Communications of the ACM
Why the Future of Education Is Open
edX CEO Anant Agarwal says about 2.7 million students worldwide use the online education platform.
Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
During a keynote address at the recent LinuxCon conference in Chicago, edX CEO Anant Agarwal noted how the online education platform is using open source and big data to help educate millions of people. He said about 2.7 million students worldwide use edX, and one of its most popular classes is an introduction to Linux course from the Linux Foundation, which has more than 250,000 students.
Agarwal said edX's open source approach enables anyone to build their own online education platform and help spread information and knowledge further, and big data can help reveal how students learn. For example, edX has mined its nearly 3 billion records of data that relate to student activity and found the ideal length of time for an educational video is six to nine minutes.
Agarwal said edX, founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, promises to improve quality and access to education. "Having edX all free and open source can usher in new improvements for learning technology," he said.
Agarwal said another reason for making the edX platform open source is that people who use the platform also make contributions back into the community, improving it for everyone.
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