Category: Top News

Who are the most inspiring teachers on edX.org?

These 11 are the best professors in the edX community, according to an edX evaluation committee. They all have made “exceptional contributions in online teaching and learning”.

One of those finalists will receive the first edX prize on edX’s 2016 Global Forum, which will take place in November in Paris, hosted by Sorbonne University.

This is the list of professors:

• Michel Buffa
  HTLM5 from W3C XSeries
  W3Cx

• John Cook
  Making Sense of Climate Science Denial
  UQx

• Charles Fried
  Contracts Law: From Trust to Promise to Contract
  HarvardX

• Jeffrey Hellmer
  Jazz Appreciation
  UTAustinX

• Anthony D. Joseph
  Ameet Talwalkar
  Data Science Engineering with Spark XSeries
  UCBerkeleyX

• Ravi Ramamoorthi
  Computer Graphics
  UCSDx

• Mario Ricci
  Essential Human Biology: Cells and Tissues
  AdelaideX

• Nathalie Schiffino-Leclercq
  Min Reuchamps
  Pierre Baudewyns
  Ella Hamonic
  Vincent Legrand
  Découvrir la science politique
  LouvainX

• Armo Smets
  Solar Energy
  TU DelftX

• Maggie Sokolik
  English Grammar and Essay Writing
  UC BerkeleyX

• Erland Stevens
  Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery
  DavidsonX

The third edition of the “Learning with MOOCs” conference, scheduled for October 6-7 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has announced the final lineup of speakers and panelists. Many MOOC practitioners specialized on edX courses will participate.

• This year’s theming will be “Being and Learning in a Digital Age”.

• Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, and Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Psychology and Founder and Scientific Director of The Character Lab, will be the featured speakers.

• See the schedule. Registration pricing for attendees is $450 – $475.

edX has announced the first remote, no RSVP meetup on August 25th from 2pm to 3pm EST. The reunion point will be on the #remotemeetup channel on Open edX’ Slack, and the theme, “the roadmap for Open edX“. Product Manager Marco Morales will present this topic followed by a Q&A.

Shauna Gordon McKeon, Developer Advocate at edX, has explained, “there was so much interest in hearing more about the roadmap that we’ve decided to make it a regular feature of our meetups.” “Each meetup will have a short (5-10 minute) roadmap update in addition to that week’s topic.”

On the other hand, IBL and with McKinsey Academy will celebrate the Fall’s first meetup on September 8th in New York. Managers from edX, Columbia and Modern States will speak. Further details will be announced during the second half of August.

Since its launch in September 2014, “The Science of Happiness” edX course has attracted more than 375,000 students, according to Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.

This eight-week, free course, taught by UC Berkeley’s professors Dacher Keltner and Emiliana Simon Thomas, shares their findings on science and practice.  This course on positive psychology explores the roots of a meaningful life and highlights the idea that happiness is linked to having strong social ties and contributing to something bigger than yourself –the greater good.

Students learn about relevant happiness research through compelling videos featuring professors Keltner and Simon as guest instructors. There are “actionable happiness exercises; accessible reading material; and a weekly “emotion check-in.” “We put the secrets of happiness at your fingertips with just a click of a button”, they say.

The next edition of Science of Happiness starts on September 6, 2016.

Class-Central.com has come up with a list of the top 50 free online courses of all time based on thousands of reviews written by their users.

“When I launched Class Central back in November 2011, there were around 18 or so free online courses and almost all of them were at Stanford. Now there are close to 6,000 MOOCs from 600+ universities around the world,” explained Dhawal Shah, Founder and CEO of Class Central.

