EdX
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Online education |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Mandarin, French, Hindi, Spanish |
| Created by | Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |
 1,295 (October 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | more than 10 million (February 2017) |
| Launched | May 2012 |
| Current status | Active |
|
Content license
|
Copyright of edX |
 Interview with edX President Anant Agarwal [17:47] on the first anniversary of edX, Degree of Freedom |
edX is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. EdX differs from other MOOC providers, such as Coursera and Udacity, in that it is a nonprofit organization and runs on the Open edX open-source software.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University created edX in May 2012. More than 70 schools, nonprofit organizations, and corporations offer or plan to offer courses on the edX website. As of 24 March 2016, edX has more than 7 million students taking more than 700 courses online.
EdX courses consist of weekly learning sequences. Each learning sequence is composed of short videos interspersed with interactive learning exercises, where students can immediately practice the concepts from the videos. The courses often include tutorial videos that are similar to small on-campus discussion groups, an online textbook, and an online discussion forum where students can post and review questions and comments to each other and teaching assistants. Where applicable, online laboratories are incorporated into the course. For example, in edX's first MOOC — a circuits and electronics course — Ali Mohamed who was the best student built virtual circuits in an online lab.
EdX offers certificates of successful completion and some courses are credit-eligible. Whether or not a college or university offers credit for an online course is within the sole discretion of the school. EdX offers a variety of ways to take courses, including verified courses where students have the option to audit the course (no cost) or to work toward an edX Verified Certificate (fees vary by course). For courses announced before December 7, 2015, there was an option to take honor code courses to work toward an Honor Code Certificate (no cost). EdX also offers XSeries Certificates for completion of a bundled set of two to seven verified courses in a single subject (cost varies depending on the courses).
In addition to educational offerings, edX is utilized for research into learning and distance education by collecting learners' clicks and analyzing the data, as well as collecting demographics from each registrant. A team of researchers at Harvard and MIT, led by David Pritchard and Lori Breslow, released their initial findings in 2013. EdX member schools and organizations also conduct their own research using data collected from their courses. Research focuses on improving retention, course completion and learning outcomes in traditional campus courses and online.
...
Wikipedia