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Next Tuesday, January 20, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) will become Spain’s first university to launch massive open online courses (MOOCs) at edX, the most prestigious platform in this field in the world, which includes institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Harvard University.

The first two UPV courses to which students from around the world will have free access through edX –a platform with nearly three million unique users and more than six million registrations for its courses– will be "The Challenges of Agriculture in the 21st Century" and "Mathematical Bases: Numbers and Terminology".

The Challenges of Agriculture in the 21st Century

The first MOOC, coordinated by professor José Mª García Álvarez-Coque, who is also a researcher belonging to the UPV’s International Economy and Development Group (GEI-UPV), aims to open a debate about agriculture and food –a debate arising from a question of enormous relevance: How can we meet the challenge of feeding a growing population in a world where resources are limited?

Throughout the course, students will acquire or reinforce basic concepts on food security and sovereignty, think about the right to food, explore trends in world food markets and their impact on the environment and the rural population, debate about the development of local food systems, and formulate inclusive proposals on agricultural and food policies.

Fundamentals of Mathematics for Engineering students

As for the MOOC "Mathematical Bases: Numbers and Terminology", it will be coordinated by professor Antonio José Guirao, who is also a researcher at the UPV’s Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IUMPA-UPV). This MOOC has been designed to provide students with the basic preparation required for the first courses in engineering and other higher education studies in which mathematics are necessary.

This course will deal with the concept of set and its corresponding operations, the basic mathematical notation, the different types of numbers –natural, integer, rational, irrational and real– and, finally, the basic concepts about complex numbers.

22 UPV MOOC courses planned for 2015 at edX

Vicent Botti, who is the UPV Vice-Rector for Information and Communications Technology, stressed that "these courses are our first two steps in the edX platform, which is the global benchmark for MOOCs" –but many more will follow.

"In 2015”, continued Botti, “we’ll offer no less than 22 courses at edX, a figure which confirms the UPV’s leadership in the field of online education. MOOCs are a revolution for higher education. Once more, the UPV is in the same group with the main actors of this revolution, such as Harvard, MIT and the University of California Berkeley, among others."

In February, algebra and the evaluation of footballers

Thus, in February edX will launch two more UPV courses: one on algebra and the other, on the evaluation of footballers. And throughout the year, 18 more courses will complete the UPV’s MOOC offer, dealing with such subjects as Android programming, the keys to Internet search, new technologies in education, or the fundamentals of mechanics and electromagnetics for engineers, among others.

Registration for all courses is now open at www.upvx.es.

The UPV, national leader

By joining the edX platform, the UPV reasserts itself as Spain’s leader, and a European benchmark, in the field of massive online courses. The UPV offers more MOOCs than any other university in Spain (followed by the UNED –National Distance Education University– and the University of Cantabria). More than 150,000 students have already used the UPVx platform, and more than 20,000 of them have successfully completed the courses.

Since 2013, the UPV has launched more than 80 editions of its MOOCs, surpassing the figure of MOOCs offered by all European countries last year with the exception of the United Kingdom (85) and Spain itself (151), which is the continent’s benchmark country for this type of education.

• EdX's plataform
• UPVx's plataform