2.01x Elements of Structures MITx on edX Course Report - 2013 Spring

Abstract

This report describes 2.01x: Elements and Structures, one of the first 11 courses offered by MITx on edX, a platform for delivering massive open online courses (MOOCs). Offered in the Spring of 2013, 2.01x covers a first course on the mechanical behavior of deformable structural elements, following the curriculum of an MIT on-campus course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. This report describes the course structure, in terms of the number of basic e-text, auto-graded problems, and video components. Following a methodology established for analysis of the first 17 HarvardX and MITx courses (Ho et al, HarvardX and MITx: The first year of open online courses), course registrants are described in terms of viewed, explored, and certified sub-populations, together with demographics. The diversity of student activity in the course, and the persistence of student interactions with the courseware, are addressed. The report concludes with descriptions of special features in 2.01x, including the use of Matlab-based code submission problems.