On September 1, Columbia University will launch a new massive open online course (MOOC) on Coursera. The course, Economics of Money and Banking, Part One, will be taught by Barnard College Economics Professor Perry G. Mehrling and was produced with assistance from the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

The seven-week course will give students an introduction to a “money view” of economic activity for modern times, building on the intellectual traditions of British central banking and American institutionalism. Lifehacker.com recently listed the course as one of the best free online classes available on the Web this fall.

Mehrling has taught Economics of Money and Banking at Barnard for over 15 years. This Fall, Mehrling will concurrently teach the course online via Coursera and at Barnard. While the Barnard students will attend classes in-person on campus and access content via Columbia’s course management system, they will also use online content from the Coursera course.

Princeton University Press is offering Coursera students free online access to Mehrling’s book The New Lombard Street, How the Fed Became the Dealer of Last Resort as well as a specially priced print edition.

See also: Coursera's blog post on the Mehrling MOOC.