Written by
Janosch Herrmann
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Online learning has become omnipresent in the last years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, millions of learners have looked for online platforms to get educated or to advance their careers. One of these platforms is edX, and in this post, I want to share my review of edX with you based on hours of research.
Let's dive right in!
What is edX?
edX is an online learning platform that was founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012. They focus on university-level courses, developed in collaboration with their countless university partners (like Harvard and Berkeley University), and other education providers worldwide. From regular online courses to full online degrees, edX has a broad variety of offerings in 30+ categories, taught by academics from the world's best universities, many of whom have won prestigious academic awards like Nobel prizes, etc.
In total, edX offers more than 3,500 courses and 400 programs. With more than 12 million monthly visitors and 35 million learners in total, the platform is one of the most popular places to learn career-relevant skills online.
Let's take a closer look at the different programs they offer!
Courses
Most courses take about 2-10 hours per week to complete for a duration of 6-8 weeks. Some of the courses are self-paced, while others are instructor-led.
By default, courses are free for a limited amount of time, but paid upgrades are available, which include lifetime access, graded assessments and a certificate of completion.
Price: From $99 USD
XSeries Programs
Again, these are free to try, but you will have to upgrade to get permanent access, as well as your certificate for the course.
Price: From $135 USD
Professional Certificate Programs
On average Professional Certificate programs take about 5-8 hours peer week, for a duration of 3-4 months to complete.
Price: From $299 USD
edX boot camps
The boot camps are held by university partners of edX, and typically take between 12-24 weeks.
Prices highly depend on the university that offers the boot camp, so you will have to request information from them to get accurate price information. Expect to pay between $5,000 - 15,000 USD.
Executive education
The typical duration is 6-8 weeks.
MicroBachelors® and MicroMasters® Programs
If you want to earn actual academic credit, you can get started with edX's MicroBachelors and MicroMasters programs. These programs are meant to be a more flexible way of getting educated, while still honoring your work with academic credit that you can use to complete a full degree, whether it's a Bachelors or a Masters degree.
MicroBachelors
These programs typically take 4-10 hours of effort per week, for a time span of 3-8 months. Most programs are self-paced, so you can go through the individual courses in your pace. Again, they are free to try, but you will need to upgrade in order to receive credit for taking the courses.
Prices start from $499 USD.
MicroMasters
Prices start from $600 USD.
Bachelor's and Master's Degrees
Full Bachelors degree
Pricing information and details can vary from university to university, so it's best to contact them directly for all the details.
Full Masters degree
When you're done, you will have earned an actual Master's degree, just like you would have for in-person Master's degrees.
Prices start from $10,000 USD.
edX mobile app
Pro & Cons
Pros | Con |
---|---|
160+ high-profile partners like Harvard, Berkeley & Microsoft | Confusing offering: Differentiating between all their different learning products can be hard |
Thousands of free courses (for a limited amount of time) | Can be a bit pricey |
Variety of different programs for all kinds of learners. | |
Self-paced |
Who is edX for?
Since edX has such a broad portfolio of different learning products, there's something for almost anyone trying to learn a new skill. Most offerings are targeted at professionals or students that want to become professionals, so you won't find courses on "hobby topics".
That said, if you're trying to advance your career, or earn your degree, chances are that edX has a product that fits your needs.
edX pricing
For learning products like edX courses, XSeries and Professional Certificates, edX offers a so-called "Audit track", which allows learners to take the courses completely for free for a limited amount of time (typically a couple of weeks).
If you want access to additional benefits, you will have to upgrade to a "Verified track" though. This will give you:
Full access to all course materials
Access to graded assignments & test
Option to receive your certificate of completion
Here's an overview of the price range for these different learning products:
Courses: $100 - $350 USD
XSeries: $135 to $1,100 USD
Professional Certificate Programs: $300 - $1,000 USD
edX also offers other learning products, where you don't have the option to participate for free. These programs include the MicroBachelors and MicroMasters, the full online degrees, Executive Education as well as the boot camps.
Pricing for these products can vary substantially based on the organization that offers them, but here are some estimates:
MicroMasters: $600 - $1,500 USD
MicroBachelors Programs: $500 - $1,500 USD
Bachelor's Degree: $20,000 - $30,000 USD
Master’s Degree: $10,000 - $25,000 USD
Boot camps: $5,000 - 15,000 USD
Executive Education: Only upon request
Refund policy
For regular courses, edX offers a 14-day refund policy if you've not received a certificate for the course already. You can read more about how this works in edX's refund policy.
Since most other programs aren't managed by edX themselves, you will have to contact the university that's hosting the course to get information about a potential refund policy.
edX for businesses
edX also has a dedicated offering for businesses called edX for Business. Plans start at $349 USD/user/year and can go up depending on the features your organization needs.
There are 3 business subscription tiers available, that offer increasing levels of service for your business, like analytics, custom integrations, services to close employee skill gaps and more. As with most plans targeted at businesses, you might want to contact their sales team directly to get more information about the best plan for your exact needs.
edX for students
edX doesn't have a dedicated plan for students, but they offer financial assistance for everybody who can't afford to pay the full price, through their financial aid program. When you're eligible, this can give you up to 90% discount on verified certificates. In total, you can be approved for up to 5 certificates every year.
edX also offers subscriptions for universities, so you might want to check if your university offers this.
Learning & Customer support
edX offers a self-service helpcenter for any questions about your account, payments and anything related to the edX platform as a whole. If that's not enough, you can also contact edX directly through their chatbot, or by filling out their support form.
When you have a question about the contents of a course you're taking, you can use the "Discussion" tab that you will find in every regular course you take on edX.
For other programs like the MicroBachelors, MicroMaster, full degrees, Executive Education as well as boot camps, there's additional support available that varies based on the specific program.
Certification
When you complete a course, you have the option to receive a certificate. These certificates require you to upgrade your course to the "Verified" version. You can also get program certificates for completing a series of associated courses. In order to get the certificate, you will have to pass a graded assignment associated with the course and if you have a passing score, this is what your certificate might look like:
Now, these regular certificates aren't typically accredited, so their main purpose is to serve as a certificate of completion, that you can show your employer to "verify" that you have learned a certain skill.
This is a different story for MicroDegrees, as well as full degrees on edX. For MicroBachelors and MicroMasters, you will receive academic credit alongside your certificate. For full degrees, you receive a proper degree like you would expect from any regular university.
Create a edX account
To create an edX account, simply click on the "Register for free" button in the top-right corner.
After that, you'll have to enter in your personal details and login credentials. Then you're good to go!
Popular courses on edX
Machine Learning with Python: A Practical Introduction
Remote Work Revolution for Everyone
edX instructors
Whatever discipline you’re interested in, it’s always ideal to learn from the best. This is something edX prides itself on and why it has partnered with such prestigious universities and institutions of higher learning. In total, edX has 15,000 instructors from more than 160 partner institutions. You can get a feel for the types of partnerships that edX has when looking at the partner page. It's nothing but prestigious universities and institutions from around the world.
These instructors are leaders in their field who know exactly what they are talking about and also have years of experience in actually delivering their content, which is just as important. It isn't rare to see these instructors winning highly sought-after academic prizes as well.
Overall, I think it's fair to say that edX has some of the most highly-qualified instructors of all the available online learning platforms.
Summary: Is edX worth it?
Yes, in my opinion, edX is definitely worth it for most learners looking to accelerate their career through courses, certificates or degrees. It's one of the most popular and recognized online learning platforms for a reason. You'll love the platform for their:
Broad variety of learning products
World-class partners & instructors
Free, temporary access to 3,000+ high-quality courses
Intuitive learning experience
edX
8.6