New Scientist

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Anant Agarwal is the president of edX, a massive open online course (MOOC) provider founded last year by MIT and Harvard University to offer free online classes from top-tier universities. "The MOOC movement is democratizing education," says Agarwal in an interview. "In the past, top universities had this funnel and admitted only the top few percent of applicants. From the get-go, a lot of students without the right economic or language background were not able to get in. We're flipping the funnel. We're saying everybody can try. If you can cut it, we'll give you a certificate of mastery." He says that in addition to making education more accessible, online learning will improve traditional education by enabling ideas that have not been widely applied, such as self-paced learning, to be put into practice on a large scale. Agarwal says the best model blends online and classroom components. "When our blended circuits and electronics course was taught at San Jose State University in California, outcomes were staggeringly good," he says. "Traditionally, about 40 percent of the students fail the class; this time, the failure rate fell to 9 percent." For more information, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929250.300-free-online-mit-courses-are-an-education-revolution.html#.Ul2OWiREvDk.