In today's technology-driven world, there is a significant job/student gap within computer science. Clearly, a background in computer science improves employability and opens up many career opportunities. Because of the Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code, edX.org pulled together a list of free computer science courses to help teachers, students and professionals learn programming skills. Useful Resources More edX computer science courses Mashable guide to programming languages for designers, app developers, content managers 11 popular programming languages that can you help land a job (Business Insider) 30 tech skills to earn over $110,000 of salary Today’s most popular programming languages.
Beth Porter, Vice President of edX and one the most prominent advocates of the Open edX software and methodology, has decided to leave the organization. "I'm going to take a break for a couple of months to spend time with my family and figure out what to do next", she explained on an email to IBL's Founder. Beth Porter is not the only one. Sarina Canelake, one of the managers of the Open edX community, reached out to IBL as well to communicate her decision to leave edX.
"American higher education organizations will undergo from packaged courses and degrees to unbundled course offerings," argues Ryan Craig, managing director of University Ventures, a private-equity fund, in his new book, "College Disrupted". "This 'unbundling' of higher-education will allow students to earn new kinds of educational credentials," wrote Jeffrey R. Young in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Experts say that students will want to save money by picking from a menu, trying "micro-degrees", personalized modules and courses, skipping costly perks such as library access or a gym. Paying for a bundle of services seems to be over. From a pedagogic point of view, students can retake any module they struggle with before moving on to more advanced material. More and more colleges are examining this "iTunes playlist-style" offer. MIT, Harvard and other edX universities are experimenting with making in-person courses modular. In fact, this is a powerful idea that the Open edX platform promotes. Udacity and Coursera also offer these kinds of mini-degrees, credentials and badges. Working adults looking to update their skills have been the early adopters. And, in this sense, Ryan Craig predicts that "LinkedIn will become the arbiter of these mini-degrees", generating standardized lists of proven competencies from users' profiles that employers will easily search for.
The main three MOOC providers are putting together specific business models to evolve from a money-losing activity, become sustainable and even thrive. Coursera and Udacity are designing corporate courses, while edX is convincing universities to offer credits through their courses. Udacity attracted in November $105M from venture capitalists showing that students are ready to pay and complete courses that might land them top jobs. Corporations such as AT&T, Google, Facebook, Cloudera and MongoDB partner with Udacity and design market-oriented courses that support much-needed skills. edX has incorporated 27 edX new members in the past year –generating around $15 million. But it now faces a new challenge: to convince its university partners to renew their three-year contracts, as Allison Dulin explains in a article at edSurge. “Learners want credit, and to provide credit we must create quality learning environments that meet the needs of diverse learners, and are recognized by institutions and employers. And it’s no secret that credit is a bridge to financial sustainability for edX and its partner universities", Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX says.
edX announced this month a new collaboration with Microsoft to develop online courses for K-12 school leaders, principals and superintendents. These courses, which will be created by edX university partners, will help K-12 education leaders improve their schools and enhance classroom learning through technology. This agreement expands upon the existing collaboration between edX and Microsoft. Microsoft offers more than 35 online MOOC and professional education courses on edx.org. No further details have been disclosed. Read the official press release here.
