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Georgetown To Offer Free Online Courses On EdX

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Georgetown University plans to begin offering free online courses through a prominent online education provider.

The Washington Post reports the school will announce Monday that it's joining the Web platform edX that provides courses from elite colleges for a mass audience.

Massive, open online courses, or MOOCs, offer self-paced learning through video lectures, tests, discussion boards and homework.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched edX in May. It expanded to include the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas system and Wellesley College.

About 200 colleges have approached Cambridge, Mass.-based edX, but it's been selective in expanding. Georgetown President John DeGioia says the school is honored to be chosen.

Coursera, another platform, launched in April. It includes Johns Hopkins and the Universities of Maryland and Virginia.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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