Edward B. Rock has been named senior advisor to the University president and provost, and director of open course initiatives at Penn. The announcement was made earlier this month by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price.

In this new position, Rock will oversee the implementation of Penn’s partnership with Coursera, the online platform for open-access, non-credit classes. He will work closely with the president, provost, deans, department chairs, and other University leaders to build administrative frameworks and advance the integration of online learning initiatives—and the new methods of teaching and learning related to them—into curricular and instructional support programs on campus. 

Rock is the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law at Penn Law School, with a secondary appointment as professor of business economics and public policy in the Wharton School. He has taught at Penn since 1989, after five years as a partner and associate at Fine, Kaplan & Black in Philadelphia.

He served from 1998 to 2010 as co-director of the Institute for Law and Economics, a joint research center of the Law School, Wharton, and the Department of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences. From 2006 to 2008, he was associate dean for academic affairs at the Law School.