Columbia University announced Thursday that it has joined edX, the online education platform co-founded by Harvard and MIT, becoming the organization’s 33rd “charter member.”

Columbia is the third Ivy League institution to join the platform, in addition to Harvard. The university will operate as ColumbiaX and plans to launch its first three courses later this year.

ColumbiaX’s first courses will center around American Civil War history and be taught by Columbia history professor Eric Foner. Foner is the author of “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery,” which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for History, and a professor at the university.

The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, an initiative founded in 1999 to encourage the use of technology and other media to enhance the teaching environment at Columbia, will help develop the new courses in conjunction with edX.

“Columbia schools and faculty have been engaged with online learning for many years," said Columbia Provost John H. Coatsworth in a press release. "Joining edX will help us to provide the richest educational environment possible for Columbia’s students, as well as learners outside the University.”

—Staff writer Michael V. Rothberg can be reached at mrothberg@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mvrothberg.