Google is taking a step into online education with the
release of open-source software called Course Builder.
According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the search giant has talked to edX, the
partnership between Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and the University of California at Berkeley that is already
offering free massive open online courses. Peter Norvig, the director of
research at Google, told The Chronicle it has also reached out to Stanford
University.
“We’re close with Stanford—Coursera and Udacity both
came out of Stanford,” Norvig said. “They’re working on their own open-source
project, and they’re also interested in working with us. I think schools are
experimenting and they don’t know quite yet what they want to do.”
Google attracted 155,000 registered students during the
summer with its Power Searching software.
Course Builder is designed to package the software and technology used
in Power Searching to create online courses that can include lessons, student
activities, and assessments.
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