p>
<ul>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/ER22x/2013_Spring/about">Justice from Michael Sandel</a>, the Harvard political philosopher whose online lectures have become a global sensation, and inspired millions to think critically about the moral and civic dilemmas facing their societies.</li>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/Stat2.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Statistics from Ani Adhikari</a>, the UC Berkeley lecturer in statistics and recipient of UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award.</li>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/14.73x/2013_Spring/about">The Challenges of Global Poverty from Esther Duflo</a>, the MIT economist who has led a comprehensive evaluation of the roots of poverty in developing nations.</li>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CB22x/2013_Spring/about">The Ancient Greek Hero from Gregory Nagy</a>, the professor of ancient Greek literature at Harvard who specializes in the linguistic analysis of epic and tragedy as performed in their historical contexts.</li>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS191x/2013_Spring/about">Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation from Umesh Vazirani</a>, the UC Berkeley computer scientist whose work has helped change our understanding of the relationship between information and quantum physics.</li>
<li><ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/PH278x/2013_Spring/about">Human Health and Global Environmental Change</a> from Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment and Aaron Bernstein, a physician who studies why climate change, biodiversity loss, and other planetary scale environmental changes matter to our health and what needs to be done to remedy them.</li>
</ul>
<p>“I'm delighted to have my Justice course on edX,” said Michael Sandel, Ann T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, “where students everywhere will be able to engage in a global dialogue about the big moral and civic questions of our time.”</p>
<p>In addition to these new courses, edX is bringing back several courses from the popular fall 2012 semester: <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Computer Science and Programming</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/3.091x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Solid State Chemistry</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS188.1x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Artificial Intelligence</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.1x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service I</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.2x/2013_Spring/about">Software as a Service II</a>; <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS184.1x/2013_Spring/about">Foundations of Computer Graphics</a>.</p>
<p>This spring also features Harvard's <ahref="http://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/HLS1x/2013_Spring/about">Copyright</a>, taught by Harvard Law School professor William Fisher III, former law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall and expert on the hotly debated U.S. copyright system, which will explore the current law of copyright and the ongoing debates concerning how that law should be reformed. <em>Copyright</em> will be offered as an experimental course, taking advantage of different combinations and uses of teaching materials, educational technologies, and the edX platform. 500 learners will be selected through an open application process that will run through January 3rd 2013.</p>
<p>These new courses would not be possible without the contributions of key edX institutions, including UC Berkeley, which is the inaugural chair of the “X University” consortium and major contributor to the platform. All of the courses will be hosted on edX’s innovative platform at <ahref="http://www.edx.org">www.edx.org</a> and are open for registration as of today. EdX expects to announce a second set of spring 2013 courses in the future.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p>EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<h1>Stanford University to Collaborate with edX on Development of Non-Profit Open Source edX Platform</h1>
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<h2>edX Learning Platform to be open source and available on June 1</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA and STANFORD, CA – April 3, 2013 –</strong>
Stanford University and <ahref="https://www.edx.org">edX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), today announced their collaboration to advance the development of edX’s open source learning platform and provide free and open online learning tools for institutions around the world.</p>
<p>As part of this announcement, edX will release the source code for its entire online learning platform on June 1, 2013. In support of that move, Stanford will integrate features of its existing Class2Go platform into the edX platform, use the integration as an internal platform for online coursework for on-campus and distance learners, and work collaboratively with edX and other institutions to further develop the edX platform.</p>
<p>“This collaboration brings together two leaders in online education in a common effort to ensure that the world’s universities have the strongest possible not-for-profit, open source platform available to them,” said John Mitchell, vice provost for online learning at Stanford University. “A not-for-profit, open source platform will help universities experiment with different ways to produce and share content, fostering continued innovation through a vibrant community of contributors.”</p>
