What is edX?
edX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University that offers online learning to on-campus students and to millions of people around the world. To do so, edX is building an open-source online learning platform and hosts an online web portal at www.edx.org for online education.
EdX currently offers HarvardX, MITx and BerkeleyX classes online for free. Beginning in fall 2013, edX will offer WellesleyX and GeorgetownX classes online for free. The University of Texas System includes nine universities and six health institutions. The edX institutions aim to extend their collective reach to build a global community of online students. Along with offering online courses, the three universities undertake research on how students learn and how technology can transform learning – both on-campus and online throughout the world.
Why is Georgetown University joining edX?
Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, has a long history of providing courses of the highest quality through its schools of foreign service, law, medicine, nursing, business, as well as the arts and sciences. GeorgetownX courses, and the mission-driven Georgetown faculty, will provide a new perspective from which the hundreds of thousands of edX learners can benefit.
Georgetown offers a world-class learning experience focused on educating the whole person through exposure to different faiths, cultures and beliefs. Georgetown's global perspective with presences in Qatar, Shanghai, Santiago, Buenos Aires and London aligns with edX's mission to extend access to education around the world and to perform research into how students learn and how technology can transform learning both on-campus and online.
As with all consortium members, the values of Georgetown are aligned with those of edX. Georgetown and edX are both committed to expanding access to education to learners of all ages, means, and backgrounds. Both institutions are also committed to the non-profit model. We value principle not profit.
How many GeorgetownX courses will be offered initially? When?
Initially, GeorgetownX will begin offering edX courses in the fall of 2013. The courses, which will offer students the opportunity to explore a variety of subjects, will be of the same high quality and rigor as those offered on the Georgetown University campus.
Will edX be adding additional X Universities?
More than 200 institutions from around the world have expressed interest in collaborating with edX since Harvard and MIT announced its creation in May. EdX is focused above all on quality and developing the best not-for-profit model for online education. In addition to providing online courses on the edX platform, the "X University" Consortium will be a forum in which members can share experiences around online learning. Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Texas system and the other consortium members will work collaboratively to establish the "X University" Consortium, whose membership will expand to include additional "X Universities". Each member of the consortium will offer courses on the edX platform as an "X University." The gathering of many universities' educational content together on one site will enable learners worldwide to access the offered course content of any participating university from a single website, and to use a set of online educational tools shared by all participating universities.
edX will actively explore the addition of other institutions from around the world to the edX platform, and looks forward to adding more "X Universities."