As faculty members debate the broader pedagogical impact of edX, many of them are already taking advantage of the innovative opportunities the platform presents.

Harvard expects to put up four new courses next year, in addition to a number of shorter “modules” of content that cover only a few weeks of material, according to Lue.

Lue also said that a number of professors have already started creating courses and modules that span a range of disciplines, from music to interpersonal relationships to history.

He was careful to distinguish the edX model from that of other massive open online course platforms, such as Coursera, which was created this April by two Stanford professors.

“Coursera seems to be exclusively about large numbers, a single mode of learning—as many courses as possible,” Lue said. “HarvardX is about quality, impact, and pushing the impact of how we use technology to learn.”

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Kevin J. Wu can be reached at kwu@college.harvard.edu.