<%inherit file="marketing.html" /> <%block name="login_area"> </%block> <section class="subpage"> <div> <h1> <i>MITx</i> Advances MIT’s Vision for Online Learning</h1> <p> Education has entered an era of rapid, exciting, technology-enabled change. At MIT, we welcome the opportunity to harness the power of on-line technology for our students and for the world. On December 19, 2011, we announced <i>MITx</i>, an initiative to offer exciting, challenging and enriching courses to anyone, anywhere, who has the motivation and ability to engage MIT’s educational content.</p> <p> Ten years ago, MIT launched <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">OpenCourseWare</a>, which places online the course materials for substantially the entire MIT curriculum, and was the genesis of today’s worldwide movement in free, open educational resources. <i>MITx</i> is the next step in opening MIT’s educational doors to the world. Through OCW and <i>MITx</i>, MIT invites the world to join it in the passion, hard work and thrill of learning and discovery.</p> <h2><i>MITx</i> will e-publish interactive online courses that:</h2> <ul> <li>Empower students to learn at their own pace;</li> <li>Offer online laboratories where students can experiment and apply their learning;</li> <li>Connect students to each other in online discussion groups and wiki-based collaborative learning; </li> <li>Challenge learners with MIT-rigor course materials; and</li> <li>Assess individual student learning as the student progresses through the course.</li> </ul> <p> <i>MITx</i> students who demonstrate their mastery of a subject can earn a certificate of completion awarded by <i>MITx</i>.</p> <p> <i>MITx</i> courses will be available to the world through an Internet platform that MIT will make freely available. MIT hopes that other educational institutions, anywhere in the world, will adapt and use the platform to publish their own educational content online for the benefit of learners. Because the platform will be open-source and scalable, adopters and users can continuously improve it, for the benefit of everyone.</p> <h2> Why Is MIT Creating <i>MITx</i>?</h2> <p> Excellence in teaching and learning. MIT must always provide its students the very best teaching and learning tools possible. MIT began experimenting with online technologies in its educational programs long before we launched OCW in 2001. We have only increased our emphasis in recent years, as several MIT committees have studied how MIT might enhance the learning experience of its students and expand its impact worldwide through new online offerings.</p> <p> These efforts, combined with those of numerous individual MIT faculty members, confirmed MIT’s conviction that digital technologies enrich learning. Many other innovative institutions and enterprises believe the same and are bringing creative online offerings forward. Having brain-stormed, investigated and studied, we were ready to act and eager to start. We announced our <i>MITx</i> aspiration to capture and encourage the energy of our faculty in creating new online teaching and learning tools. </p> <p> Once up and running, <i>MITx</i> will be a laboratory for online learning. Whether <i>MITx</i> learners are MIT’s on-campus students, university students elsewhere, or independent learners, <i>MITx</i> will help us understand how online learning occurs and how virtual communities of learners assemble -- information that in turn will allow us to improve both <i>MITx</i> and our on-campus teaching. </p> <p> Access to higher education. <i>MITx</i> will help shatter barriers to education. The constraints of MIT’s physical campus allow us to admit less than 10 percent of our undergraduate applicants. We teach on-campus only a tiny fraction of the people in the world with the ability and motivation to learn MIT content. Online technology provides a new and different portal into MIT-quality education. Through <i>MITx</i>, MIT educational content can reach, augment, and enrich the education and livelihood of many learners who cannot attend MIT. </p> <p> <i>MITx</i> does not provide a full MIT education. Our residential campus is the heart of MIT’s knowledge creation and dissemination. MIT students enjoy a comprehensive curriculum and distinct educational environment. Without MIT, there would be no <i>MITx</i>. </p> <p> Advancing the public good. <i>MITx</i> is an opportunity to help preserve and expand higher education as a public good. Historically, the investment of public and private assets in enormous amounts has produced the public benefits of knowledge creation and dissemination, leading to capable citizens, innovation, job creation, economic development, and broader welfare.</p> <p> Today, as computation and Internet technologies enable higher education to migrate online, MIT sees the opportunity to democratize education with unprecedented efficiency and scalability. We possess a strong desire and feel a compelling obligation to offer a not-for-profit, mission-driven, open-technology approach to online learning. <i>MITx</i> is our contribution. </p> </div> </section>