Have you ever had a technology idea that could transform or improve education, but not known how to begin transforming that idea into reality? A new collaborative, open online course hosted by three professors from Brigham Young University (David Wiley, Todd Manwaring, and Aaron Miller) and the deputy director of the office of educational technology at the U.S. Department of Education, Richard Culatta, aims to help those who answered “yes” to those questions.
The course is called EdStartUp 101, and it kicks off today. The self-described “massively open online course”, or MOOC, has about 925 people signed up to take the course for free, along with about a dozen Brigham Young students who will pay for the course and earn credit for it as a graduate seminar. Those who are not BYU students will not earn credit for the course, according to a recent article about the course in EdSurge.
According to the story, about 120 people had submitted their course registration as of yesterday, which includes a short intro video of participants talking about why they are interested in ed-tech. Throughout the 18-week course, students will be asked to create more videos and write blogs, and at least 16 speakers—including representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as ed-tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists—and have agreed to participate in the course’s sessions.
The class won’t provide help finding funding for the projects, but will instead focus on building successful business models and developing ideas. It’s unclear whether you can still register for the course, but it appears likely the facilitators will be posting the sessions online for anyone to watch and follow along.