From Ivory Tower to Open Classroom

Harvard College, a world-renowned institution famous for its centuries of academic prowess and tradition of excellence, is facing a formidable challenge: recruiting a diverse and talented student body. Many young students across the world, particularly those from underrepresented and underserved populations, are hesitant to pursue their education at Harvard, no matter how qualified they may be. For example, Donaldson Hill, a 1979 African-American Harvard College graduate, admitted that he would not have considered applying to Harvard if an admissions officer did not present at his high school (Turner, 2023). For many of these students, Harvard seems like an unattainable dream, an “ivory tower” beyond their reach, as they worry that their academic background and preparation would be insufficient to survive the competitive admissions process, much less thrive as a Harvard student even if admitted.

Harvard has made significant efforts to combat these issues, including increasing financial aid initiatives almost every year as well as conducting outreach programs and giving presentations to underrepresented communities, with the goal of attracting talented students who may not have considered applying otherwise and lowering the barrier to entry (Amponsah, 2023b). For example, in the 1970s, the college implemented the “Harvard Plan,” a combination of affirmative action policies and outreach programs and was the university’s first major push to recruit and support underrepresented minority students, and many of the policies implemented during this time still exist today (Turner, 2023). These efforts were not in vain: the most recent 2022 and 2023 Harvard College application cycles saw the greatest number of applicants in the school’s history, with 61,220 and 56,937 applicants, indicating that more students are giving themselves a chance at applying to Harvard than ever before (Amponsah, 2023a).

However, these efforts have not necessarily led to a diverse range of applicants or students: for example, in 2020, 57 percent of Harvard undergraduate students came from families in the top 10% of the U.S. income distribution, whereas only 3.05 percent of students came from families in the bottom 20% (Friedman, 2020). Of course, Harvard is not necessarily expected to have a student body that exactly matches the overall population demographics, but this disparity from the national averages poses a concern that the university is not a welcoming or inclusive place for students from lower-income or otherwise underrepresented backgrounds, running the risk of causing prospective applicants to worry that they may not feel accepted or supported if they attended Harvard. Harvard is not alone in this issue. Other similarly prestigious institutions, such as Stanford and MIT, are also facing similar troubles recruiting a diverse student body ethnically and socioeconomically. A majority of students from these schools (66 percent at Stanford, and 61% at MIT) come from families in the top 20% of the national income distribution (Aisch et al., 2017b, 2017a). Thus, it is evident that despite these institutions’ efforts to increase access for minority groups, the common lack of socioeconomic diversity is still very prevalent.

To combat these issues, a recommendation is for Harvard to post their university lectures online for free. Not only does this serve a philanthropic purpose, but it would also allow young high school students from all backgrounds around the world to be able to access the same high-quality education as current Harvard students. This opens up free learning opportunities that were not previously available for these high school students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds and cannot afford paid resources. Having Harvard class recordings available online would allow these students to self-study for their high school exams and allow them to experience a Harvard class and get a sense of the rigor and expectations in a Harvard education. Moreover, this would allow high school students to freely explore their passions and interests, and it would allow them to better understand the topics being taught at Harvard and increase their confidence in applying to Harvard. Posting lectures online would also be beneficial for Harvard because the initiative would help fight the myth that a Harvard education is unattainable, and it shows that the university is committed to inclusivity and accessibility in higher education.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology already has a similar platform known as MIT OpenCourseWare — where professors are given the option to post lecture recordings, lecture notes, homework assignments, and class syllabi online for free public access (Goldberg, 2001). MIT OpenCourseWare works in that it allows people around the world to experience first-hand the high quality and rigor of an MIT education. In fact, the most-liked comment of one of MIT OpenCourseWare’s most viewed videos states, “That is why it is MIT! Professors not just teach [sic], they also inspire and make you feel interested, that is what matters, you can have a thousands books [sic] to learn the materials, but where you [sic] discover the passion? Thanks MIT for these free materials” (Lander, 2012).