<p>EdX and Stanford will collaborate along with others around the globe on the ongoing development and refinement of the edX online learning platform. As of June 1, developers everywhere will be able to freely access the source code of the edX learning platform, including code for its Learning Management System (LMS); Studio, a course authoring tool; xBlock, an application programming interface (API) for integrating third-party learning objects; and machine grading API’s. EdX will support and nurture the community of developers contributing to the enhancement of the edX platform by providing a rich environment for developer collaboration as well as technical and process guidelines to facilitate developer contributions.</p>
<p>“It has been our vision to offer our platform as open source since edX’s founding by Harvard and MIT,” stated Anant Agarwal, president of edX. “We are now realizing that vision, and I am pleased to welcome Stanford University, one of the world’s leading institutions of higher education, to further this global open source solution. I want to acknowledge the key role played by our X Consortium member UC Berkeley, which was instrumental in fostering this collaboration. We believe the edX platform—the Linux of learning—will benefit from all the world’s institutions and communities.”</p>
<p>EdX is pursuing an open source vision to enhance access to higher education for the entire world. One of the chief benefits of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is that they bring together a tremendously diverse student body to learn with and from each other. EdX has chosen to extend that perspective to its learning platform as well, knowing that drawing upon the global community of developers is an effective route to both transform and deliver the world’s best and most accessible online and blended learning experience.</p>
<p>MOOCs and innovative online teaching approaches on college campuses, such as the “flipped classroom,” use web environments that support interactive video, online discussion, social/cohort interaction, assessment and other functions. Open source online learning platforms will allow universities to develop their own delivery methods, partner with other universities and institutions as they choose, collect data, and control branding of their educational material. Further developing online opportunities through open source technology is a key objective of the partnership between edX and Stanford.</p>
<p>Stanford will continue to provide a range of platforms for its instructors to choose from in hosting their online coursework, including continued partnerships with Coursera and other providers. The university will focus its ongoing platform development efforts on the new platform, combining key features from the Class2Go open source platform with the open source edX code base.</p>
<p>The edX learning platform source code, as well as platform developments from Stanford, edX and other contributors, will be available on June 1, 2013 and can be accessed from the edX Platform Repository located at <ahref="https://github.com/edX">https://github.com/edX</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<h2>About Stanford University</h2>
<p>
<ahref="http://www.stanford.edu">Stanford University</a> is engaged in a variety of efforts to develop online learning – experimenting with coursework for both on-campus and off-campus students, researching key questions around what a digital environment means for teaching and learning, and pursuing platform development. More information on Stanford’s online learning activities is available at <ahref="http://online.stanford.edu">http://online.stanford.edu</a>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – MONTH DAY, YEAR –</strong>
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<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
<h2>UC Berkeley joins Harvard and MIT not-for-profit online learning collaborative; edX broadens free course offerings into public health, computer science and solid-state chemistry; opens registration</h2>
<p>EdX, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched in May, announced today the addition of the University of California, Berkeley to its platform. UC Berkeley, ranked No. 1 among public universities in the United States in 2012 by US News & World Report, will collaborate with edX to expand the group of participating "X Universities" – universities offering their courses on the edX platform. </p>
<p>Through edX, the "X Universities" will provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet and will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. EdX plans to add other "X Universities" from around the world to the edX platform in the coming months. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley will offer two courses on edX this Fall, and the university will also serve as the inaugural chair of the to-be-formed "X University" Consortium.</p>
<p>Robert J. Birgeneau, the Chancellor of UC Berkeley, announced: "We are committed to excellence in online education with the dual goals of distributing higher education more broadly and enriching the quality of campus-based education. We share the vision of MIT and Harvard leadership and believe that collaborating with the not-for-profit model of edX is the best way to do this. <em>Fiat Lux</em>."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, edX announced two new courses each from HarvardX and <em>MITx</em> to be launched on edX this fall, along with <em>MITx</em>'s 6.002x Circuits & Electronics. All of the courses will be hosted from edX's website, www.edx.org. </p>
