India second largest in edX enrolments

It helps schools offer blended courses on campus or purely online options

It all began with a simple idea. This led to a single course, offered by a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), drawing 1,55,000 students from 162 countries in 2011 when first launched. But now it has become a favoured massive online open course (MOOC) destination for students from India. edX, a not-for-profit MOOC platform founded by MIT and Harvard University, gets a large fraction of traffic from India, says Anant Agarwal, president, edX. “The response from India has been overwhelming. India consistently represents the second highest enrolments in edX courses (behind the U.S.),” he says.

According to Prof. Agarwal, “MOOCs will change higher education in India by providing access to quality education. edX will do this by helping schools offer blended courses on campus or purely online options depending on the need.” He adds that research into learning from data gathered by edX and conducted by xConsortium partners including IIT-Bombay indicates that MOOCs will help improve education and pedagogy everywhere, including Indian campuses.