AN ALUMNUS OF IIT-Madras and Stanford University, Prof. Anant Agarwal is the celebrated professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and chief executive of edX, the path-breaking massive open online courses (Moocs) provider which offers the exciting prospect of the world™s best classroom lectures and coursework becoming accessible to students around the world ” free of charge. edX history. Launched by Harvard University and MIT, which are routinely ranked among the world’s Top 10 universities by the highly respected London-based rating agencies QS and THE, edX is a not-for-profit consortium of 32 higher education institutions including IIT-Bombay, offering rigorous free-of-charge study programmes of highly acclaimed faculty of consortium members. Currently, edX offers more than 140 courses to 3.5 million enroled students worldwide including 146,000 in India. Moreover, many multiples of this number of part-time and informal students log-in for edX’s Moocs programmes. In June last year, edX launched its open source platform christened Open edX. This enables faculty of consortium member institutions to contribute enhancements and new features. Newspeg. After the Open edX platform was launched last year, several national government universities have signed up with it. Ten universities in China have posted XuetangX, an online education initiative on it. In France, 120 higher education institutions, under the direction of the French ministry of higher education, have joined forces to offer France Universite Numerique (FUN) on Open edX, while the non-profit Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF) has posted Edraak, a portal for the Arab-speaking world. In India, the Gurgaon-based Aspiring Minds which conducts AMCAT (employability tests), has tied up with Open edX to offer its student clientele edX courses and certificates. Direct talk. Moocs have the potential to transform the global higher education scenario, teaching millions simultaneously. edX’s non-profit and open platforms which make high quality lectures and courseware from reputed consortium members available to learners worldwide, is what differentiates us from other Moocs providers. With India struggling to find qualified teachers, edX and Moocs offer a way out. As an Indian, I am proud one of our partners in Australia ” Queensland University ” has launched a Hindi language study programme. Moocs is certainly the biggest innovation in education after the advent of textbooks 400 years ago, says Agarwal. Future plans. According to Agarwal, in the near future, economics, social status, gender or geography won™t determine a student™s access to high quality education. œWe will continue to work with and deepen our engagement with universities, faculty researchers and students to innovate and transform education, making it accessible to all and continuously improving the edX and Open edX platforms and course content through intensive research. The V6 platform under preparation and future technological innovations will universalise Mooc programmes, leading to the development of virtual laboratories and more advanced technological education, says Agarwal. Way to go! Autar Nehru (Delhi) College Board Rep LISA JAIN is the Bangalore-based country representative of College Board (estb. 1900) ” a non-profit private organisation headquartered…
