Two of the world’s biggest powerhouse educational institutions have mashed their brains together to give students a chance to get a free, online education.
Harvard University and MIT announced today the formation of “edX,” a web-based
non-profit initiative to offering college-level courses at no cost.
The two schools have each tossed $30 million into the project, which will be run by a non-profit organization based in Cambridge.
The first series of courses should be up and running by the fall, and will include five different options, according to a press release.
“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,” said Harvard President Drew Faust in a statement.
The online venture follows a project launched by MIT last December, called MITx, which brought in hundreds of thousands of interested users.
The partnership of online classes will offer video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories, and student paced learning, according to a press release.
