Harvard, MIT-backed online portal woos Super 30 founder for teaching

Super 30 founder Anand Kumar has got an invitation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to join their open online initiative for teaching mathematics.

Kumar has received the offer from edX, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider and an MIT and Harvard University initiative, a statement by Super 30 said today.

Edx hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines, including some free of cost, for students worldwide in English, Mandarin, French and Spanish.

It also conducts research into learning, based on how people use its platform.

Anant Agarwal, Professor, MIT, has written to Kumar on how his Super 30 initiative was quite like Edx and the two by working together could reach out to more and more students.

"We would be delighted to explore how we might be able to work together by taking your Super 30 content onto our platform. Edx is trying to accomplish goals similar to yours by providing opportunity and leveling the educational playing field for millions of students in India and around the world," the MIT professor said.

Kumar said it was an honour that institutions like MIT were taking note of his initiative.

"It is nice to hear that they too are working for underprivileged students across the globe and making quality content available to them," Kumar, who himself could not go to Cambridge University for want of money, added.

Kumar has been running Super 30, an initiative to mentor students from underprivileged sections free of cost for IIT JEE.

The programme has recorded success since the last 14 years by helping more than 325 underprivileged students crack IIT since 2002. This year, 28 out of the 30 Super 30 students got into IIT.

-PTI