Today we’re pleased to share news about a new partnership with Microsoft that will enable our course creators to integrate Office Mix into their edX courses.

Many faculty currently use PowerPoint slides as the basis of their lectures on edX. But creating videos, updating and revising them, and adding interactive elements to lectures can be time-consuming. With Office Mix, educators will be able to easily produce videos and online lectures that deliver an engaging experience to students, with support for audio and video recordings, screen captures, hyperlinks, and digital ink.

Microsoft and edX are partnering on the following:

The development of an XBlock component for Office Mix. This solution allows educators to embed mix lectures hosted on OfficeMix.com directly into an edX course. Students will be able to view the mixes natively on edx.org. Open sourcing of the Office Mix XBlock component for distribution on GitHub. Open edX deployments will be able to reuse or modify the Office Mix XBlock for their needs. A commitment to interoperability as edX further extends and evolves the XBlock architecture.

Because Office Mix requires PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft will distribute 180-day free trials of PowerPoint 2013 to educators creating edX courses.

Anoop Gupta, Microsoft Distinguished Scientist and lead for the Office Mix project, said “We are delighted to be partnering with edX. Authoring online lectures is hard today so most faculty don’t even attempt it, whether for MOOCs or for blended-learning scenarios on the campus. In partnering with edX, our goal is to democratize the creation of online lectures and courses.”

We are delighted to be working with Microsoft on this partnership, and are pleased to offer the option of Office Mix to edX partners and course teams around the world.