<p>MIT launched its <em>MITx</em> online learning initiative in December 2011, with 6.002x as its prototype course, and more than 150,000 students worldwide enrolled. EdX was announced by Harvard and MIT in May, with each university committing to contribute $30 million toward the online partnership.</p>
<p>"We are very excited that UC Berkeley is joining us in this effort," said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. "EdX is about revolutionizing learning, and we have received a tremendous outpouring of excitement and interest from universities around the world. UC Berkeley is an extraordinary public institution known not only for its academic excellence but also for its innovativeness. With this collaboration, edX is now positioned to improve education more rapidly, both online and on-campus worldwide."</p>
<p>"From the outset, we have imagined edX as a platform to be shared with other educational institutions," said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. "Berkeley's decision to join the effort is great news: MIT is already seeing the benefits of its collaboration with Harvard, and we look forward to working with our remarkable colleagues at Berkeley as we explore the future of online education. Together, we are sure to learn much about how to enrich residential education even as we reach new learners far from our campuses."</p>
<p>In addition to the funding commitments by Harvard and MIT, edX has already garnered outside financial support, including two individual leadership gifts. MIT alumnus Philippe Laffont, founder and chief investment officer of Coatue Management, LLC, has made a gift to support <em>MITx</em> in honor of MIT Professor Stephen A. Ward, Laffont's thesis advisor at MIT. Harvard Alumnus Jonathan Grayer, former chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc. and cofounder of Weld North LLC, has made a gift in support of HarvardX. </p>
<p>Foundation support has also begun to flow in. Earlier in the summer, MIT received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Grant funds will go towards developing an introduction to computer science course on the edX platform and partnering with a postsecondary institution that targets low-income young adults to offer this introductory course in a "flipped classroom" setting, where students watch course videos at home and work together in the classroom. </p>
<p>"Interest from other institutions in collaborating with edX has been enormous from the outset and we are delighted that the partnership announced today by Berkeley has come together so quickly," said Harvard President Drew Faust. "Since the beginning, our goal has been to broaden edX offerings by partnering with other universities who are equally committed to both expanding access to education and improving research about teaching and learning. Today's announcement is in an important step in that direction."</p>
<p>UC Berkeley will bring significant, new, open source technology to the edX platform. Developers from UC Berkeley are working directly with the edX team to integrate the technology. </p>
<p>EdX will release its learning platform as open source software so that anyone around the world can adopt and improve this shared tool. Timing of the release has not yet been determined. </p>
<p>The classes to be offered on edX this fall are: </p>
<ul>
<li>HarvardX – "Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research" is a course in Biostatistics and Epidemiology focused on teaching a diversity of health care practitioners and other students from around the world how to design rigorous clinical and public health studies and analyze complex health data, thereby furthering the school's mission of improving global health. The course is taught by Professors E. Francis Cook and Marcello Pagano. Dr. Cook is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and at the Harvard Medical School and he has won citations for Excellence in Teaching from the Harvard School of Public Health on four occasions. Dr. Pagano obtained a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and has spent the last 35 years on the faculty at HSPH teaching biostatistics and advising students.</li>
<li>HarvardX – "Computer Science 50" (CS 50) is Harvard College's introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming for majors and non-majors alike. An entry-level course, CS50 teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, data structures, memory management and security. Languages include C, PHP and JavaScript. The course is designed for students with or without prior programming experience. As of Fall 2011, CS50 was Harvard College's third-largest course. It is taught by Harvard Senior Lecturer David J. Malan. He received his A.B., S.M. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard in 1999, 2004 and 2007, respectively.</li>
<li><em>MITx</em>– "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming" provides an understanding of computational approaches to scientific problem solving for students with little or no prior programming experience. It is based on the most popular course on MIT's OpenCourseWare platform and provides a tour of the major features of the Python programming language and object-oriented programming, algorithmic design and analysis and computational approaches to generating and understanding data, with examples drawn largely from the sciences and social sciences. The principal instructors for the course are John Guttag, W. Eric Grimson, and Chris Terman. John Guttag is the Dugald C. Jackson Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at MIT, and currently heads the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's Data-driven Medical Research Group. Christopher J. Terman has taught computer science courses in the EECS department for many years; his research has been in the areas of programming languages, compilers, computer-aided design tools and educational technologies. W. Eric Grimson is the Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering and Chancellor of MIT.</li>