However, as stated before, MIT still faces similar issues as Harvard in terms of diversity and recruitment despite these efforts, so some improvements would need to be made from the MIT OpenCourseWare model. One major issue is that MIT OpenCourseWare is not known to collect learning data or demographic information from its website visitors. According to an interview with MIT OpenCourseWare director Curt Newton, the website does not have accounts and therefore cannot easily track user data (C. Newton, personal communication, March 26, 2023). Therefore, it makes sense that it would be challenging for MIT OpenCourseWare to statistically assess the impact of their online course materials and how to improve both their course content and their outreach efforts. Therefore, Harvard can improve on the already well-established MIT OpenCourseWare model by collecting demographic data for research and responding by developing more effective teaching strategies and understanding which populations they are still not reaching. 

Harvard can benefit from this process as well: in addition to improved outreach efforts, the conduction of educational research also often comes with research funding and grants from the government or other institutions who are interested in understanding how to improve access to higher education. This is where the funding to support and maintain the website can come from. Given that it costs only about $10,000 a month to maintain a large video-hosting website in North America (Prince, 2014) and that federal education research grants can be approximately $1.5 million per year (Weiland, 2022), this is more than enough money for Harvard to maintain the website and also collect the necessary demographic data to aid in their recruitment efforts.

Harvard can also strengthen their online learning platform by partnering with well-established online educational content creators who not only have a large online presence but also have years of experience designing educational lessons at a level that is understandable and engaging for people of all backgrounds. For instance, Arizona State University recently partnered with famous YouTubers John and Hank Green, creators of the “Crash Course” educational YouTube series to co-create an online platform where students can earn college credits by watching their newly-designed educational videos (Faller, 2023). Not only did this allow Arizona State University to have their lectures and curricula reach a larger audience, given John and Hank Green’s fanbase of over 14.7 million subscribers (CrashCourse - YouTube, 2023), but it allows Arizona State University to get their name out there and attract students who may not have considered applying before (Nietzel, 2023). This makes it so that the university can perform outreach while simultaneously demonstrating their dedication to diversity, inclusion, and digital equity. Similarly, MIT recently hired popular math YouTuber 3Blue1Brown to co-design and teach a publicly-available online course on computational thinking, and this course received over a million views (the top 1% of courses on MIT OpenCourseWare) and was highly praised by both students and educators (Edelman, 2020). These are just some examples of the successful partnerships with online educational content creators and how they can reach a wider audience.

Harvard professors and students may resist the idea of posting class content online. Students may feel uncomfortable with being recorded, and professors may be concerned that they will lose their intellectual property rights over their lectures if they are posted online. A possible solution is to let classes opt-in on a case-by-case basis whether or not they want to post their class content online, empowering both students and professors to make the decision that is best for them and also allowing Harvard to respect student privacy and faculty intellectual property rights while expanding access to its educational resources. 

Of course, some may argue that Harvard also posts some course lectures online through the EdX website, most prominently its introductory computer science course CS50, which alone has over 90 million combined views on EdX and YouTube (CS50 - YouTube, 2023). While it is true that some lectures do already exist, the reality is that only a small number of Harvard classes are posted on EdX: the website currently only has 131 courses offered by Harvard, compared to the over 3,700 classes regularly available for Harvard College students (Harvard University | EdX, 2023; Liberal Arts & Sciences, 2023). To complicate matters further, many of these EdX courses are not equivalent to actual Harvard classes — for example, Harvard has a class on EdX called “Backyard Meteorology: The Science of Weather,” but there is no such in-person class actually offered at Harvard College (Huth, 2023), so students watching this course online would not be getting an accurate Harvard College experience. Moreover, many potential applicants may not be aware that Harvard has classes available on EdX in the first place, given that only 155,000 people are enrolled in EdX, which is less than 0.05 percent of the U.S. population (EdX: About Us, n.d.; Population Clock, n.d.). This may be exacerbated by the fact that EdX hosts classes from multiple universities, not just Harvard. By having a dedicated website where Harvard can post their class lectures online, Harvard can push their outreach efforts and reach students who may not have been as familiar with the Harvard educational experience otherwise.

Harvard’s efforts to attract and empower underrepresented students require a bold and innovative approach. By posting class lectures online for free, Harvard can reach communities that typically do not benefit from their resources and help bridge the gap between those who see Harvard as unattainable and those who can actually benefit from a Harvard education. This philanthropic move would demonstrate Harvard's commitment to social justice and access to education for all, while also helping the institution meet its recruitment and diversity goals. Harvard's reputation and impact would only grow stronger as it opens up its academic resources to the world, inspiring and empowering future generations of students to pursue their dreams and achieve greatness.

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