Dartmouth & IMT named 2019 winners of annual edX prize

Dartmouth professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor and Rémi Sharrock from Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) of France were named winners of the 2019 Annual edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Learning and Teaching today. The pair were chosen from among 10 finalists from across the globe for their Professional Certificate program in C Programming with Linux, which launched in 2018 on the edX platform and will be offered again in March 2020.

Dartmouth and IMT were the first members of the edX Consortium to offer a joint edX.org Professional Certificate program – a series of courses designed by industry leaders and top universities to build and enhance critical professional skills needed to succeed in today’s most in-demand fields. The two professors and their team spent a full year intensively working on the design of the learning sequences, production, and development. More than 170,000 people have enrolled in the seven courses of the program.

“Dartmouth could not be prouder of Professor Bonfert-Taylor and her colleague at IMT for developing this edX program, which is open and accessible to the entire globe,” said Alexis Abramson, dean of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. “The innovative learning tools developed for this course remove common barriers, allowing learners to begin coding in minutes.”

The professors’ self-paced program provides new, interactive learning tools to anyone interested in gaining an extensive foundation in C programming – a computer language widely used to build computer applications, operating systems, and supercomputers – with Linux, the software that runs a majority of servers today. The revolutionary tools used in the course can be accessed from an internet browser and do not require any installations. Skills taught in the seven-course sequence set learners on a path to become a skilled programmer with a career involving computer engineering or computer science.

“The world is a better place when knowledge flows freely. One of my biggest passions is to transform education through the development of programs that provide accessible and high-quality student-centered learning opportunities across international and socio-economic boundaries,” said Bonfert-Taylor, professor of engineering at Thayer. “Through the support of our institutions, we were able to realize a part of this dream. Only at Dartmouth could I have found the resources, expertise, and support that allowed me to follow my educational passions, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our institutions for believing in us.”

This Professional Certificate is offered with the support of the Mines-Telecom Foundation, the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and DartmouthX. Rounding out Bonfert-Taylor and Sharrock’s team are: Joseph Beaudoin, senior video producer at Dartmouth; Michael Goudzwaard, DartmouthX lead; Delphine Lalire, MOOC program manager at IMT; Ella Hamonic, an independent instructional designer commissioned by IMT; and Mathias Hiron, developer at IMT.

“We are delighted to present Dartmouth Professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor and IMT Professor Rémi Sharrock with the edX Prize,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and MIT Professor. “Together, they launched the first cross-institutional Professional Certificate program on edX, using innovative open source tools and approaches to remove the most common barriers to beginner coders. We are honored to recognize this team and we offer our sincere gratitude for their commitment to spreading the edX mission of increasing access to high-quality education worldwide.”

###

The edX Prize is an annual award that celebrates the contributions and innovations of educators in the edX community, and amplifies the powerful role that online learning plays in the transformation of education today.

For more information on the winning program or to sign up, visit: https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate/dartmouth-imtx-c-programming-with-linux

About Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Founded in 1867 at Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering is one of the nation’s first professional engineering schools, preparing leaders to solve the world’s most pressing challenges through engineering, research, and entrepreneurship. Thayer offers undergraduate and graduate degrees under a unified department of engineering sciences. Consistently ranked among the top colleges and universities for its commitment to teaching, Dartmouth is the first national research university to graduate a majority-female class of undergraduate engineers. For more information, please visit engineering.dartmouth.edu.

About IMT

Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) is a public institution of higher education and research, under the authority of the French Ministry for the Economy, Industry, and Digital Affairs, which groups together eight graduate schools, two subsidiaries, and a network of strategic and affiliated partners. Its activities in the fields of engineering sciences and digital technology support the education of engineers and managers, partnership-based research, innovation, and economic development. Always tuned into the economic world, IMT combines high academic and scientific legitimacy with proximity to business and strategic positioning in the major transformations of the 21st century: digital, industrial, energy and ecology, and education. IMT is a founding member of the Alliance for the Industry of the Future, and co-founder of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future with the Technische Universität München. Each year, IMT trains over 12,000 students, carries out research contracts worth 70 million euros, and its incubators host several hundred start-ups. Also a pioneer of online learning, IMT has developed a collection of 50 MOOCs, gathering more than 900,000 enrolled learners. For more information, please visit https://www.imt.fr/.

About edX

edX is the trusted platform for education and learning. Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is home to more than 20 million learners, the majority of top-ranked universities in the world and industry-leading companies. As a global nonprofit, edX is transforming traditional education, removing the barriers of cost, location and access. Fulfilling the demand for people to learn on their own terms, edX is reimagining the possibilities of education, providing the highest-quality, stackable learning experiences including the groundbreaking MicroMasters® programs. Supporting learners at every stage, whether entering the job market, changing fields, seeking a promotion or exploring new interests, edX delivers courses for curious minds on topics ranging from data and computer science to leadership and communications. edX is where you go to learn.