<li><em>MITx</em>– "Introduction to Solid State Chemistry" is a first-year college course where chemical principles are explained by examination of the properties of materials. The electronic structure and chemical bonding of materials is related to applications and engineering systems throughout the course. The on-campus version of the course has been taught for more than 40 years and is one of the largest classes at MIT. The instructor for the course is MIT Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Michael J. Cima. Cima is author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 45 patents.</li>
<li><em>MITx</em>– "Circuits and Electronics" is an introductory undergraduate electrical engineering course taught by visiting MIT Associate Professor Khurram K. Afridi and developed by edX president MIT Professor Anant Agarwal, MIT Professor Gerald J. Sussman, MIT Senior Lecturer Christopher J. Terman and edX Chief Scientist Piotr Mitros.</li>
<li>BerkeleyX – "Artificial Intelligence" is a course in the basic ideas and techniques underlying the design of intelligent computer systems, with a specific emphasis on the statistical and decision-theoretic modeling paradigm. By the end of this course, students will have built autonomous agents that reason in uncertain environments and will have developed machine learning algorithms that will classify handwritten digits and photographs. The on-campus version of the course is one of the most popular computer science courses at Berkeley. It will be taught by UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Pieter Abbeel and Associate Professor Dan Klein, a recent recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley's highest teaching honor.</li>
<li>BerkeleyX – "Software as a Service" teaches the fundamentals for engineering long-lived software using highly-productive agile techniques to develop Software as a Service (SaaS) using Ruby on Rails. The topics include test-driven development, behavior-driven/user-centric design, design patterns, legacy code, refactoring and deployment. It will be taught by UC Berkeley Adjunct Associate Professor Armando Fox, who has received teaching and mentoring awards from Stanford University, the Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, and Professor David A. Patterson, winner of the ACM Karl Karlstrom Teaching Award and the IEEE Mulligan Medal in Education.</li>
</ul>
<p>For this introductory set of courses, certificates of mastery will be available at no charge for each of the courses to those learners motivated and able to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material. </p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p>EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on-campus and worldwide. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard. </p>
<h2>About Harvard University</h2>
<p>Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Harvard Faculty are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.</p>
<p>Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world.</p>
<h2>About MIT</h2>
<p>The Massachusetts Institute of Technology — a coeducational, privately endowed research university founded in 1861 — is dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. The Institute has close to 1,000 faculty and 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It is organized into five Schools: Architecture and Urban Planning; Engineering; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Sloan School of Management; and Science.</p>
<p>MIT's commitment to innovation has led to a host of scientific breakthroughs and technological advances. Achievements of the Institute's faculty and graduates have included the first chemical synthesis of penicillin and vitamin A, the development of inertial guidance systems, modern technologies for artificial limbs and the magnetic core memory that made possible the development of digital computers. Seventy-eight alumni, faculty, researchers and staff have won Nobel Prizes.</p>
<p>Current areas of research and education include neuroscience and the study of the brain and mind, bioengineering, cancer, energy, the environment and sustainable development, information sciences and technology, new media, financial technology and entrepreneurship.</p>
<h2>About the University of California, Berkeley</h2>
<p>The University of California, Berkeley is the world's premier public university with a mission to excel in teaching, research and public service. This longstanding mission has led to the university's distinguished record of Nobel-level scholarship, constant innovation, a concern for the betterment of our world and consistently high rankings of its schools and departments. The campus offers superior, high value education for extraordinarily talented students from all walks of life; operational excellence and a commitment to the competitiveness and prosperity of California and the nation. </p>
<p>The University of California was chartered in 1868 and its flagship campus in Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay, was envisioned as a "City of Learning." Today, there are more than 1,500 full-time and 500 part-time faculty members dispersed among more than 130 academic departments and more than 80 interdisciplinary research units. Twenty-two Nobel Prizes have been garnered by faculty and twenty-eight Nobel prizes have been awarded to UC Berkeley alumni. There are 9 Nobel Laureates, 32 MacArthur Fellows and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners among the current faculty.</p>
