Oxford University is partnering with Edx to offer its first MOOC

Oxford, the world’s oldest university, and the best (according to this year’s Times Higher Ed ranking) is offering its first ever “massive open online course” (MOOC). The course will begin on 6 February 2017, and be called “From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development”. The duration of the course will be 6 weeks.

The course will examine how governments boost economic development. It will be led by Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government – Sir Paul Collier.

Oxford will offer the MOOC in partnership with edX, which has nine million registered users. The online learning platform offers a choice of 900 courses from universities like Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Peking, & Sorbonne.

While Oxford already offers podcasts and other free online learning resources through its Department of Continuing Education, and the iTunes service – this will be its very first MOOC.

Ngaire Woods, dean of Blavatnik School, told media that the online course will be “an effective way to expand access to knowledge beyond the classrooms of Oxford.”