Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have joined together to form a new entity, ‘edX’, which will offer free online education.
The current offering of only one unit of study (beta testing) has resulted in more students enrolling in this single unit than the entire living alumni of MIT. Future offerings are likely to include full degree level courses offered completely online and absolutely free of charge.
Earlier this month Harvard and MIT held a press conference announcing this new initiative which they hope will revolutionise the education sector. Early media releases include articles from the New York Times and EdX via YouTube.
This concept, massively open online courses, known as MOOCs looks set to take the education industry by storm with several other top quality universities including Stanford and Princeton indicating that they also will be providing MOOC offerings in the near future.
At this stage, it appears possible that Harvard Divinity School may have online courses available in the very near future. Other similar courses may also be available from alternative service providers. Where these courses become available it is now unlikely that the proposed Interfaith College will develop courses on the same subjects as recognition of courses from other providers will reduce current workloads.