About EdX
EdX is a joint partnership between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer online learning to millions of people around the world. EdX will offer Harvard and MIT classes online for free. Through this partnership, the institutions aim to extend their collective reach to build a global community of online learners and to improve education for everyone.
MIT's Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Anant Agarwal serves as the first president of edX, and Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith leads faculty in developing courses. Along with offering online courses, the institutions will use edX to research how students learn and how technology can facilitate teaching-both on-campus and online.
EdX is based on
MITx, a technological platform from MIT designed to offer online versions of their courses. These versions include: video lessons, embedded testing, real-time feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, collaborative web-based laboratories, and student paced learning. Though this will never replace the traditional residential model of undergraduate education, it will serve to improve and supplement the teaching and learning experienced at both universities. In turn, Harvard and MIT have created edX open-source software and invite interested institutions to join edX with their own educational content.
EdX is a Cambridge-based not-for-profit, equally owned and funded by Harvard and MIT. The first set of courses will be announced in the summer and will begin in the Fall 2012.
Source:
http://www.edxonline.org/