This is the list:

• An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1)
  Rice University via Coursera

• Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“ModPo”)
  University of Pennsylvania via Coursera

• A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment
  Indian School of Business via Coursera

• Coding in your Classroom, Now!
  University of Urbino via EMMA

• Introduction to Programming with MATLAB
  Vanderbilt University via Coursera

• What Is a Mind?
  University of Cape Town via FutureLearn

• ER22.1x: Justice
  Harvard University via edX

• Machine Learning
  Stanford University via Coursera

• Introduction to Complexity
  Santa Fe Institute via Complexity Explorer

• Understanding Dementia
  University of Tasmania via Independent

• Learn to Program: The Fundamentals
  University of Toronto via Coursera

• The Science of the Solar System
  California Institute of Technology via Coursera

• The Bible’s Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future
  Emory University via Coursera

• The Great Poem Series: Unbinding Prometheus
  via OpenLearning

• Functional Programming Principles in Scala
  École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne via Coursera

• Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects
  University of California, San Diego via Coursera

• 7.00x: Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology via edX

• Medical Neuroscience
  Duke University via Coursera

• TM01x: Tsinghua Chinese: Start Talking with 1.3 Billion People
  Tsinghua University via edX

• Fundamentals of Product Management
  via Skillshare

• Marketing in a Digital World
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

• Moralities of Everyday Life
  Yale University via Coursera

• Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1
  Stanford University via Coursera

• Calculus One
  Ohio State University via Coursera

• CS188.1x: Artificial Intelligence
  University of California, Berkeley via edX

• Model Thinking
  University of Michigan via Coursera

• Introduction to Dutch
  University of Groningen via FutureLearn

• Aprender
  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México via Coursera

• The 3D Printing Revolution
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

• 15.071x: The Analytics Edge
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology via edX

• Preparing to Manage Human Resources
  University of Minnesota via Coursera

• Fractals and Scaling
  Santa Fe Institute via Complexity Explorer

• The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 1)
  Wesleyan University via Coursera

• Decision Making in a Complex and Uncertain World
  University of Groningen via FutureLearn

• Data Mining with Weka
  University of Waikato via Independent

• Cryptography I
  Stanford University via Coursera

• CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science
  Harvard University via edX

• Artificial Intelligence for Robotics
  Stanford University via Udacity

• Shakespeare and his World
  The University of Warwick via FutureLearn

• Medicine and the Arts: Humanising Healthcare
  University of Cape Town via FutureLearn

• Think101x: The Science of Everyday Thinking
  University of Queensland via edX

• 6.002.1x: Circuits and Electronics 1: Basic Circuit Analysis
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology via edX

• Intro to Computer Science
  University of Virginia via Udacity

• Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
  University of Michigan via Coursera

• Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance
  Monash University via FutureLearn

• Finding Hidden Messages in DNA (Bioinformatics I)
  University of California, San Diego via Coursera

• Algorithms for DNA Sequencing
  Johns Hopkins University via Coursera

• CS110x: Big Data Analysis with Apache Spark
  University of California, Berkeley via edX

• Algorithms, Part I
  Princeton University via Coursera

• Introduction to Mathematical Thinking
  Stanford University via Coursera

• CS1156x: Learning From Data (Introductory Machine Learning)
  California Institute of Technology via edX

TU Delft, the largest and oldest public technological university in the Netherlands, announced this week that it has reached 1 million enrollments, with an average age of 29, in its 36 MOOCs in science, design and engineering since 2013.

• MOOCs’ content is typically derived from classes given in TU Delft’s regular degree programs. At the university level, “these open courses have been used to enable students to attend the lectures online so classroom hours are dedicated to in-depth discussion of the course material, rather than to knowledge transfer”.
• Some companies, such as Royal Haskoning DHV and Capgemini, have used the MOOCs internally as part of company training.
• TU Delft has released MOOCs for children, too. The MOOC in Dutch “Scratch, programmeren voor kinderen (8+)” (Scratch, programming for kids (8+)), started on June 15, has attracted 2,500 kids.
• “Solar Energy” by Arno Smets, TU Delft’s first MOOC, in 2013, has reached 130,000 enrollments and has been translated into Arabic on the Jordanian edraak.org platform, with the goal to adopt solar energy as an energy source in the Middle East. The course teaches how to install a photovoltaic system using solar panels, and so contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Anka Mulder, vice-president of TU Delft and the driving force behind the MOOCs at the university, has announced that for-credit MOOCs are next.

