Mumbai: On Tuesday, IIT Bombay collaborated with edX, the massive open online course (MOOCs) platform established by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). With this tie-up, the institute aims to provide free online courses in various disciplines to the students around the world.
In a statement, the Director, IIT Bombay, said the open source platform will enable us to reach out to many students across the globe. The web-based technology and infrastructure of edX allow lakhs to log in to a course simultaneously. Some courses could be live and some recorded. Initially, courses could be directed towards training teachers. Further, the platform helps generate data on how students learn and this will enable us to devise more effective ways of teaching online.
Furthermore, the institute said that collaboration with edX, and with partner universities, will help us better understand and solve issues in scaling up quality education using technology. Enhancements to the open source edX platform will now add to key areas of our research focus. This will enable technology to be deployed in other areas of education, such as vocational training, school education, and faculty empowerment.
As per sources, this global massive open online courses (MOOCs) platform also include the leading institutions like Boston University, University of California, The University of Queensland, Rice, Cornell University, TuDelft, The University of Hong Kong, University of Toronto, University of Washington, Seoul National University, The University of Texas System and Peking University. Apart from offering online courses on the edX platform, the group members can share their ideas and experience about online learning at this global forum. Moreover, the students can make an edX account and then register for the desired course.
As per information, the Indian Institutes of Technology Bombay is planning to provide major courses of edX to a worldwide audience. Now, the institute is going to provide the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), the online engineering courses offered by the IITs on the ICT platform, on MOOCs platform.
