University
powerhouses Harvard and MIT stirred the educational pot recently with the
announcement of edX, a collaboration offering online courses from both schools
at no charge (and with no credit). But another open-source course site opened
last week with a lot less fanfare.
After
about a year of beta testing, the National Training and Education Resource
(NTER) was launched by the U.S. Department of Energy to offer web-based,
interactive courses, completely free. While individuals can go directly to the
site to take the self-paced courses, schools and instructors are welcome to use
entire courses or selected portions, either alone or in customized mixes with
other educational content, again at no charge. NTER even provides free
authoring tools to aid instructors.
Right
now the 28 courses are mostly on topics related to weatherization and
insulation installation, and are intended as either supplementary training for
people already working in energy and construction, or for students hoping to
enter those fields.
Clearly,
NTER’s offerings are hardly on a par with MIT and Harvard, yet its focus on specific
training—with 3-D simulations and built-in performance assessments—may provide
a useful model for applied higher education. Ultimately, NTER officials
envision thousands of free online courses on topics in science, mathematics,
engineering, and manufacturing industries.
