Just yesterday, MIT and Harvard University announced a new partnership to offer online education. The goal is to increase learning for students on-campus and others throughout the globe. Both schools plan to study the results of edX to better understand how students learn and how technology affects learning.

See the official announcement here.

EdX Video Announcement

How will this affect Data Science Learning?

It is too early to know exactly what courses will be offered, but given MIT’s strength in engineering, those courses would seem reasonable. I am guessing (and hopeful) that many courses pertinent to data science will be offered by edX. Also, the announcement is most likely a response by MIT and Harvard to compete with Coursera, a company started by 2 Stanford University faculty. Obviously, the elite schools do not want to be outdone by each other. In any case, I only see these new and different methods for education as a good thing. Happy Learning!