Learning in the cloud has been around for over ten years, but MIT is bringing cloud-based learning to mainstream education by awarding certificates for completion to anyone taking a selection of free, online courses. MITx, as MIT is calling it, will be a program of free courses open to everyone. MIT will charge a nominal fee for the actual certificate, but the courses will be completely free.

MIT is planning to set up a non-profit organization with a name distinct from MIT. The new name and not MIT will appear on certificates.  Although the certificates won’t say MIT, the content is the same. Online certificate students will view the same lectures, do the same assignments, and take the same tests for the online courses.

Modeled after the Stanford approach which saw almost 100,000 students register for its Machine Learning course, MIT’s couses (set to launch Spring 2012) will be broadly appealing. MIT has taken the free, online approach further by offering a third legitimate option for education. Cloud learning at the highest level and at a cost almost everyone can afford. Will this kind of learning change the face of traditional education? Considering the number of students worldwide that participated in Stanford’s Machine Learning course, it just might.

Read more in the Chronicles of Higher Education