Media

HKU joins Harvard and MIT to provide online education through edX

21 May 2013

 

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is joining edX, a non-profit online education platform founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). HKU will provide a series of HKUx courses that are specially designed for edX, including “vernacular heritage in Asia”, “law, economy and society”, “Chinese and Western philosophy” and “infectious disease and public health”. These courses will be taught by professors of Architecture, Economics, Philosophy and Public Health.   

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA, edX provides a platform for massive open online courses (MOOCs). Edx announced today an expansion of its X University Consortium internationally. HKU Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Amy Bik May Tsui welcomed the membership and said: “The University is delighted to be part of this consortium of world class universities which are committed to making quality higher education accessible to all. We look forward to working with technical experts and outstanding teachers in the consortium to explore how technology can be fully exploited to make learning equitable and affordable.”

MOCCs as global trend in higher education

As a new participating institute of the xConsortium, HKU believes MOOCs, through the use of quality and effective learning platform with web environments, interactive video, online discussion, social/cohort interaction etc. to support teaching and learning, access to knowledge would be enhanced and a large group of people could be benefited.

Professor Tsui added: “MOOCs is an educational innovation that will bring about a seismic change in the higher education landscape that has yet to be understood. The opportunity to witness and contribute to this change cannot be missed. The University will call on professors with a track record of excellence in teaching to offer HKUx courses so that not only HKU students but also students from less developed areas can benefit from their teaching.”

Expansion of X University Consortium internationally

The University of Hong Kong is among the few Asian universities which have become new members of the “X universities”. In the latest global partnership announcement, edX membership has now also been extended to Tsinghua University, Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as well as another 11 institutions from other nations in Asia, the South Pacific region, Europe and the United States. The release today also coincides with the launching of a new, user-friendly edX website which is more attractive and easier to navigate by our learners.

About edX

EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research. It uses its open source technology to transcend physical and social borders.

Edx brings together world’s top universities to provide inspirational and transformative knowledge to students of all ages, social status, and income who form worldwide communities of learners. In addition to Harvard and MIT, the edX consortium previously included the University of California Berkeley, Wellesley College, Georgetown University, the University of Texas System, Australian National University, Delft University of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, McGill University, Rice University and University of Toronto. To date, edX has more than 900,000 individuals on its platform. It aims to educate one billion people worldwide in 10 years.

For media enquiries, please contact Communications and Public Affairs Office:
Assistant Director (Media) Ms Trinni Choy, tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk, or
Manager (Media) Ms Rhea Leung, tel: 2857 8555 / 9022 7446 email: rhea.leung@hku.hk