Education for free? From M.I.T? Yes. The Massachusets Institute of Technology announced it will offer a free online learning initiative called MITx. The program offers online interactive learning opportunities to anyone in the world — all free of charge. The program will not provide degrees for courses completed, however, those who exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught will earn a certification of completion. According to MIT’s website, Provost L. Rafael Reif is quoted saying:
“Students worldwide are increasingly supplementing their classroom education with a variety of online tools. Many members of the MIT faculty have been experimenting with integrating online tools into the campus education. We will facilitate those efforts, many of which will lead to novel learning technologies that offer the best possible online educational experience to non-residential learners. Both parts of this new initiative are extremely important to the future of high-quality, affordable, accessible education.”