Going Digital

Josh Kim sets the table for onlinecourses at the College.

The future is coming to Dartmouth. Four undergrad courses, selected from a variety of faculty proposals, will go live as web offerings in 2015. First up, in February: "Introduction to Environmental Science," taught by Andrew Friedland. "This is an experiment, but we are committed to doing this over the years to come," says Josh Kim, director of digital learning programs at the College. The courses will ultimately improve on-campusteaching, says Kim. "It's an opportunity for faculty to rethink how they teach their subjects. 'Okay, I have this new medium, this new way of teaching. What can Ido with it?'" The new technologies will allow faculty to spend more time one on one with students, he adds. The faculty has already embraced technologies used online. "A good way to think about open online learning is that we're creating the next type of textbook," says Kim. "In the past learning materials were aggregated into textbooks. Now there's a move to aggregate those learning materials into open online learning." "We're on a trajectory to lead the world in a newmodel of liberal arts education, and President Phil Hanlon is making the necessary investments," says Kim. The free courses will be listed at dartmouthx.dartmouth.edu.