Last week, the New York Times published an article in their "Education Life" section entitled How to Live Wisely. Written by Richard J. Light, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, the article begins by posing the question: If you were Dean for A Day, what one change would you make on campus to enhance students' lives?

Professor Light continues, "I have asked students this question for years."  And in those years, the answers have been changing--moving away from the concrete "tweak the history course" and "re-structure the labs" to something quite different: "Learning to live wisely." Light and a few colleagues have created a non-credit seminar called "Reflecting on Your Life". In three sessions, students are led through a series of exercises designed to help them identify their goals and reflect on aspects of their personal lives.

In our undergrad ethics seminar, we have been doing something akin to this, but in a much more substantive way. Spearheaded by MIT Philosophy professor, Sally Haslanger, the course, "Being, Thinking, Doing (Or Not!): Ethics and Your Life" (6 credits!) meets weekly over dinner and introduces students to the field of ethics, with a focus on the daily choices we can make to create a more just, sustainable and equitable world. The course is the highlight of Radius's spring programming, and the students emerge from the semester better equipped to think through their life choices, both large and small, in a thoughtful and principled manner. 

Recently, we were approached by MIT OpenCourseWare, which is MIT's "ongoing commitment to openly sharing educational resources."  The folks at OCW were very interested in adding the seminar as an online option for educators because of its unique qualities and position at MIT.  As we talked with the folks at OCW and worked on creating a platform for the course, I was again reminded why this course means so much to us.  The quality of our discussions, the expertise of our guest lecturers and the community that we create each Tuesday evening are special. We're proud to be included in OCW and look forward to sharing "Being, Thinking, Doing (Or Not!)" to a wider audience.