Wellesley College Announces Plans for Its First MOOCs

Wellesley College, the highly rated liberals arts college for women in Massachusetts, announced last fall that it will join edX, a nonprofit online learning initiative established by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The online service offers Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) free of charge to anyone who wants to take them.

Wellesley has announced the first four courses that it will contribute to the edX community. The first course, which will offered this fall, is Introduction to Human Evolution. The course will be taught by Adam VanArsdale, a biological anthropologist at Wellesley.

In subsequent semesters, Wellesley will offer MOOCs on Alexander the Great, an introduction to global sociology, and Shakespeare.

H. Kim Bottomly, president of Wellesley College, stated, “The strength of Wellesley’s faculty and curriculum is reflected in these initial courses. Wellesley looks forward to contributing to, and helping to shape the conversation about the role of online education, especially in promoting the liberal arts.”