Reif announces education initiatives
Reif announces education initiatives
President Reif announced four new education initiatives last Tuesday in response to the report from the Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education.
The MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili, pronounced “mightily”) will integrate knowledge from fields such as neuroscience and economics to understand how people learn best. This knowledge will be applied both on campus and online through MIT’s digital education platforms. MITili is headed by Brain and Cognitive Sciences professor John Gabrieli.
On campus, a new team called the MITx Digital Learning Lab has been formed to “collaborate with interested faculty to build digital content in the curriculum.” The team involves 16 MIT lecturers and postdoctoral researchers who are experts in digital learning in their fields.
Another initiative works with the 100+ current and developing MIT programs focusing on pre-K through grade 12 learning in STEM. The new MIT pK-12 Action Group will help these programs understand and improve learning.
The Digital Learning Solutions team has been created to provide online training in cutting-edge digital technology to “corporations, executives and professionals.” Big Data X is an existing course that has over 10,000 students, and this team will develop more courses.
In order to organize the efforts, Dean of Digital Learning Sanjay Sarma has been made Vice President for Open Learning.
—Sanjana Srivastava