Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/201447
technology MITx Debuts MOOC Sequences MITX, THE UNIT for massive open online courses will cover graduate-level content. Made up of short modules, each full sequence is equal to two to four traditional courses. The school estimates that each XSeries will take students between six months and two years to complete. Students can take the sequences for free, but those who want to earn certificates will pay a small fee yet to be announced. Starting in the spring of 2014, XSeries participants seeking certificates also will use webcam photos to confirm their identities, a verification process edX recently added to its platform. "We're hoping to understand more about the credentials that learners value," says Chris Caplice, executive director of MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics and a contributor to the creation of the XSeries on supply chain and logistics management. "We are in the early stages of exploring these kinds of programs." 62 November/December 2013 BizEd Studying Life In the Digital Age RESEARCHERS IN THE United Kingdom are currently investigating how people use their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops at work and at home as part of the project "Creativity Greenhouse: Digital Epiphanies." The project will focus on how technology helps and hinders work-life balance. The researchers also will examine what causes people to change their digital behaviors, and whether today's onslaught of digital information has caused some to alter the way they use technology. Natasha Mauthner of the University of Aberdeen Business School is part of the collaboration. Other researchers include engineering and science professors Anna Cox of the University College London, Chris Preist of the University of Bristol, and Rosie Robison from Anglia Ruskin University. The U.K.'s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is funding the project. "Modern technology has unquestionably had so many positive effects on the way in which people can combine work and personal life," says Mauthner. But while many welcome technology's presence in their lives, Mauthner wants to find out whether some are beginning to reduce their screen time and "change the ways in which these technologies blur the boundaries between work and the rest of their lives." As part of the project, Mauthner will be working with 15 families—all with children under 18—over the next 12 months. "I want to explore how these devices and their uses are being woven into the very fabric of our daily lives, and how this might actually be changing what it is and means to work or be a parent." COR B IS/G LOW I MAG ES (MOOCs) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has announced that it will offer certificates of completion for sequences of related MOOCs. Called "XSeries," these sequences are offered through edX, the open-source platform for online course delivery developed by MIT and Harvard University, and developed by MIT faculty. The MOOC-based curricula provide students with opportunities for more in-depth, cumulative study in a single subject, says Anantha Chandrakasan, head of MIT's department of electrical engineering and computer science. The school has developed two XSeries so far. "Foundations of Computer Science," which started this fall, offers content at an introductory undergraduate level. "Supply Chain and Logistics Management," available in fall 2014,