LEGO announced this week its Education Professional Development program that enables teachers to choose STEM, hands-on, playful courses for their classrooms. Built on competency-based learning, this free program is modular and contains four categories: Pedagogy, STEAM Concepts, 21st Century Skills, and Classroom Management. It includes two kinds of self-guided modules: Learning Bursts for quick and focused skills practice and Learning Quests for deeper competency development. Teaching can be developed in-person, remote, and virtual classrooms. LEGO Education has been working with seasoned classroom practitioners at Tufts University Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) to ensure the program was designed for the needs of educators. "When teachers are truly confident in playful hands-on learning, they deliver more motivating, engaging, and joyful learning experiences," said Esben Stærk, president of LEGO Education.
Online learning platform Develop.com started offering this week a free month of unlimited access to hundreds of career-focused courses, including expert-led classes. The free offering includes completion certificates for every course. Develop currently has currently three custom-built subscriptions, starting at $9.99/month: Foundation, Data Academy, and Cybersecurity. Topics include project management, software development, cybersecurity, and cloud technologies. "Our high-quality courses are the best way for professionals looking to grow their careers to gain skills and experience to stand out," said Kevin Pawsey, CEO at Develop. Boston-based Develop.com competes with Pluralsight.com by providing on-demand, subscription courses for IT and business professionals. The platform is built on an Open edX ecosystem developed by the New York-based IBL Education learning software company.
MITx launched on edX.org an 11-week, free course for learners interested in solving the massive and persistent economic poverty in the world. The Challenges of Global Poverty is taught by two Nobel Prize instructors: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The course–part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy—challenges economics to provide solutions. The authors pose the following questions: "Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish, and short"? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?" In this free online course from MIT, explore the key questions and challenges posed by massive and persistent world poverty. “The Challenges of Global Poverty” starts on February 9th — enroll today! https://t.co/XAhgNfNPoI pic.twitter.com/Z9l5ejbfqm — MITx on edX (@MITxonedX) December 30, 2020
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is launching this month in collaboration with edX its first MicroBachelors programs: Business Analytics Foundations and Data Management with Python and SQL. The edX's MicroBachelor standalone credential will allow learners to apply for transfer credit toward an SNHU associate or bachelor's degree program. Offered at $498 per course, the classes are worth up to six credits each. The two MicroBachelors courses are open for enrollment on edX and start on February 26. "Through the new SNHUx programs, learners will be able to study at their own pace, obtain workforce-relevant skills, and apply credits when they enroll at SNHU – creating an even more affordable pathway to an associate or bachelor’s degree," stated in a press-release Paul LeBlanc, President and CEO, SNHU. "With SNHU, we will further the edX mission to increase access to education worldwide," said Anant Agarwal, edX Founder, and CEO. With the launch, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) becomes a partner in the edX Consortium. It will operate as SNHUx.
Universities and colleges in the U.S. have their view on how to make an impact and achieve social change. This month, Wesleyan University announced two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) focused on making social change. The Black Lives Matter movement of last summer inspired instructors to create these two courses. These online courses come on Coursera.org and enrollment is free of charge. • Take Action: Turning Protest to Policy. Taught by Professor of Government Mary Alice Haddad and Attorney and Associate Professor Sarah Ryan, the course focuses on strategies for action, such as using the courts, communicating across platforms, connecting with power, and making change locally. The course takes about 34 hours to complete. Each of the four modules contains two videos (one by Haddad or Ryan, and one by another speaker—often a TED talk), one academic reading, one general reading, and one assignment or a short quiz. There is a final assignment about creating an original policy action plan for a specific cause. The assignments range from a short quiz on reading the Clean Air Act to developing a stakeholder map for an issue in your community. The final assignment involves creating an original policy action plan for a cause that you care about. • Designing and Building Institutional Anti-Racist Spaces (D-BIAS) is a 23 hours course whose "mission is to teach and apply tenets of equity, anti-racism, and cultural justice to students from institutions to achieve social change." This class—taught by Jonathan Perez, Visiting Lecturer in Liberal Studies—is aimed at educators and administrators, lawyers, and civil rights advocates. Wesleyan faculty and scholars are currently teaching 16 courses and specializations on Coursera.
