MOOCs: Harvard Library/HarvardX Collaboration Shares the University’s Resources with Online Learners

From the Harvard Library:

“It gives one chills to see [Dickinson’s] original manuscripts—to be able to picture where her eccentric and significant dashes were originally placed,” said Elisa New, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature. New’s HarvardX fall course, “Poetry in America,” will include several lectures filmed in Harvard libraries and feature items from libraries’ collections.
HarvardX—launched in parallel with EdX, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard and MIT—allows faculty members like New to reimagine their teaching using new technologies to reach a global audience of learners. While MOOCs, or massive open online courses, are frequently associated with video lectures and discussion forums, New is incorporating what she believes is one of Harvard’s most significant assets—its libraries. “We have extraordinary resources in the Harvard libraries,” she said.
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[Leslie] Morris [curator of modern books and manuscripts at Houghton Library] believes collaborations between the libraries and HarvardX will benefit both. “HarvardX is an exciting next step for the Library, embedding the rich Harvard collections firmly within teaching and learning on a global scale,” she said. “For 20 years, we’ve been welcoming Harvard and area faculty into Houghton to teach with original materials, and in the last decade, we’ve digitized some of our most-in-demand rare books and manuscripts to make them more widely available.”

Read the Complete Announcement
See Also: Roundup of Recent Digitization at Houghton Library

Filed under: Digital Preservation, Lecture, Libraries, News, Roundup