Top US universities put their reputations online

20 June 2012 Last updated at 08:27 ET Help

This autumn more than a million students are going to take part in an experiment that could re-invent the landscape of higher education.

Some of the biggest powerhouses in US higher education are designing courses that will be free for students online - testing how their expertise and scholarship can be brought to a global audience.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed an alliance to launch edX - a platform for online courses.

Stanford and Princeton are providing courses on the Coursera platform.

Irina Khokhlova talks to the president of edX, Anant Agarwal and to the co-founder of Coursera, Andrew Ng.

Additional footage courtesy of EdX and Coursera.

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