EdX Review: Are EdX Courses Worth your Time and Money?
If you are looking for an effective method to learn at your pace without compromising on your flexibility, look no further than edX. This elearning platform provides thousands of online programs and courses that cover a wide range of topics. All the tutorials are created and offered by leading learning institutions and organizations like Microsoft, MIT, Harvard, and others. Read through to learn more about edX platform.
So what is edX?
edX is a popular massive open online courses (MOOC) provider that features a rich database of university-level web based courses in a range of disciplines. edX can be accessed by learners all over the world. The platform also provides tens of free courses. The platform’s representatives are consistently conducting surveys in order to find out the way learners use the platform for improvement purposes. Created by experts from MIT and Harvard, edX operates as a nonprofit organization.
edX platform has more than 14 million users who are enrolled in over 2000 online courses. Additionally, more than 70 different non-profit institutions, schools, and corporations provide useful courses through edX platform.
Creating a new edX account
Getting started on edX elearning platform is pretty easy and everyone is welcome. You can access any course 24/7 without prior application. There are several ways of creating your edX account:
- You can sign up via your current social media account: Facebook or Microsoft
- You can create a new account by completing the sign up form on the platform
- You can use linked accounts provided at your workplace to sign up
Enrolling for edX courses
On edX, you will find individual programs and courses. The next type of lectures is represented by groups of related courses. In order to learn more about a specific course, visit the course’s catalogue and click on the one you are interested in. There, you should find the course’s duration, providing institution, cost, academic credit or certificate related information, the amount of hours you need to dedicate to the course, etc. You can also narrow down your search to see a list of current as well as upcoming courses. In this section, you should also be able to select other options such as upcoming programs, self-paced programs, etc.
In order to enroll in a course or sign up for a specific program, you will need to access the catalogue section in order to select the course you are interested in. The About page will then open for you to Enroll for the course. To join an edX program, all you will need to do is sign up for any of the courses offered in the platform.
edX Course Catalogue
The user friendly catalogue allows you to refine your search with the help of the following filters:
- Availability– self-paced, current, upcoming, starting soon, etc.;
- Topics– art, business, computer science, engineering, health, law, social sciences, etc.;
- Course type– credit-eligible, professional certificate, verified, master’s degree, etc.;
- Schools and partners– Brown, Caltech, Columbia, LinuxFoundation, Microsoft in Education, etc.;
- Level– you can opt for introductory, intermediate or advanced classes;
- Language– English, French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese,
edX Course Types
- Verified courses– the ones that require prospective learners to verify their identity by uploading a photo or their official ID;
- High school classes– these programs are created for high school students who are preparing for college. This section presents introductory courses;
- XSeries programs– these are another group of verified courses and all the people who complete these lectures will obtain a certificate;
- Professional certification courses– enrolling in one of these courses will enable you to experience a hands-on type of learning scenarios. These lectures target working professionals who’re searching for an appealing way to develop new skills or improve their existing abilities and then add these new-gained insights to their resume;
- Credit eligible programs– a number of institutions have partnered with edX to create this type of courses to help students earn college credits.
Is edX Recognized by Colleges or Employers?
Well, not all courses are recognized. However, you can get university credits with some of them. In any case, you can include the certification or course in your resume and it will certainly help you stand out and make a great first impression. Potential employers might find your proactivity impressive.
edX Pros and Cons
edX Pros
- You will learn and develop new skills from some of the best tutors and leading industry experts in the world by auditing interesting lectures and presentations.
- You will never get bored because there is a wide range of available resources such as assessments, labs, experiments, projects, and others.
- Learners can build powerful knowledge that you can easily apply in the real workplace
- There is a discussion board where you can reach a global community of online learners through a user-friendly forum
- The courses are highly convenient to follow since they are self-paced so you can move with them anywhere and anytime at your convenience.
- There are literally thousands of courses on the platform covering a range of topics, from history to economy, languages, and project management.
- The LMS platform has amazing features and is literally engaging. Learners have the possibility to download the site’s app to audit courses.
edX Cons
- You will not find a lot of courses that offer free certificates so this may be a downside to those who are looking for free courses
- Some folks simply love the old-school brick-and-mortar way of learning. Furthermore, a few users have claimed that edX manner of organizing the courses and learning materials can be quite confusing.
- You might have to wait several months to receive a certificate upon completing your course, based on the university that is handling that specific certification.
- In certain cases, each class features a different setup which means that you need to get accustomed to the platform’s format.
edX Review – the Final Verdict
Due to edX open-source approach, this eLearning platform has compiled hundreds of courses and educational materials. These programs’ assessments are some of the most versatile ones currently available out there. However, it is important to note that edX does not replace the networking, experience, and credentialing of the traditional college or university, despite the fact that online tools enable learners to gain proof of enrollment without paying a buck.