New horizons for HarvardX
HarvardX, the University-wide initiative supporting faculty experimentation in teaching and learning through technology, is slated to launch 14 new and returning online offerings through the winter and spring of 2014. In addition to covering disciplines from economics to genomics to history, the lineup represents a continuing move by Harvard faculty to reinvent the MOOC, or massive open online course, and use the Web to enhance rather than directly replicate what happens in the classroom. “We are expanding our approach to not focus exclusively on semester-based, linear courses but to now include entirely new and more flexible ways of teaching. Our faculty’s creativity demands it,” said Robert Lue, professor of the practice of molecular and cellular biology, faculty director of HarvardX, and Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. Peter Bol, vice provost for advances in learning, agreed, adding, “Having different formats better supports experimentation and research....