14 Best edX Courses – MIT, Harvard, Berkeley

Learn new skills with the best edX Courses from MIT, Harvard, Berkeley

American industrialist Henry Ford once said that anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty years old. So, let’s keep learning and stay young in our minds. These days there are virtually no barriers to learn new skills, and eLearning is here to stay.

edX is one of those eLearning platforms you can use to shape your professional skill set in a wide range of disciplines. In this review, we discuss some of the best edX courses (free) in programming, IoT, data analysis, project management and entrepreneurship.

What is edX? – Overview

Designed for high-quality education and skilled learning, edX is a trusted non-profit provider of online courses founded by the world’s top-ranked universities, amongst them are the MIT and Harvard. edX hosts about 3,000 online courses across all disciplines and students can choose from more than 145 educational institutions from around the world.

edX’s mission is to provide learning resources and college education to everyone everywhere. It aims to advance teaching and learning through research.

Educational paths – There are many pathways for advancement available. These include online Masters degrees, MicroBachelors and MicroMasters programs to advance a career, Professional Certificate Program to improve in-demand skills, Professional Education for executives, and a list of courses as XSeries for deeper understanding and learning.

How does it work? edX assists in transforming traditional education by fulfilling students’ demands to learn on their terms and supporting them at every stage of their career. All of edX’s MOOC courses are self-paced and free to enroll. Those who want to professionally develop their careers can also get a verified certificate for a reasonable fee.

Best edX Courses Online – Individual Classes

Below you will find a selection of some of the best edX courses to give you a better idea of edX’s course portfolio as well as each class’s features, core skills and learning outcomes.

Explore alternative providers: Skillshare courses | LinkedIn courses | Udemy courses

1. Introduction to Computer Science

Computer Science by Harvard University is a free entry-level course and also part of a Professional Certificate program. As the name implies, it will teach you the fundamentals of computer science and programming. 

Subjects – The core topics include introductions to abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, software engineering, and web development. 

Languages – This edX course will introduce you to different computer languages such as Python, SQL, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, and is suitable set the foundation for careers in game development, mobile apps development, artificial intelligence, or web programming. 

Outcomes – Other learning outcomes are to teach course participants to start thinking algorithmically and to be able to solve problems efficiently through programming. You will get engaged with the community of developers and programmers.

Duration – Plan 6 to 18 hours of weekly studying for approximately 12 weeks. This training will make you confident enough to handle similar projects independently afterward.

Category: Computer Science
University: HarvardX | View page
Level: Introductory | Students: >2,100,000
Length: 12 Weeks | Efforts: 6-18 hours/week

2. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This entry-level course requires 3 to 4 hours per week stretched over a duration of 4 weeks and gives you a solid overview of what artificial intelligence (AI) is and how it is applied.

Outcomes – It aids in understanding the basics of how machine learning provides the foundation for AI and how the cognitive services in apps can be leveraged. It also helps in learning how to process, analyze, and process images and videos by using software, Python, or Microsoft cognitive services.

Goals – This edX course will enable you to start building intelligent bots using Microsoft Bot Framework which allows conversational communication between humans and AI systems. You will also be able to build simple Machine Learning models with Azure Machine Learning.

Requirements – High school level maths and statistics plus the willingness to learn through exploration and perseverance are prerequisites for this free edX course. Prior basic knowledge of programming like Python will be a plus.

Category: Computer Science
University: Microsoft | Visit page
Level: Introductory | Students: >210,000
Length: 4 Weeks | Efforts: 3-4 hours/week

3.Introduction to the Internet of Things (IoT)

This professional course helps in understanding the basics of the internet of things technology including components of IoT, their importance and value, connectivity strategy, and key requirements to design suitable IoT solutions.

Outcomes – It will enable you to develop IoT ideas that are based on technology and IoT related functions and catered to a specific industry or market. You will also be able to handle and examine cybersecurity and privacy issues, to optimize processes and improve the key parameters of your business.

Category: Computer Science
University: Curtin University
Level: Introductory | Students: >83,000
Length: 6 Weeks | Efforts: 2-3 hours/week

4. Becoming an Entrepreneur

Becoming an Entrepreneur is one of the best edX courses online for aspiring entrepreneurs, free to enroll and launched by MIT. It provides the right tools and techniques to overcome common obstacles in entrepreneurship but also the initial challenges of any startup.

Outcomes – After taking this course, you will be able to define your goals, develop new business ideas, identify business opportunities, and perform market research to design and test your offers.

This edX course will open many entrepreneurial paths for you by teaching you lean methodologies and how to develop a product design thinking mindset. You will be able to better plan your business logistics, pitching, and selling.

Becoming an Entrepreneur aims to have a practical impact as well by taking students away from the computer screen to the real community and world. In short, this free edX course helps to make the transition from an employee to an employer.

Category: Business & Management
University: MITx | Visit website
Level: Introductory
Length: 6 Weeks | Efforts: 1-3 hours/week

5. Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel

Excel is a common tool used to gather, transform, analyze, and visualize data. The course is part of edX’s professional certificate program and aims to improve your analytical skills.

