YLS Professor Akhil Amar ’84 to Teach Open Online Course

Four of Yale’s most distinguished scholars are inaugurating the University’s new free online course program. Among them is Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, whose online course on “Constitutional Law” begins on January 27.

In addition to Professor Amar’s class, the University is also offering the following open online courses:

Roman Architecture,” with Diana E.E. Kleiner, the Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics;
Moralities of Everyday Life,” with Paul Bloom, the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science;
Financial Markets,” with Robert Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics.

Registration is now open for all classes at http://www.coursera.org/yale Though the courses are free, those enrolled do not earn credit.

This new generation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) builds on the pioneering online effort of the university’s Open Yale Courses program, which launched in 2007 and offers 42 courses by faculty in the arts and sciences. The courses are available at http://oyc.yale.edu.

The contemporary MOOC platforms include interactive features and tools for assessment. Video lectures are presented in a different manner as well. There are no single 50-minute lectures; the instruction is organized into shorter units of approximately 10 minutes — and the platforms allow the instructor to insert quiz questions or participatory activities at any point in the video segment.