<h2>The University of Texas System joins Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley in not-for-profit online learning collaborative </h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA/AUSTIN, TX – October 15, 2012</strong>— edX, the online non-profit learning initiative founded by Harvard University (Harvard) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched in May, announced today the addition of The University of Texas (UT) System to its platform. The UT System, one of the largest public university systems in the United States with nine academic universities and six health institutions, will collaborate with edX to expand the group of participating “X Universities” – universities offering their courses on the edX platform. </p>
<p>The UT System includes the University of Texas at Austin, ranked 25th in the 2012-2013 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, UT Southwestern Medical Center, home to one of the nation's top 25 medical schools, and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, the nation's No. 1-ranked cancer center. The system's institutions serve 212,000 students and employ 19,000 faculty members.</p>
<p>Through edX, the “X Universities” provide online interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet, with a goal to enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on campus and online. The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) joined edX in July 2012. edX plans to add other “X Universities” from around the world to the edX platform in the coming months. </p>
<p>Francisco G. Cigarroa, Chancellor of The University of Texas System announced the partnership following a unanimous vote of approval by the UT System's Board of Regents on Monday.</p>
<p>“New technologies are positively impacting how professors teach and how course content is delivered,” Chancellor Cigarroa said. “The University of Texas System will help lead this revolution and fundamentally alter the direction of online education. We are excited about this partnership with edX and honored to be in the company of such exceptional institutions as MIT, Harvard and Berkeley. The mission of edX aligns perfectly with that of the UT System and keeps the learner as its central focus.”</p>
<p>The University of Texas System plans to offer at least four courses on edX within the next year.</p>
<p>In addition to serving a global community of online students, the UT System plans to redesign general education courses and traditional entry-level courses that are too often made up of several hundred students. Through its Institute for Transformational Learning, the UT System plans to give students more options by offering courses that are customized to student needs. For example, the UT System plans to offer courses that use a combination of technology and face-to-face interaction, courses that allow students to manage their own time by accelerating through sections they have already mastered or spending more time on areas they find challenging, and fully online courses so students are not limited by their location.</p>
<p>“As Texas' flagship university, UT Austin is committed not only to embracing breakthroughs in education, but helping create them,” said William Powers, Jr., President of UT Austin. “We're proud to be partnering with these top peer universities on edX.”</p>
<p>As part of a bold and innovative plan, the UT System also plans to offer courses through edX that will allow students to earn college credits toward a degree. “Our goal through our partnership with edX is to better meet the learning needs of a wide range of students, raise graduation rates and cut the cost of higher education, all while maintaining our commitment to education of the highest quality,” said Gene Powell, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents. </p>
<p>The UT System brings a large and diverse student body to the edX family. Its six health institutions offer a unique opportunity to provide groundbreaking health and medical courses via edX in the near future. The UT System also brings special expertise in analytics – assessing student learning, online course design and creating interactive learning environments.</p>
<p>edX courses are designed to provide students with a wealth of innovative resources, including interactive laboratories, virtual reality environments and access to online tutors and tutorials. Students who take UT System courses through edX won't work in isolation, but will have the opportunity to participate in online forums, network with instructors and fellow students and take part in exciting collaborative projects. “We are excited that The University of Texas System is joining edX's efforts to revolutionize learning,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “The institutions within The University of Texas System bring a wide range of expertise to the edX mission, and with them edX is now positioned to continue to increase our offering of high-quality, online courses.”</p>
<p>edX was created by Harvard and MIT in May, with each university committing to contribute $30 million toward the online partnership.</p>
<p>“Today's announcement is another important step toward our shared objectives of expanding access to high quality educational content while enhancing teaching and learning online and in the classroom,” said Harvard President Drew Faust. “The addition of The University of Texas System to the edX platform will allow us to deepen our understanding of learning, develop new approaches to teaching that build on that knowledge, and strengthen both the on-campus and online learning experience.”