‘We are now working hard on the next step: ensuring that our students can earn credits for MOOCs of TU Delft, as well as for those from partner universities and vice versa. This means that they will gain access to a wide range of courses from top lecturers around the world. The challenge lies in agreeing on which courses we recognize and how many credits our students can earn in a certain phase of their degree program.’

The following are the course enrollments at Delft:

Harvard University has launched HarvardXPLUS, a premium Open edX platform with a selection of popular online courses.

This project will include credentials, limited enrollments and smaller cohorts, in order to “allow students to engage even more with your fellow learners , and with Harvard faculty and teaching fellows”, explained Robert Lue, HarvardX Faculty Director.

“Today’s online learners seek premium content and unique opportunities to interact with like-minded peers. During the past four years, many of you have also expressed an interest in a more personalized online learning experience,” added.

HarvardXPLUS now includes four courses, all of which are paid and open to enrollment starting on September 2016.

• Principles of Biochemistry ($495)
• ContractsX 2016 ($495)
• Masterpieces of World Literature ($495)
• ChinaX Book Club ($195)

The platform uses the same theme as MIT Professional X and follows the same business model, based mostly on targeting professional audiences who are willing to pay to enjoy smaller cohorts and earning credentials (for example, any student can now take the Contracts and Principles of Biochemistry courses for free on edx.org but without any credentialing, since the verified certificate option is closed.)

It is remarkable that the two founders of edX (MIT and Harvard) have decided to launch their own branded platforms instead of concentrating all of their courses on edx.org.

Are MOOCs a failure?

Read this interesting thought from Dr. Joshua Kim, director of Digital Learning Initiatives al Dartmouth University, from Inside Higher Ed:

“Those of us participating in the open online education movement (…) never thought that MOOCs would disrupt higher ed.  We create open online courses because offering educational opportunities to the world’s learners is both aligned with our missions, and because we think that participating in this movement is a good way to learn about learning.”

And a good example of the success of the open education (or open courses) movement is edX. Dr. Joshua Kim is sharing these mind blowing numbers:

• There are 8.3 million (unique) lifelong learners on the edX platform.
• Between 2012, when edX started, and today – there have been 27 million course enrollments.
• Over 1,000 courses have been offered.
• There have been over 2,300 faculty and staff who have taught on edX.
• Over 840,000 certificates have been earned by edX learners.
• EdX has over 100 schools, institutes and organizations in the Consortium creating open online courses.

Who exactly are all these lifelong learners on the edX platform?

• Seven-in-ten lifelong learners are 25 years old or older.
• The median age of an edX learner is 29.
• About 36 percent are women, and each year the proportion of women learners on the edX platform grows.  It will be interesting to see if the gender distribution for open online learning starts to match that for post-secondary education as a whole (~57%).
• Over two-thirds have a bachelor degree or higher, with over a quarter having a masters. (And 4% having a PhD).

And where do edX’s lifelong learners come from?

• There are lifelong learners in every country of the world (save North Korea).
• A bit over a quarter (27%) of edX learners come from the U.S. The next biggest country is India (11%), the U.K. and Brazil (both 4%) and China, Canada, and Mexico (3% each).
• Over four-in-ten edX learners live in emerging economy countries.

“Does Coursera, NovoEd, FutureLearn, Canvas.net, and other open online learning platforms report similar levels and trends?”, wonders Dr. Kim.

–
Inside Higher Ed, July 21: The Scope of edX

OpenCraft, an Open edX provider led by French developer Xavier Antoviaque, has announced the launch of an pre-installed service to host small Open edX instances, which “can be a good place for a first course experimentation with a small set of students; or as a side instance for tests,” according to his creator.

The service, hosted at http://opencraft.hosting/, is now in beta mode and open to early testers.

The final version of Open edX “Eucalyptus” is scheduled to be released on August 10th.

This is the estimated release schedule, according to edX: