With topics ranging from an examination of the materials that go into modern sports equipment to the nature of reality itself, five new DartmouthX courses will begin production in 2016 and 2017. They are the second round of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that Dartmouth is creating in partnership with the nonprofit online learning consortium edX. ...

... [As one of the five,] “Materials in Gear,” led by Rachel Obbard, Th'06, Assistant Professor of Engineering at Thayer School of Engineering, will introduce students—engineers and non-engineers alike—to the materials that go into modern sports equipment, and to what makes gear hold up under force, absorb impact, flex without breaking, slide or roll smoothly, bounce, or fly through the air or water. ...

... Since 2014, the College has produced four DartmouthX courses, including, most recently, “The American Renaissance: Classic Literature of the 19th Century,” taught by Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities Donald Pease and English lecturer James Dobson. Registration for that course, which begins Feb. 16, is open now.

The other three original DartmouthX courses include “Introduction to Environmental Science,” taught by Andrew Friedland, the Richard and Jane Pearl Professor in Environmental Studies; “The Engineering of Structures Around Us,” with Vicki May, an associate professor at Thayer; and “Introduction to Italian Opera,” led by Steve Swayne, the Jacob H. Strauss 1922 Professor of Music.