 | |
Type of site
| Online education |
|---|---|
| Available in | Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Indonesian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian |
| Owner | edX Inc. |
| Created by | Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |  983 (April 2018) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | ~20 million (September 2019) |
| Launched | May 2012 |
| Current status | Active |
Content license
| Copyright of edX |
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 is a nonprofit organization and runs on the free Open edX open-source software platform.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University created edX in May 2012. More than 140 schools, nonprofit organizations, and corporations offer or plan to offer courses on the edX website. As of 29 December 2018, edX has around 18 million students taking more than 2,200 courses online.
Functionality
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 — students 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). 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).
Research
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.
edX has engaged in a number of partnerships with educational
institutions in the United States, China, Mongolia, Japan, and more to
utilize edX courses in "blended classrooms."
In blended learning models, traditional classes include an online
interactive component. San Jose State University (SJSU) partnered with
edX to offer 6.00xL Introduction to Computer Science and Programming,
as a blended course at SJSU and released an initial report on the
project in February 2013. Initial results showed a decrease in failure
rates from previous semesters. The percentage of students required to
retake the course dropped from 41% under the traditional format to 9%
for those taking the edX blended course.
In Spring 2013, Bunker Hill Community College and Massachusetts Bay
Community College implemented a SPOC, or small private online course.
The colleges incorporated an MIT-developed Python programming course on
EdX into their campus-based courses, and reported positive results.
Open edX
| Versions | Date |
|---|---|
| Aspen | 2014-10-28 |
| Birch | 2015-02-24 |
| Cypress | 2015-08-13 |
| Dogwood | 2016-02-11 |
| Eucalyptus | 2016-08-26 |
| Ficus | 2017-02-23 |
| Ginkgo | 2017-08-14 |
| Hawthorn | 2018-08-07 |
| Ironwood | 2019-03-22 |
Open edX is the open-source
platform software developed by EdX and made freely available to other
institutions of higher learning that want to make similar offerings. On
June 1, 2013, edX open sourced its entire platform. The source code can be found on GitHub.
The Open edX server-side software is almost entirely based on "Python, with Django as the web application framework."
Leadership
edX
is currently led by CEO and Founder Anant Agarwal and newly appointed
Co-CEO and President Adam Medros,. Adam joined edX in 2017, and was
appointed as President and COO in his previous role. Before him, in March 2014, Wendy Cebula, former COO of Vistaprint, was appointed by edX as its President and Chief Operating Officer who worked with edX till 2017. Alan M. Garber, Provost of Harvard University, assisted by Michael D. Smith,
a computer scientist who is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
handles Harvard contributions. The design of a viable business model for
sustainability of the enterprise is in progress.
History
edX was founded in May 2012 by scientists from Harvard and MIT. Gerry Sussman, Anant Agarwal,
Chris Terman, and Piotr Mitros taught the first edX course on circuits
and electronics from MIT, drawing 155,000 students from 162 countries.
In 2013 they partnered with Stanford and in June 2013 they reached 1
million students. edx.org released as open source, creating Open edX.
In September 2014 edX announced a high school initiative.
In October 2014 edX announced Professional Education courses, and in March 2015 it partnered with Microsoft.
In April 2015, edX partnered with Arizona State University to launch the Global Freshman Academy.
In September 2016, edX launched 19 MicroMasters programs.
In February 2017, edX launched 16 MicroMasters programs.
In January 2018, edX partnered with Microsoft and General
Electric to provide subsidized online courses and guaranteed job
interviews.
On January 9, 2018, Tech Mahindra partnered with edX to re-skill workforce on new tech areas.
On October 10, 2018 edX introduced 9 Master's degrees on the platform. The degree programs can be completed fully online and are offered by universities such as Georgia Institute of Technology and University of California San Diego.
Participating institutions
In
late 2013, several countries and private entities announced their
adoption of the edX open source platform to launch new initiatives. Ten
Chinese universities joined together to form an online education
initiative in China, called XuetangX.
120 higher education institutions in France joined under the direction
of the French Ministry of Education to offer online courses throughout
France, the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF) created Edraak as the first MOOC portal for the Arab world, the International Monetary Fund is using the edX platform to pilot online training courses in economics and finance, and Tenaris corporation is using the platform to expand its corporate training and education for its employees.
As of March 2017, edX has more than 110 partners, including universities, for-profit organizations and NGOs.
