Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/72038
technology MIT, Harvard Launch Open Source edX IN MAY, HARVARD Univer- sity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, announced that the schools would partner to offer course content for free to online users. The ini- tiative will be overseen by a not-for-profit organization to be owned and governed equally by the two univer- sities. MIT and Harvard have each contributed US$30 million, in the form of institutional support, grants, and philanthropy, to launch the collaboration. Their joint learning platform will be based on MITx, an open-access technology developed by MIT that allows users to view video lessons, take quizzes, and participate in online labs. Those will- ing to demonstrate their knowledge can earn certificates of mastery for courses. The edX learning platform also will be released as open-source software so that other institutions can use it to offer their own content. By making the platform open source, the partners hope that other users will continue to improve the software over time. In addition, faculty at both institutions will use edX to conduct research to dis- cover which online teach- ing methods and tools are proving to be most benefi- cial to students. Anant Agarwal, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who has led the development of the MITx platform, will serve as the first president of edX. Har- vard's provost Alan Garber will direct the Harvardx effort, and Michael Smith, the school's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, will work with faculty to develop and deliver courses. EdX will be separate from ongoing distance- learning initiatives at both institutions, including MIT's OpenCourseWare. The first set of courses is scheduled to be announced in early summer and classes are expected to start in fall 2012. MIT OCW Curates Entrepreneurship Curriculum MIT OPENCOURSEWARE has released a cross-disciplinary course list of academic materials from 66 MIT entrepreneurship courses. The list includes syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams from courses offered by MIT's Sloan School of Management, department of electrical engineering and computer science, media arts and sciences program, and experiential studies program. The list presents courses according to core entrepreneurship concepts, as well as by topics such as finance, law, leadership, marketing, and strategy. It also includes videos and links to entrepreneurship-related MIT Web sites. It is one in a series of cross-disciplinary lists from MIT OCW, which address topics such as energy, transportation, and the environment. The list is available at ocw.mit.edu/courses/entrepreneurship/. 54 July/August 2012 BizEd MARC CHAPEAUX/GLOW IMAGES