In its first meeting of spring quarter, the Faculty Senate will hear a five-member panel including John Mitchell, special assistant to President John Hennessy for educational technology discuss online courses at Stanford.

The panelists are:

Last month, Stanford announced it was introducing new online classes, following a successful pilot last fall that drew more than 350,000 participants around the world.

A company founded by two Stanford professors, Coursera, is hosting the free online classes, including Game Theory and Cryptography. Stanford expects to launch five more free online courses next week: Automata, Computer Science 101, Compilers, Introduction to Logic and Machine Learning.

The online classes are taught by regular Stanford faculty and are highly interactive. Participants view short video clips that include live quizzes and instant feedback that allow them to quickly determine their understanding of the material and to work on problem areas. At the same time, participants help each other through online discussions similar to a comment thread on a social networking site.

Those enrolled in the free classes do not get Stanford credit for their work, but they do receive a statement of accomplishment if they successfully complete a course.

For Stanford students, online content supplements the classroom experience.

Professors teaching online courses are experimenting with a "flipped classroom," shifting classroom time from lectures to interactive activities such as solving problems, reviewing difficult material and working in teams.

The senate meeting will begin at 3:15 p.m. in Room 180 of the Law School. Discussion is limited to members of the senate, but members of the Stanford community may request to attend the meeting by contacting the Academic Secretary's Office at 723-4992 or Trish Del Pozzo at delpozzo@stanford.edu.

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Online education panel to address Faculty Senate on Thursday