While the cyberspace has proven immensely potent for the massive distribution of cat videos , it has not in full realized its electric potential as an educational imagination . Sure , college and universities around the earthly concern offeronline course of instruction , but most be one C or thousands of dollars each . In answer , a bm was born in 2008 to createmassively open on-line classes , orMOOCs , in which row from some of the world ’s fine university would be offered online for free . Education was being democratized .
First fare for - net income ventures likeUdacityandCoursera , then MIT and Harvard partnered in 2012 to createedX , a nonprofit establishment put up more than 200 free online classes from more than 45 mate universities in six nucleus areas : business organisation direction , computer science , applied science , humankind , social sciences , and statistic and data depth psychology . In two short years , more than 2.5 million the great unwashed of all nationalities , ages and ethnical backgrounds have inscribe in edX grade [ origin : edX ] .
The attracter of taking a free college class learn by a renowned Harvard professor is undeniable . Before the Parousia of edX , your only option were to put on and get accepted to Harvard – and cough up $ 65,000 per twelvemonth – or take an online class through Harvard Extension for the slightly more low-cost toll of $ 1,250 per undergraduate course .
With edX , you’re able to take a class like David J. Malan ’s wildly popular " CS50 Introduction to Computer Science " and look on every lecture online , complete with graded homework assignments and exam , and walk away with a marketable new acquirement and a whole Modern position on the artistry of scheduling . For free !
What you will not take the air away with from an edX course is an factual level or even college credit . critic of MOOCs point to dingy completion rate — only 0.8 percentage of edX pupil who register for innovation to Computer Science ( the most popular track on the list ) actually end up it — and argue that the simple dissemination of information is not the same as education [ rootage : Rees , Woolf ] . True education , they say , ask a abstruse level of personal engagement that ’s inconceivable to duplicate with content boards and auto - graded quiz [ rootage : Kolowich ] .
Keep reading to con how it expect and finger to take an edX class , and how these free online courses could launch a new patronage model for high education .
How edX Courses Work
All edX classes are found atedx.org . Some have set start and terminate date , while others can be taken anytime . The edX home page list upcoming course of instruction with links that allow you to view all courses or browse by topic . Clicking on a title will expose a course overview , an introductory video recording and information about ways to take it . All courses are loose to audit , but some leave you to prosecute aVerified Certificate of Achievementfor a minimum fee ( $ 50 to $ 90 ) . These credentials are not college credit , but could be useful on a resume .
To register for a division , you need to create an account or sign in with Facebook orGoogle+ . To familiarize yourself with the edX online learning experience , edX suggests registering for " DemoX , " a 30 - moment innovation to grade tools , videos , interactive elements , grading and social media integration .
All class content lives on a tab calledcourseware . Courses are organized by hebdomad , and within each week are tabs for lessons andhomework . When you press " lessons , " you begin that week ’s learning succession , a series of television , quizzes and interactional labs scream " unit " that teach bite - sized concepts and test your knowledge . Homework include job sets and readings that support that week ’s capacity . Once you fill in all unit and prep , you move on to the next workweek .
Every question you answer – both during lessons and in homework grant – is graded , as are any midterms and final exams . Almost all grade is done automatically by software program called Open Response Assessment using title and algorithm [ generator : Winterhalter ] . you may monitor your grade performance in the " progress " tab , although all final grades are passing / fail .
The meat of edX courses is video ; professionally bring forth clips sodding with art and special core delivered by hotshot professors at each university . The edX picture player is tricked out with some cool features , include playback upper controls ( from half - speed slo - Show Me State to double - prison term ) and a scrolling copy of everything the professor is saying . select a intelligence in the transcript and you leap directly to that instant in the video recording .
The edX Business Model
EdX is an education nonprofit that gives away its products for destitute to millions of students worldwide . There is no advertising on the edX website or during its trend videos . Sure , you could pay $ 50 to $ 90 to receive a credentials of completion for a course , but why buy the moo-cow when you could get the milk for barren ? All of this brings up the interrogative that hunt Facebook and Google in their other days : How exactly will you make money ?
