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SPEAKER: We're excited to show you some of what you'll see when you take
mcb80x, the new neuroscience course from HarvardX.
We're aiming to change the way you think about
massive open online courses.
In mcb80x, we're piloting a new mode of online student interactions that we
call guided interactivity.
The problem with watching lecture videos online is that the interaction
is fundamentally uni-directional and largely passive.
In mcb80x we want to reframe the student-teacher interaction using the
technology of the internet.
Now instead of me just lecturing at you, we'll have a one on one
discussion.
And will invite you to interact and engage with rich simulations and
interactive tools seamlessly woven into the flow of the lecture.
Together we'll build up a neuron piece by piece, and you'll be in the
driver's seat guiding your learning according to your own needs.
In the course of our discussion, we'll invite you to make hypotheses about
what you'll see and then we'll give you the tools you need to test those
hypotheses.
Oscilloscopes, stimulators, patch clamp amplifiers.
You'll probe the inner workings of the neuron like a scientist would.
Your responses will drive your learning experience in different
directions.
A kind of Choose your Own Adventure lecture that dynamically adapts to
your needs.
Another exciting part of the course is integrated DIY science.
We want you to explore, be curious, and get excited about scientific
inquiry in real life.
We invite you, to the student, to join us when we perform experiments.
We're collaborating with our partners at Backyard Brains to bring
neuroscience experiments into your own home.
You could follow long with our experiments but we'll also encourage
you to ask your own questions and perform your own variance on these
experiments.
Then we'll take your contributions, video and documentation of experiments
that you do, and bring them back into the course environment for everyone to
learn from.
Traditionally we teach lectures in lecture halls because we have to.
We need to assemble students somewhere after all.
But on the internet we have no such constraint.
In mcb80x, we'll take you out of the classroom to where science is
happening, and into the real world where it's most relavant.
In labs working at the cutting edge of science, in the hospital, and wherever
science takes us.
The world is our classroom.
We hope you'll join us.
Go to mcb80x to find out more.