edX: Get Free Courses From MIT & Harvard Universities

#-Link-Snipped-# and #-Link-Snipped-# Universities have teamed up to launch the edX initiative which aims to offer the courses from these top Universities free of cost to students all over the world! The non-profit initiative was announced at #-Link-Snipped-# few hours ago. Anant Agrawal, the president of the edX initiative calls it the single best change in education since the invention of the printing press. edX will remain an independent organization and report only to its own board.



edX will build on the MITx platform, which was announced towards the end of 2011. The long term plan is to open the platform to other institutions as well so that they can share their content. No additional partners were announced during the launch though. MITx is quite an ambitioius initiative that goes much beyond free online video lectures by offering quizzes, puzzles, feedback mechanisms, students rated questions answers & online laboratories etc. The courses offered through edX will be available to everyone with an Internet connection. The team says that they'll maintain their not-for-profit status, but will soon discover ways to raise funds to keep the venture growing. The edX team don't want to be a burdon the Harvard and MIT Universities.

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Students who successfully pass the course will be awarded a certificate. While the certificates are currently free of cost, the edX team is considering charing a nominal fee for the certificates. The first edX course is likely to go live this fall. Further information about the initiative can be obtained from the official website, #-Link-Snipped-#.