EdX
EdX is the most academic free distance education platform
EdX is the most sophisticated and academic free distance education platform, a joint project of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Harvard University and UC Berkeley.
The program now involves dozens of leading universities around the world, including MIT itself and Harvard University, as well as Cornell University, Caltech, UC Berkeley, University of Paris Sorbonne.
The methodology of EdX training is not much different from other projects: lectures, divided into modules of up to 10 minutes, interspersed with exercises for better understanding of the material. If you get a wrong answer, the program analyzes the error and gives recommendations for correcting it.
Before you begin training, you must register for this service, after which you must choose the best time for daily training and lessons on a topic of interest. Registration takes place only after the designation of the university whose training program you are interested in. For example, you can register for the program of such prestigious universities as Berkeley, Harvard, MIT. The courses are quite complex and require you to regularly allocate time to study the lessons. Therefore, on the one hand EdX has the lowest completion rate compared to other platforms, but on the other hand EdX certificates are also higher rated.
Those students who perform well in the course and pass their final exams can receive a certificate of completion. It will be issued under the brand of the university where the course came from, i.e. either MIT, Harvard, or Berkeley.
EdX is free, but in case you decide to make a donation to the project, you will receive a paid certificate (Certificate of Achievement), which differs from the free certificate (Honor Code Certificate) in that it is issued after checking the identity of the student who took the course. The free certificate looks a little different, but it is also in PDF format and you can check it on the EdX portal. The cost of a paid certificate can be as much as $100 per course.
For free training, when you are asked to make a donation at the time of enrollment for the course, select the line “Why do I have to pay? What if I dont meet all requirements?” Clicking that will reveal more information. Scroll through it, and near the end you’ll see the “Select Honor Code Certificate” checkbox. Check it, and in the box that appears you will be asked to explain why. You can write about the severe economic crisis or leave the field blank.
EdX has an analogue to the Coursera specializations – Micromasters Programs. It is a series of graduate level courses. For example, there is a Micromaster from Columbia University in Artificial Intelligence that costs $1,200 (4 courses of $300 each), and a Micromaster in Android App Development costs $1,000 (5 courses of $200 each). However, all non-document courses can be taken for free.