JOHN H ARVARD'S JOURNAL Harvard, Extended

W!"# $%&, their new, nonprofit joint venture, Harvard and MIT will o'er on- line courses to the general public while in- vestigating technologies for improving dis- tance learning and campus-based education. Presidents Drew Faust and Susan Hockfield unveiled the initiative on May 2, attracting broad news coverage reflecting heightened interest in online education and the scale of the Cambridge institutions’ ambitions. Harvard and MIT o(cials say edX makes it possible to address evolving education tech- nologies more quickly, and with a broad- er research agenda, than either institution could alone. From Harvard’s perspective, us- ing the MITx online course platform (which Presidents Drew Faust and Susan has 120,000 participants enrolled in its first Hock!eld announce their institutions’ online education partnership on May 2. course, 6.002x, “Circuits and Electronics”) markedly accelerates the University’s entry into large-scale distance learning. campuses through online learning, while ligence laboratory—who led development Highlights of the edX venture include: simultaneously creating a bold new educa- of the MITx system, and will serve as edX šA Cambridge-based nonprofit orga- tional path for millions of learners world- president—said Internet and mobile tech- nization, owned and governed equally by wide.” Faust focused on the “unprecedent- nologies had made possible online courses Harvard and MIT; each is committing $30 ed opportunity to dramatically extend our serving massive, diverse, distant student million in institutional funds, grants, and collective reach by conducting ground- bodies—including applications such as philanthropic gifts to capitalize the venture. breaking research into e'ective education “laboratories” where learners can build cir- šThe MITx technology, initially de- and by extending online access to higher cuits as if assembling components like vir- signed to o'er noncredit, online versions quality education…in a way that benefits tual Legos. Assessments (quizzes and grad- of MIT courses (incorporating video les- our students, our peers, and people across ing) for straightforward, technical questions sons, embedded quizzes, immediate feed- the nation and the globe.” have become widespread, he said. The need back on student work, online laboratories, But the collaboration also addresses to create more complex forms of assessment and student-paced learning); this platform pressures from peers. Coursera, a venture- (open-ended questions requiring paragraph will be “open-source” software, enabling capital-funded entity, hosts courses from or essay answers) pointed to one of the ba- other institutions to contribute to its de- Michigan, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and sic rationales for edX: to foster research on velopment and to add features. Berkeley (now emphasizing computer learning, teaching, and evaluation, online šHarvardx and MITx noncredit cours- science and technology, but looking to and in the classroom. es o'ered by each institution, beginning in add the social sciences, business, and the At the same session, Michael D. Smith, the fall of 2012—with similar identification humanities); and Udacity, spun out by the computer scientist who is dean of the o'ered to other institutions that join the Stanford scholars who taught an artificial- Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), placed venture under the edX parent. intelligence course last year—with 160,000 edX in the context of the Harvard Initia- š“Certificates of mastery” for moti- matriculants—is building a roster of com- tive on Learning and Teaching, announced vated students who wish to demonstrate puter-science courses. last October; expanding interest among their knowledge of course content. FAS professors in rethinking teaching and Hockfield called edX “a unique oppor- I) * +,!$-)., Anant Agarwal, director of classrooms, in part by experimenting with tunity to improve education on our own MIT’s computer science and artificial intel- technology; extensive online o'erings in Harvard’s professional schools; and the sheer pace of change in such technologies. IN THIS ISSUE Research, Smith said, is a “big part of what we will be doing”—determining how edu- 47 Harvard Portrait 53 Brevia cation will occur in the future, online and 48 Faculty Finance Frustrations 55 The Undergraduate on campus. Both institutions are driven by 49 Corporation Expansion 56 Sports their interest in using new technology “to 50 Addressing Conflicts of Interest 58 Alumni strengthen, enrich, and augment the resi- 50 University People 63 The View from Mass Hall dential, campus model,” said MIT provost 52 Yesterday’s News 64 The College Pump L. Rafael Reif, who oversaw development

