249 - Anant Agarwal on Extended Access to Education

<p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Today on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Anant Agarwal, the founder and CEO of edX.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">In 2012, Anant founded edX, which was created in partnership between MIT and Harvard to extend open access to the courses taught by the best professors in the world. On top of this, Anant is also a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He has also served as the Director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In total, he has worked at MIT for 32 years. Presently, he is also a Commission member on the Education Commission and a member of the Board of Directors of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">In this episode, Anant shares more of his story and speaks about the wonderful work he’s doing to extend access to more learners through edX. He shares the genesis of edX, why they chose to be a non-profit, some of the history behind MOOCs, some of the new and interesting courses on edX, the future roadmap for edX, and more.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><strong>Key Takeaways:</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[:10] About today’s episode.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[:37] Tom welcomes Anant Agarwal to the podcast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[:44] Anant speaks about his early education.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[1:35] Anant shares what led him to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[3:07] Anant speaks about the quality of education he felt he received at IIT Madras.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">[4:45] After IIT, Anant went to Standford to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He speaks a bit about his experience there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-f