Renowned university offers free web-based electronics course.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has begun enrolling students in its new prototype online learning initiative, MITx, the university announced this week. Enrollment in the initiative’s first course, a class on electricity and circuits called 6.002x, is free and open to the public. The course will run between March 9 and June 8. 6.002x is a ‘fully automated’ version of MIT’s on-campus offering, 6.002, which is a required course for all of the university’s first-year students of electrical engineering.

It is designed to facilitate and streamline a student’s transition from the study of physics to electrical engineering.

Ben Shaya, MIT student , who took 6.002 last year, told The Student that it was an ‘invaluable’ course.

He said, “it teaches the absolute fundamentals of electrical analysis, which is used in all subsequent courses. It can be slow or tedious at times, but is well worth the effort.

“I think MITx is a wonderful idea. The vast majority of people can’t take classes at MIT, including more than a few people who would be able to handle the workload.”

MIT, which routinely ranks among the world’s top five universities, had less than one place for every ten applications during its last admission cycle. By piloting a campaign to open its educational resources to the Internet community, MIT hopes to increase access and “break down barriers to education.”

Though 6.002x will be open to the public, MIT maintains that the course will replicate the intensity of its on-campus sibling.

Students will use an online version of the same textbook as their on-campus counterparts and will be required to adhere to a code of honour that forbids giving or receiving unauthorised help.

In addition, the online course’s prerequisites, which include a background in linear algebra, differential equations and advanced physics, will disqualify all but the most accomplished students. Those who succeed in the course will be awarded an MITx certificate of completion.

In a course introduction video posted to the MITx website, Anant Agarwal, one of 6.002x’s main professors, acknowledged that the course would be “hard,” but urged students to “stick with us.”

Prof Agarwal, who lists a Guinness World Record and 2011 Scientific American top ten world-changing idea among his accomplishments, teaches 6.002 on MIT’s campus. He is also the director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Faculty and student reception of MITx has been overwhelmingly positive, but the initiative is not without its critics. Among them is MIT Mechanical Engineering Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers PhD ‘73.

Prof. Flowers published a piece in this month’s edition of the MIT Faculty Newsletter that sought to distinguish between “education” and “training,” arguing that education is achieved through mentorship and person-to-person interaction, two things that completion of MITx is accomplished without.

He wrote, “in many cases, learning the parts is training while understanding and being creative about the whole requires education.

“I hope ... we will compete based on the quality of the students’ residential experience.”