MIT looks to stay in vanguard of digital education - The Washington Post

" ... MIT has long been at the forefront of digital innovation. In 2001, the institute announced that it would begin publishing its teaching materials online for anyone to access for free. It was a ground-breaking move — giving away to the world a trove of huge intellectual and pedagogic value. In the years since, MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative has published syllabi, lecture notes, problem sets, videos and other curriculum materials from 2,260 courses; it has drawn 175 million visitors from around the world. These visitors include teachers, students and many others interested in self-improvement. MIT has become a leader in propelling massive open online courses, or MOOCs, which provide unprecedented access to elite higher education. It joined forces with Harvard University to launch the nonprofit Web site called edX in 2012. The site now hosts MOOCs from prominent colleges, universities and other institutions worldwide. Those from MIT are offered under the brand 'MITx' ... The task force, which Reif convened, also urged MIT to bear in mind that MOOCs can be broken into useful pieces, called modules. Not every online student wants to learn everything that a MOOC offers. But a given student might want to dive into one module to learn something for a specific purpose ... This notion of the 'unbundling' of classes is one of the most provocative ideas in higher education. It suggests that the curriculum of the future may be far more fluid than it is today, with courses tailored as never before to meet the needs of individual students and teachers. That has direct implications for majors and the length of time it takes students to earn a bachelor’s degree ..."