2 George Mason Economists Introduce Free Online Courses - The Ticker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

“Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, George Mason University economists who write the economics blog Marginal Revolution, on Wednesday announced that they were introducing a platform for free online courses dubbed ‘MRUniversity.’ Mr. Cowen described the effort as a ‘flexible learning module’ that can be used to create one of the massive open online courses, or MOOC’s, that have lately been a hot topic in higher-education circles.  ‘We think education should be better, cheaper, and easier to access,’ Mr. Cowen wrote. ‘So we decided to take matters into our own hands and create a new online-education platform toward those ends. We have decided to do more to communicate our personal vision of economics to you and to the broader world.’  The courses will be free and will feature quizzes, tests, and videos that average roughly five minutes in length. The first course, on development economics, will begin in October. It’s not clear if the new effort will have any formal relationship with George Mason, though Mr. Cowen noted that MRUniversity’s international reach will be ‘building upon the global emphasis’ of the professors’ home institution.”