edX partners Microsoft, integrates OfficeMix into MOOC authoring tools

11th December 2014
edX partners Microsoft, integrates OfficeMix into MOOC authoring tools

Bangalore, December 11 2014:  Massive Open Online Course  specialists edX  has partnered with Microsoft  to enable  course creators to integrate Office Mix into their edX courses.
Created by founding partners Harvard and MIT, edX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) from the world’s best universities, colleges and organizations to millions of students. This partnership will make it easy  for MOOC to produce videos and online lectures for edX using Office Mix, with support for audio and video recordings, screen captures, hyperlinks and digital ink. Educators will be able to embed lectures hosted on OfficeMix.co m directly into an edX course. Students will be able to view the mixes natively on edX.org. Because Office Mix requires PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft will distribute free 180-day trials of PowerPoint 2013 to educators building edX courses.

Microsoft and edX are partnering on:
-   The development of an XBlock component for Office Mix. This solution allows educators to embed mix lectures hosted on OfficeMix.com directly into an edX course. Students will be able to view the mixes natively on edx.org.
-   Open sourcing of the Office Mix XBlock component for distribution on GitHub. Open edX deployments will be able to reuse or modify the Office Mix XBlock for their needs.
-   A commitment to interoperability as edX further extends and evolves the XBlock architecture.
Says  Anoop Gupta, Microsoft Distinguished Scientist and lead for the Office Mix project: “We are delighted to be partnering with edX. Authoring online lectures is hard today so most faculty don’t even attempt it, whether for MOOCs or for blended-learning scenarios on the campus. In partnering with edX, our goal is to democratize the creation of online lectures and courses.”
Adds edX CEO Anant Agarwal: “EdX and Microsoft share a vision to empower educators around the world to create high-quality courses, enabling students to learn wherever they are, for free. I have used Office Mix myself, and enjoy the simplicity of being able to edit video snippets from within PowerPoint. We are excited to partner with Microsoft as we continue to evolve open edX."