UC Berkeley Joins EdX -- Campus Technology

Distance Learning

UC Berkeley Joins EdX

By Kanoe Namahoe
07/30/12

The University of California, Berkeley last week announced that it has joined edX, the not-for-profit online learning collaborative launched this spring by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). UC Berkeley will offer two classes through the edX platform, starting this fall.

EdX offers free, open online courses to any student with access to a computer and Internet connection. The initiative first launched in December 2011 with MIT's 6.002x course, which garnered registration from more than 150,000 students across the globe. In May, MIT partnered with Harvard to create edX. UC Berkeley is the latest institution to join the initiative and will chair its "X University" Consortium.

"We are very excited that UC Berkeley is joining us in this effort," said Anant Agarwal, president of edX, in a prepared statement. "EdX is about revolutionizing learning, and we have received a tremendous outpouring of excitement and interest from universities around the world. UC Berkeley is an extraordinary public institution known not only for its academic excellence but also for its innovativeness. With this collaboration, edX is now positioned to improve education more rapidly, both online and on-campus worldwide."

EdX will offer a total of seven classes this fall. The classes offered through HarvardX include "Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research" and "Computer Science 50." MITx will deliver "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming", "Introduction to Solid State Chemistry", and "Circuits and Electronics." Classes through BerkeleyX include "Artificial Intelligence" and "Software as a Service." EdX will issue certificates of mastery, at no charge, for these introductory courses to those "learners motivated and able to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material."

UC Berkeley will contribute new open source technology to edX. The learning platform will be released for others to use, though a release date has not yet been determined. The consortium also plans to add new "X Universities" to the platform in the near future.

About the Author

Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

Report Identifies Rise in Phishing-as-a-Service Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers at Trustwave are warning about a surge in malicious e-mail campaigns leveraging Rockstar 2FA, a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) toolkit designed to steal Microsoft 365 credentials.
California Governor Signs AI Content Safeguards into Law

California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed off on a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.
Call for Entries: 2024 Campus Technology Product Awards

The entry period for the 2024 Campus Technology Product Awards is now open.
Juniper Launches AI-Native Networking and Security Management Platform

Juniper Networks has introduced a new solution that integrates security and networking management under a unified cloud and artificial intelligence engine.