<p>“At MIT, we are energetically exploring the ways that online instruction can help us reimagine our campus residential education even as it allows us to reach an unprecedented number of learners around the world,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “It is thrilling to be joined by The University of Texas System in the pursuit of that dual goal.”</p>
<p>The edX classes to be offered by the UT System will be announced soon and will join other new edX courses planned for Spring, Summer and Fall 2013. As with all edX courses, online learners who obtain a passing grade in the UT System courses will receive a certificate of mastery. edX will also offer the option of proctored examinations for the UT System courses.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p>edX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on-campus and worldwide. edX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.</p>
<h2>About Harvard University</h2>
<p>Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Harvard Faculty are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.</p>
<p>Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world.</p>
<h2>About MIT</h2>
<p>The Massachusetts Institute of Technology — a coeducational, privately endowed research university founded in 1861 — is dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. The Institute has close to 1,000 faculty and 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It is organized into five Schools: Architecture and Urban Planning; Engineering; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Sloan School of Management; and Science.</p>
<p>MIT's commitment to innovation has led to a host of scientific breakthroughs and technological advances. Achievements of the Institute's faculty and graduates have included the first chemical synthesis of penicillin and vitamin A, the development of inertial guidance systems, modern technologies for artificial limbs and the magnetic core memory that made possible the development of digital computers. Seventy-eight alumni, faculty, researchers and staff have won Nobel Prizes.</p>
<p>Current areas of research and education include neuroscience and the study of the brain and mind, bioengineering, cancer, energy, the environment and sustainable development, information sciences and technology, new media, financial technology and entrepreneurship.</p>
<h2>About the University of California, Berkeley</h2>
<p>The University of California, Berkeley is the world's premier public university with a mission to excel in teaching, research and public service. This longstanding mission has led to the university's distinguished record of Nobel-level scholarship, constant innovation, a concern for the betterment of our world, and consistently high rankings of its schools and departments. The campus offers superior, high value education for extraordinarily talented students from all walks of life; operational excellence and a commitment to the competitiveness and prosperity of California and the nation. </p>
<p>The University of California was chartered in 1868 and its flagship campus in Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay, was envisioned as a “City of Learning.” Today, there are more than 1,500 fulltime and 500 part-time faculty members dispersed among more than 130 academic departments and more than 80 interdisciplinary research units. Twenty-two Nobel Prizes have been garnered by faculty and 28 by UC Berkeley alumni. There are 9 Nobel Laureates, 32 MacArthur Fellows, and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners among the current faculty.</p>
<h2>About The University of Texas System</h2>
<p>Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking research and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States, with nine academic universities and six health science centers. Student enrollment exceeded 215,000 in the 2011 academic year. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $13.1 billion (FY 2012) including $2.3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. With roughly 87,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state. www.utsystem.edu</p>
<h1>Wellesley College becomes first liberal arts college to join edX</h1>
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<h2>Wellesley joins edX to advance learning collaborative, broadens course options while bringing a unique small classroom experience to the world of massive open online courses</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA – December 04, 2012</strong>— edX, the online learning initiative founded by <ahref="http://harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) and launched in May, announced today the addition of Wellesley College to its group of educational leaders who are focused on providing a category-leading quality higher education experience to the global online community. <ahref="http://www.wellesley.edu">Wellesley College</a> is the first liberal arts college to join edX—and the first women’s college to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs). Wellesley College will provide a series of WellesleyX courses to the platform that are unique to the College and broaden the course offerings on edx.org.</p>
<p>According to H. Kim Bottomly, President of Wellesley College, WellesleyX provides an opportunity for the College to impact the future of higher education. “Wellesley is ready to contribute our liberal arts perspective to help shape online education, particularly as colleges work to figure out how to bring the small classroom experience to the online learning landscape. We are convinced that Wellesley and its outstanding faculty have the creativity and vision to take on this challenge.”</p>
<p>Bottomly added, “This is a grand experiment, and what we learn will benefit Wellesley students as well as students all over the world.</p>
<p>Regarded as one of the world’s finest colleges, Wellesley is known for cultivating generations of women leaders; its pedagogical innovation; and its commitment to highly personalized, discussion-based learning. With the launch of WellesleyX, the College will open access to its rigorous courses and distinguished faculty to anyone with an internet connection.</p>
