New Free Online Courses for Spring 2013 announced by EdX

EdX, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, has consistently grown to become a brand name over the past few months, with increasing enthusiasm amongst its ever increasing number of online learning enthusiasts.

Since it was launched by its founding partners, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it has continued to build on the future of online learning leaving huge impressions on the minds of its teeming users.

EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research, by the use of open source technology to transcend physical and social borders. It provides inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. EdX says it is focused on people, not profit.

In great anticipation of surpassing its previous exploits, the EdX team announces the launch of its new edX spring 2013 MOOC courses on statistics, justice, history and poverty, to be offered by leading minds from top universities. It hopes to announce a second set of spring 2013 courses soon.

The Spring 2013 EdX Courses:

These would include:

• Justice: By the Harvard political philosopher whose online lectures have become a global sensation, and inspired millions to think critically about the moral and civic dilemmas facing their societies. A global dialogue about the big moral and civic questions of our time.
• Introduction to Statistics: By the UC Berkeley lecturer in statistics and recipient of UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
• The Challenges of Global Poverty: By the MIT economist who has led a comprehensive evaluation of the roots of poverty in developing nations. Living on under $1 a day, examining and overcoming poverty traps.
• The Ancient Greek Hero: By the professor of ancient Greek literature at Harvard who specializes in the linguistic analysis of epic and tragedy as performed in their historical contexts. Amazing stories, poetry and songs from more than two millennia ago (intro level).
• Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation: By the UC Berkeley computer scientist whose work has helped changes our understanding of the relationship between information and quantum physics.
• Human Health and Global Environmental Change: from Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment and Aaron Bernstein, a physician who studies why climate change, biodiversity loss, and other planetary scale environmental changes matter to our health and what needs to be done to remedy them.
• Copyright: who “owns” ideas in the US and beyond – you’ll find out in this pilot course (limited to 500 students)

In addition to these new courses, edX is bringing back several courses from the popular fall 2012 semester:

• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming;
• Introduction to Solid State Chemistry;
• Introduction to Artificial Intelligence;
• Software as a Service I;
• Software as a Service II;
• Foundations of Computer Graphics

In the words of Anant Agarwal, President of the online enterprise, “EdX is both revolutionizing and democratizing education. In just eight months we’ve attracted more than half a million unique users from around the world to our learning portal. Now, with these spring courses we are entering a new era – and are poised to touch millions of lives with the best courses from the best faculty at the best institutions in the world.”