Marginal Revolution University launches to bring free econ courses to all

Econ professors at George Mason University Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok founded Marginal Revolution University with the mission of providing free, interactive courses in economics.

In an announcement on the Marginal Revolution blog last month, Cowen outlined a few of the principles guiding the project:

1. The product is free, and we offer more material in less time.

2. Most of our videos are short, so you can view and listen between tasks, rather than needing to schedule time for them. The average video is five minutes, twenty-eight seconds long. When needed, more videos are used to explain complex topics.

3. No talking heads and no long, boring lectures. We have tried to reconceptualize every aspect of the educational experience to be friendly to the on-line world.

4. It is low bandwidth and mobile-friendly. No ads.

5. We offer tests and quizzes.

6. We have plans to subtitle the videos in major languages. Our reach will be global, and in doing so we are building upon the global emphasis of our home institution, George Mason University.

7. We invite users to submit content.

8. It is a flexible learning module. It is not a “MOOC” per se, although it can be used to create a MOOC, namely a massive, open on-line course.

9. It is designed to grow rapidly and flexibly, absorbing new content in modular fashion — note the beehive structure to our logo. But we are starting with plenty of material.

10. We are pleased to announce that our first course will begin on October 1.

That course mentioned in point 10 is Development Economics, a subdiscipline that explores why some countries grow rich and others remain poor.

CHeck out the course and the site at MRUniversity, and be sure to check back as the courses offered are expected to expand.