46 J/01 - A/./2" 2012 Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 of MITx. Reif, who was named Hockfield’s successor as MIT’s president on May 16, H ARVARD PORTRAI T called the technology “a living platform,” both delivering courses and driving exten- sive research on “how learners learn online.” Online courses and tools, said Harvard provost Alan Garber, who oversees the Uni- versity’s engagement with edX, o'er “mea- surement capabilities that we’ve never had before.” Educators can see how a student engages with a video, rewinds it, takes a test, and so on. With a large student popu- lation in the circuits course and online test- ing protocols, Reif said, MIT was already administering di'erent versions of tests— making it possible to derive statistically significant data on, say, how well students mastered material and how accurately tests captured that learning. Garber characterized as “a deep ques- tion” how such experiments might in turn inform and improve campus-based classes. Faculty groups at Harvard, he said, are working to determine how to measure learning and teaching e'ectiveness; the right criteria and tools will be determined by faculty members themselves. Similarly, Reif said, broader course o'erings through edX would help faculty members deter- mine what elements of online learning and technology work best in what disciplines, with what applications—if any—in resi- dential education. Such research is already under way at the Hewlett Foundation-funded Open Learning Inititive at Carnegie Mellon R ussell S . P hillips University, among other venues. The Har- vard-MIT commitment to the field sug- During his three-decade career in primary care, professor of medicine Russell S. Phil- gests broader, and accelerating, interest lips has studied palliative care, lower-back pain, sexually transmitted infections, mind- throughout higher education. body therapies, and computer-based medical records, among other topics. For the last decade, he has led Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s 115-person Division of T#$ 34!)" 5$)"/,$ took shape in dis- General Medicine. His chosen !eld afforded him the opportunity for diverse research cussions during the past several months, pursuits and leadership experience; now, as the director of Harvard Medical School’s according to Garber. The deal itself may new Center for Primary Care, he will focus on getting others to be as excited about have come together rather quickly: when the !eld as he is. Phillips himself was drawn to primary care because it is “relationship- it was announced, a Harvard faculty ad- centered.” But young doctors starting out in the !eld may not experience it that way visory council apparently had yet to be if they end up in solo practices, feeling isolated. The new center envisions reforming formed. In a note to faculty colleagues, primary care to make it more team-based, so a physician might operate in conjunction Smith, who will take the leading role in with a registered nurse, a licensed practical nurse, and an of!ce assistant, each handling working with them to develop and deliv- responsibilities appropriate to his or her training. This would spare doctors such rou- er courses, indicated that FAS courses in tine tasks as completing paperwork and giving shots. A team might also add a social computer science and quantitative social- worker and a health coach, with their distinct perspectives. Such improvements would science methods—both with online ele- not only make for more stimulating work and a convivial environment, drawing more ments already in use—and perhaps his- medical students into the !eld; they would also improve the patient experience and tory or world cultures would be o'ered health outcomes—the ultimate aim of primary care. Phillips is ceding his post as hospi- this fall. But the details and mechanics for tal division chief, but will still see patients one day a week; he !nds work as a primary- each remained to be settled. care physician deeply gratifying, and hopes more and more medical students will agree. Heretofore, Harvard has been relatively

Photograph by Stu Rosner H*,5*,% M*.*6!)$ 47 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 JOHN H ARVARD'S JOURNAL cautious in its online o'erings. Harvard@ stitution. With the teaching.) He said he Home, begun in 2001, o'ered versions of foundation of edX, expected that Har- lectures, occasional courses, and coverage MIT and Harvard are vardx would include of major University events, but was largely now joining forces free courses, but the felled by cost pressures and the evolution in nonprofit, experi- professional schools, toward cheaper, shorter videos. A test case mental online educa- which o'er fee- of a full course, based on Bass professor of tion on an unprec- based online cours- government Michael J. Sandel’s popular edented scale. es, may also use the “Justice” (a large undergraduate Core and MITx courses under the edX umbrella platform to distribute those if they wish General Education class), proved popular are free for any student; there is a fee for to do so. Dean Smith indicated that the worldwide when released in video form certificates of mastery. Reif said MIT fac- Extension School, which o'ers its online in 2007, but was expensive to produce and ulty members can voluntarily develop such courses on a tuition basis, will continue to distribute. The Extension School, with online courses as part of their regular em- do so; in the future, if it wishes to migrate more than 150 tuition-based online class- ployment; he was not