When edX establish in 2012 , both MIT andHarvardkicked in $ 30 million in seed money [ reference : Hashmi and Shih ] . Two age later , most of the nonprofit ’s revenue come fromuniversitieswho sign partnership agreements with edX to make more edX trend . There are two case of deal for edX partners [ source : Kolowich ] :
Like its for - net profit competition , Coursera and Udacity , edX has test the idea of work with university to createblendedclasses , in which online picture and homework are supplemented by in - year treatment . In one archetype programme , San Jose State University ( SJSU ) blended an edX engineering class on tour and electronics created by MIT with its own on - campus engineering stratum . Pass rate for the course derail from 55 percentage of 91 per centum [ source : lope Harris ] .
EdX did n’t saddle SJSU for the economic consumption of that archetype class , but the idea would be to charge university a chemical group rate for using edX courses in for - credit family . Coursera , for example , has sign deals with university in which the school day pay $ 25 per student for the first 500 students to sign up for a for - quotation edX course , then $ 15 for each additional student [ source : Kolowich ] .
Another potentially lucrative arena for edX is collective training . In March 2014 , edX offered a pilot grade on great data for 3,500 IT professionals from 2,000 organizations that gross about $ 1.75 million . In October , edX announce a rooms of professional development courses in cybersecurity , energy and entrepreneurship for up to $ 1,249 per pupil [ source : Korn ] .
For all of the plug and likely profits , are MOOCs like edX the hereafter of high didactics ? We ’ll tackle that question next .
The Future of edX
The elevator pitch for MOOCs like edX and Coursera is that free online courses from elect university will give millions of multitude around the creation access code to a level of instruction they could only woolgather of before . In the uncivilised MOOC - fueled phantasy , teens in the slum of Calcutta and Lagos enroll in edX courses and raise their kin out of impoverishment as engineer and software programmers . But the existent futurity of venture like edX will credibly be far less radical .
For one matter , edX courses have testify wildly successful at registering students , but far less successful at hold their attention . In the summer of 2014 , edX released data point on 476,532 scholarly person who acquire one or more of 13 specific edX courses in 2013 . Of that group , 77 percent took only one social class , and of those classes , the high completion rate was 7.5 percent for a class called challenge of Global Poverty . The other 12 classes had completion rate of 4.4 percent or less [ source : Woolf ] .
Fine , edX may not become the great democratizer of Education Department for the world , but perhaps it can still revolutionize the mellow education in America , right ? When MOOCs first hit the scene , the education community was abuzz with excitement over blended family , so - calledflipped schoolroom — in which lectures are see as homework and class clock time is for labs and discussions . State legislatures even begin crafting bill to speed the favorable reception of MOOCs for college credit in Department of State - run universities [ source : Kolowich ] .
But that was before college prof began protesting the embrace of MOOCs as a stratagem to trim module and abridge public university backing . At San Jose State University , where the engineering professor had such achiever with a combine edX class , the school of thought department in public resist to use a popular edX class learn by a Harvard prof because it replace faculty with " cheap online education " [ source : Parry ] .
Cries of the " MacDonaldization " of pedagogy have shelved attempts to rush through for - mention MOOCs and lowered the gallant expectations of MOOC providers like edX. Instead of being the Divine and distributer of class depicted object , it ’s likely that edX , with its open - source platform , will offer its services as a consultant to universities and government that want to utilise its " free " product . EdX already signed such agreements with China and France where the countries will pay edX for ongoing advice and technical support while using its computer code for their own MOOCs [ generator : Meyer ] .
For now , non-profit-making edX has a leg up on its competitors ; with MIT and Harvard ’s aggregate natural endowment topping $ 40 billion , it does n’t have to depend on venture upper-case letter for its survival [ source : Haynie ] . EdX will continue to release brilliant , barren course while searching for its place in the higher education universe .
For circumstances more information on MOOCs , online education and the high monetary value of college , retard out the related HowStuffWorks tie on the next page .
Lots More Information
I am now one of the hundreds of thousands of hoi polloi who have started an edX course and failed to finish it . As research for this clause , I register for origination to Computer Science and made it all the mode through whole one of week one . It ’s not that the material was boring . Far from it ; it was the most understandably gift and fascinating intromission to computer skill I could think . I ’m just not interested in piddle it a precedence to pay the dozens of hours necessary to fill in the course . Like many others who are drawn to edX , I already have a bachelor ’s degree and am mostly interested in MOOCs to fulfill a curiosity . But I can also conceive of million of people not like me at all , who see MOOCs care edX as a portal to untold opportunities . For their sake , I desire 100 of thousand of edX phantasy come up unfeigned .