<p>“We are excited that Wellesley College has chosen to join with edX,” said Anant Agarwal, President of edX. “Wellesley’s long history of educating women leaders in diplomacy, the arts, science and business provides a unique strength. We look forward to working alongside the Wellesley faculty to extend their reach to hundreds of thousands of women and men around the world.”</p>
<p>Through edX, the “X Universities” will provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet and will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn, and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. The University of California, Berkeley joined edX in July and the University of Texas System joined in October.</p>
<p>“Wellesley College is a welcome addition to edX and our efforts to fully realize the potential of online education for students on campus and online,” said Harvard President Drew Faust. “As an institution that has provided an outstanding educational experience to many thousands of women for over 100 years, Wellesley brings to edX both a unique academic perspective and a commitment to excellence in education.”</p>
<p>“Wellesley College's decision to join the edX platform is excellent news for edX and for the platform's growing number of users around the world,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “Wellesley brings a distinctive history that will further enrich the efforts we are making to tailor instruction to the different ways by which people learn.”</p>
<p>WellesleyX will offer four courses on edX beginning in the fall of 2013. All of the courses will be hosted from edX’s innovative platform at <ahref="http://www.edx.org">www.edx.org</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p>edX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions the founders are creating a new online-learning experience. Anant Agarwal, former Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, serves as the first president of edX. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can transform learning—both on-campus and worldwide. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.</p>
<h2>About Wellesley College</h2>
<p>Since 1875, Wellesley College has been the preeminent liberal arts college for women. Known for its intellectual rigor and its remarkable track record for the cultivation of women leaders in every arena, Wellesley—only 12 miles from Boston—is home to some 2300 undergraduates from every state and 75 countries.</p>
<h1>edX Takes First Step toward Open Source Vision by Releasing XBlock SDK</h1>
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<h2>With Release of XBlock Source Code, Global Community Invited to Participate in the Development of the edX Learning Platform and the Next Generation of Online and Blended Courses</h2>
<p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, MA and SANTA CLARA, CA (PyCon 2013) – March 14, 2013 –</strong><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a>, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by <ahref="http://harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT), today released its XBlock SDK to the general public under the Affero GPL open source license. XBlock is the underlying architecture supporting the rich, interactive course content found in edX courses. With XBlock, educational institutions are able to go far beyond simple text and videos to deliver interactive learning built specifically for the Internet environment. The release of the XBlock source code marks the first step toward edX’s vision of creating an open online learning platform that mirrors the collaborative philosophy of MOOCs themselves and is an invitation to the global community of developers to work with edX to deliver the world’s best and most accessible online learning experience.</p>
<p>XBlock is a component architecture that enables developers to create independent course components, or XBlocks, that are able to work seamlessly with other components in the construction and presentation of an online course. Course authors are able to combine XBlocks from a variety of sources – from text and video to sophisticated wiki-based collaborative learning environments and online laboratories – to create rich engaging online courses. The XBlock architecture will enable the easy integration of next generation education tools like the circuit simulator in edX’s popular <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.002x/2013_Spring/about">Circuits and Electronics</a> course (6.002x) and the molecular manipulator in the new <ahref="https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/7.00x/2013_Spring/about">Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life</a> course (7.00x) taught by Eric Lander, one of the leaders of the Human Genome Project.</p>
<p>XBlock is not limited to just delivering courses. A complete educational ecosystem will make use of a number of web applications, all of which require access to course content and data. XBlocks provide the structure and APIs needed to build components for use by those applications. edX will be working with independent developers to continue to extend the functionality of XBlock through the XBlock SDK and future open source initiatives.</p>
<p>“From its beginning, edX has been committed to developing the world’s best learning platform and tapping our global community to help us get there,” said Rob Rubin, edX Vice President of Engineering. “We look forward to working with the world’s developers, educators and researchers to help evolve the platform and ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to the world-class education that edX provides.”</p>
<p>The XBlock source code is available immediately and can be accessed at <ahref="http://github.com/edX/XBlock">http://github.com/edX/XBlock</a>.</p>
<h2>About edX</h2>
<p><ahref="https://www.edx.org/">EdX</a> is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners <ahref="http://www.harvard.edu">Harvard University</a> and the <ahref="http://www.mit.edu">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. EdX provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. We’re focused on people, not profit. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA.</p>
