Everyone should know about edX, the open 'online course provider' with over 14 Millions users, created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. (Provided by wikipedia)
They claim that their certificates would help you get a better job, a promotion or even a college application. But what does the community think about it, is it worth it and did any body earn something with their certificates before.
Top comments (5)
I took Harvard CS50 through EdX and loved it. It's how I started learning to program. I tried a few other classes, but they weren't as good. Like any educational system, the quality depends on the course designers, but the platform itself was great.
I didn't pay the $99 or whatever it is for the certificate. I was learning to program as part of a job I already had, so I didn't need the credential, and I didn't think a certificate for an introductory semester-long CS course would have helped much in any case.
You're right on not paying the fee, i actually want to help my friend who dropped out of high school (for personal reasons and not bad grades) to get back on his feet by studying programming on his own and perhaps work with me one day :), i've tried this course just to see how it looks like today and it seemed the best course for beginners in my opinion because they explained everything in such a simple way.
I've completed a couple of courses at edX. Some were excellent, university grade. Like Introduction to functional programming (DelftX) and Artificial Intelligence (BerkeleyX). What these courses have in common is that you get to explore the material and figure out the details on your own while doing your homework. The lessons just cover the theory. Programming with C# (MicrosoftX) on the other hand was a little dull. Not bad if you want to get started with C#, but far less engaging.
If you want to further your career I suppose you have to go for certificates that are directly related to the move you're aiming for. In my case they just look nice on the resumé whereas previous work experience is what really matters.
I used it to brush up on math skills and thought it was fantastic.
true!