Have you ever thought, "Virtual High School seems interesting, but their classes are way too expensive." Or maybe on a Monday morning, "I'm too tired to listen at the moment, I wish I could just watch a video of this lecture later" Well, what if I told you that MIT and Harvard founded a non-profit that was offering free college-level video courses online to anyone who is willing to take advantage of them?
Of course, there are still quizzes and tests, but here, you can get instant feedback after submitting each answer. This is really helpful for correcting your mistakes as they happen, rather than figuring out your answers from a paper you turned in two weeks ago. Discussion boards are also full of students helping each other out.
edX prides themselves on offering full degrees and certificates on their site. I personally don't recommend this as an alternative to regular school, since online classes have their own shortcomings. However, edX is certainly useful for taking extra classes, perhaps some not offered at your school. For online tech classes, it can even be the basis of the curriculum. Otherwise, if you don't have time to do all of the work in a course, you can just use it to supplement your learning. If you want to try out one of their courses, you can go to their website (https://www.edx.org) to explore for yourself.
What is edX?
edX is a massive open online course provider. About 120 university charter members have contributed to it, and it is easy to access through their website. Currently, edX has around 14 million students taking more than 1,900 courses online. Most are for college students, but it also has high school and AP exam preparation courses. Not all of the courses are free, but you can usually find something in your area of study.How does it work?
The courses are all pre-assembled and and all of the material is laid out for you to do whenever you can, but they usually recommend that you follow a weekly work schedule if you want to keep up. First, you watch a professor's lecture to learn about new material. This doesn't sound like much of an improvement over traditional methods, but at least you can do it on your own time from the comforts of your own home. Then, you have access to all kinds of interactive learning tools to familiarize yourself with the material. Learning hybridization? Here's a helpful 3D model.Of course, there are still quizzes and tests, but here, you can get instant feedback after submitting each answer. This is really helpful for correcting your mistakes as they happen, rather than figuring out your answers from a paper you turned in two weeks ago. Discussion boards are also full of students helping each other out.
How is it different?
In short, convenience and resources. It is more flexible than conventional classes, and it has more high-quality content than any alternative. Additionally, their software is constantly learning from your actions and improving itself to try to cater to your learning style.edX prides themselves on offering full degrees and certificates on their site. I personally don't recommend this as an alternative to regular school, since online classes have their own shortcomings. However, edX is certainly useful for taking extra classes, perhaps some not offered at your school. For online tech classes, it can even be the basis of the curriculum. Otherwise, if you don't have time to do all of the work in a course, you can just use it to supplement your learning. If you want to try out one of their courses, you can go to their website (https://www.edx.org) to explore for yourself.
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