prepared to address to the EdX platform, it may do so. es, spanning disciplines, is probably the how issues of course ownership might Smith said that although the May an- University’s most extensive repository of evolve. Garber said Harvard’s position nouncement signaled just the beginning of distance-education teaching and learning. mirrored MIT’s: edX and the technology a potentially major enterprise, it was “in- Certain professional-school courses are platform are available for faculty members’ credibly important” for the University’s also available online. voluntary participation. (In past discus- educational mission. Advancing educational During the height of the dot-com bub- sions of online education, faculty members objectives, he and Garber said, now depends ble at the turn of the century, several uni- have asserted their ownership of course on encouraging faculty members’ interest versities experimented with fee-based materials they develop for their Harvard and involving them in edX’s evolution. online courses, among them AllLearn (a partnership among Oxford, Yale, and Stanford, chartered in 2001, that closed for Faculty Finance announcement seemed to infuriate fac- financial reasons in 2006)—and Fathom ulty members, who submitted multiple (also defunct, which involved Columbia, Frustrations questions in advance and engaged in a the London School of Economics, the uni- contentious debate moderated by Presi- versities of Chicago and Michigan, and T#$ 0*2" regular Faculty of Arts and Sci- dent Drew Faust (she presides at FAS several leading libraries and museums). ences (FAS) meeting of the academic year, meetings), who referred queries to Garber. Harvard joined neither. on May 1, docketed to focus on routine busi- Alexander Rehding, Peabody professor of Today, the foundation-funded Open ness (approving future courses, authoriz- music and chair of the department, pre- Yale Courses provides 42 full introductory ing two new College engineering concentra- sented a letter signed by 48 professors who liberal-arts courses online for free; and tions), instead veered in another direction noted the value of the planning services that institution in May introduced nine entirely. The prior Friday, faculty members “in a great variety of situations” (including faculty-taught summer-session cours- had received a message forwarded by Dean financial decisions after relocating from es online (each worth one Yale College Michael D. Smith from the provost, Alan another university, purchasing a house, course credit). A few days later, Washing- Garber, matter-of-factly advising of “The raising a family, and retirement). Some of ton University’s law school launched an University’s recent decision to discontinue those situations—figuring out how to live online master’s degree in U.S. law aimed its relationship with the Financial Planning in a high-cost area like Boston, when to as- at overseas practitioners. MIT’s Open- Group (FPG) at the end of the fiscal year,” sume emeritus status—obviously bear on CourseWare has logged 100 million users because “[n]ew federal regulations…do not faculty recruitment and renewal. Others who have accessed materials from 2,000 allow the University” to pay FPG directly cut close to the bone personally: Rehding courses in the past decade. for services provided to faculty, particularly announced that he was on leave to care for But the defining moment in the current any “investment advice.” In place of personal infant twins—and needed to figure out online outreach was the Stanford-origi- financial-planning sessions, the provost’s how to cover more than $50,000 for Har- nated “Introduction to Artificial Intelli- memo suggested, faculty members could use vard-a(liated daycare. If the change was gence.” It became a worldwide sensation the 800 numbers of Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, not a cost-cutting measure, he asked, why last year—the model “massive online open and Vanguard (Harvard’s retirement- and not adjust salaries to cover the fees faculty course,” or MOOC, as these experiments thrift-plan investment managers), and those members would now have to pay to FPG are now known. Following that proof of companies’ wealth-management units; or advisers? He also inquired about the fea- concept, a for-profit enterprise, Udacity, maintain their relationship with their FPG sibility of a waiver, clarifying the faculty Inc., aims to make such courses a regular advisers (at their own expense). Similar member-adviser relationship, that would enterprise; it o'ers six courses at present. notes went to the deans of other Harvard resolve legal objections to continuing the MITx, unveiled in December to experi- schools. With that, a financial-planning ser- FPG service. ment with courses designed specifically vice available to all benefits-eligible Harvard Francke professor of German art and for online instruction, embedded that faculty members was ended. culture Je'rey F. Hamburger, who signed kind of approach in a major research in- Both the substance and manner of the the letter, expressed concern that ter-

48 J/01 - A/./2" 2012 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746