In an interview with Jeffrey Young of The Chronicle of Higher Education, President L. Rafael Reif speaks about the opportunities provided by the new pathway for the pursuit of an MIT professional master's degree. "We will find people who never thought they would be able to apply," says President L. Rafael Reif.
Inside Higher Ed reporter Carl Straumshein writes that MIT is launching a pilot program that will provide an alternative path for students to pursue a master’s degree fro the Supply Chain Management program.
A new MIT pilot program offers learners an opportunity to earn a new kind of credential for online learning, as well as a new path to an MIT master’s degree in Supply Chain Management, reports Laura Krantz for The Boston Globe. “The most important thing is to democratize access to MIT,” says President L. Rafael Reif.
Eric Convey writes for the Boston Business Journal about MIT’s new pilot for the Supply Chain Management master’s program. "This approach basically inverts the traditional admissions process," said MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
In a study examining online learning, MIT researchers have uncovered a new type of cheating in online courses and identified ways to prevent such behavior, reports Laura Krantz for The Boston Globe. Krantz explains that while the researchers “want to stop the cheating, they are equally interested in the benefits of this new type of online education.”
Inside Higher Ed reporter Carl Straumsheim writes about a study conducted by researchers from MIT and Harvard that identifies a new type of cheating in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The researchers found that “the prevalence of cheating varied by discipline,” Straumsheim explains, with just 0.1 percent of learners appearing to have employed the technique in computer science courses.
Thanks in part to free online courses offered through MIT, a farmer in Manitoba, Canada outfitted his tractor with remote control technology that can help him harvest his fields, according to CBC News. “With no computer programming background, Reimer took advantage of free online courses offered through MIT so that he would better understand the back end of the equipment.”
President L. Rafael Reif discusses the future of online learning with Washington Post reporter Nick Anderson. Anderson writes, “One way to find the future of higher education is to track the brainstormers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who often seem to be a step ahead of the pack.”
Prof. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, writes for Fortune about how online education could help close the skills gap. Agarwal proposes that educational providers and employers can address the gap by using online education to open up "more avenues to learners and employees alike.”
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with John Hockenberry of The Takeaway about edX. “Imagine a situation in which not only those who get admitted get to learn from Harvard professors and MIT professors, but everybody who is willing to try,” says Reif of the power of online education.
MIT has launched the Online Education Policy Initiative to investigate and make recommendations about the future of online learning, Inside Higher Education reports. The initiative “will over the next nine months release reports, host workshops and lecture series, and eventually make recommendations about online learning.”
Anya Kamenetz reports for NPR on a new MIT-Harvard study examining data compiled from two years of courses offered by edX. Researchers found that a large number of Greek and Spanish citizens took MOOCs, leading them to wonder if austerity measures in these two countries led students to “look online for an education alternative.”
Mark Shanahan writes for The Boston Globe that the organizers of HUBweek, an innovation-themed festival designed to showcase Boston’s leadership in education, medicine, technology and the arts, gathered at a launch party last week. As part of HUBweek, MIT will host “Solve,” an event designed to bring together leaders in a variety of areas to tackle global challenges.
A new MIT-Harvard study examining two years of edX courses found that nearly 40 percent of online learners are teachers, reports Kirk Carapezza for the PBS NewsHour. The findings have researchers wondering how to better design online courses "to meet teachers’ needs.”
MIT and Harvard have released a comprehensive new report examining MOOCS offered by edX over a two-year period, reports Carl Straumsheim for Inside Higher Ed. The researchers found that while more than half of total enrollment was in edX computer science courses, “learner demographics and intent vary by the courses they take.”