It’s a brave new world in education. So we were thrilled this year to team up with edX, the exclusive MIT- and Harvard-led online learning platform. For the past year, our Council on Educational Technology & Learning Innovation (CETLI) has been exploring and developing our digital offerings. EdX takes things up a few notches. Like the consortium, we’re a champion of for-credit classes that mix face-to-face instruction with online work. That means faculty can shift time spent on lectures to one-on-one or small-group teaching, to field trips, or to additional seminars that delve more deeply into topics.

Just as exciting, the edX platform is designed to capture data on how students learn—a huge boon to professors as they analyze, refine, and develop future coursework. We love the global aspect, too. As part of our membership, we’ll offer five MOOCs (massive open online courses), which means people around the world can take a Boston University class for free on BUx.

“As we continue to grow the xConsortium and offer courses from institutions as diverse as our global community of students, we are delighted that Boston University is now a member institution,” said Anant Agarwal, president of edX.

“With its top faculty and courses, BU will help us reimagine education, both on campus and online, while collaborating on research to improve teaching and learning.”