UW Set to Launch First MOOC

by Brian Lee

The University of Wisconsin announced this week that it will now offer four Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), beginning Thursday.

“We are excited to offer students from around the world the opportunity to learn from some of our very best instructors,” Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr. said in a statement. “MOOCs can complement the tradition of educational excellence people expect from UW-Madison.”

According to a release, 80,000 people from all over the world have signed up to take either “Video Games and Learning,” “Markets with Frictions,” “Human Evolution: Past and Future” or “Globalizing Higher Education and Research for the ‘Knowledge Economy’.” The non-credit classes are free and open to anyone, including current UW-Madison students.

Coursera will be managing the MOOCs, which use multimedia presentations and encourage learning through online interaction among students.