Requirements – Before getting enrolled in this course, a basic understanding of Excel analytic tools like tables, pivot charts, and pivot tables will be helpful and any experience in working with data will be plus. If you have no basic knowledge of Excel, students should enroll in, Introduction to Data Analysis using Excel first which is available on edX too.

The system requirement to take this course are; windows operating system (Windows 7 or later) and Microsoft Excel (version 2010, 2013 and 2016 Professional Plus or standalone).

Outcomes – This edX course will enable you to gather and transform data from multiple sources. It also helps in learning the exploration of data, discovering and combining data in mashups, data model creation, analysis, or the visualization of data.

Category: Business & Management
University: Microsoft
Level: Intermediate | Students: >850,000
Length: 6 Weeks | Efforts: 2-4 hours/week

6. Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies

This is one of the most popular and best edX courses suitable for learners and entrepreneurs to explore the ways of tackling complex social problems in emerging economies as well as prior attempts to address these problems.

Goals – Using an interdisciplinary approach students will learn to better understand the dynamic environment of complex problems, topics, trends and influencing factors available within emerging economies. The goal is to propose and develop creative solutions to resolve such complex problems.

Outcomes – This edX course also provides awareness of the obvious and rather diffuse opportunities for doing business in fast-growing and emerging markets. Students will learn how to identify those points of opportunity. Furthermore, this course will develop an understanding of the conceptual framework to better evaluate such business chances.

Resources – A range of interdisciplinary studies will be used to explore entrepreneurial opportunities.

Category: Business & Management
University: HarvardX
Level: Introductory | Students: >490,000
Length: 6 Weeks | Efforts: 3-5 hours/week

7. Project Management for Development

If you want to lead a team or need to organize entire workflows for large projects, here is one of the best edX courses to learn basic project management and techniques in order to identify success factors for each project. As usual, this course can be taken for free.

Outcomes – This edX course will enable you to communicate successfully in projects by using test tools and techniques based on international standards. You can learn best practices for managing larger projects which have both an economic and social impact. Afterward, students will also be able to achieve expected objectives with limited resources and run projects effectively and efficiently.

Enrolling – Like many other best edX courses, students can enroll either as individual participants or as part of a team. If you are an employer and you want to train your team or employees, edX provides this facility for your business.

Category: Business & Management
University: BID, IDBx
Level: Intermediate | Students: 60,000
Length: 10 Weeks | Efforts: 3-4 hours/week

8. CitiesX: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Life

CitiesX is one of the best edX courses for those interested in the historical perspective of the rise and development of cities throughout the world and the cultural contribution of cities to social development. It will develop a deeper understanding of urbanism and the present, past, and future of urban life.

Outcomes – Students learn about the role of government in developing and distorting cities, the role of transportation, and different approaches to analyze public policy in cities. They will be able to help improve urban areas by exploring key concepts of urban development.

Topics – This course will also dive into social and urban planning issues like crime, gentrification, transportation, public health, zoning, cost of living and congestion. Interviews of policymakers, urban leaders, and residents will complete the curriculum of this class.

Case studies – Thanks to its interdisciplinary analytical framework approach, learners will better understand the transformation of cities such as Rome, Sao Paulo, Seattle and other cities as well as their current state of urbanism.

Category: Social Sciences
University: HarvardX | View
Level: Introductory | Students: >65,000
Length: 11 Weeks | Efforts: 5-7 hours/week

9. Nutrition and Health: Food Risks

This 8-module edX course is designed to spread knowledge about bacteria, pesticides, and health hazards potentially present in today’s food.

Topics – Potential food hazards, the impacts of food processing, food chain responsibility, basic knowledge of microbiological and toxicological risk analysis as well as prevention techniques of food poisoning/intoxication are the main subjects discussed in this course.

Goals – Completing this course will enable you to differentiate between food myth and actual risk, scientifically weigh different risks, and to reduce food hazard after the better interpretation of risk, probability, and relevance.

Category: Biology & Life Sciences
University: WageningenX
Level: Introductory | Students: >48,000
Length: 8 Weeks | Efforts: 6-8 hours/week

10. Design Thinking Fundamentals

Design Thinking is part of the edX MicroMasters Program and will help you learn essential design thinking principles and apply methods to evaluate problems, and to develop a user-centered approach that inspires innovative ideas to create effective solutions.

Outcomes – This edX course will also enable you to formulate problem-solving ideas (which are desirable, feasible and viable) and to understand and identify the systematic process of design thinking that accompanies this journey. In this way, you will also be able to discuss the solutions to better integrate product configuration, functionality, and user experience.

Category: Business & Management
University: RITx
Level: Intermediate | Students: >48,000
Length: 6 Weeks | Efforts: 8-12 hours/week

Best edX Courses – Partner Universities

In this section, we list some of the best edX courses online based on edX’s founder universities, most important contributors, and partner universities.

11. edX Courses by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

MIT is a top-ranked privately endowed research university founded in 1861. It’s one of the founder universities of edX. The university is contributing to the advancement of skills and quality education by offering 200+ edX courses online in a variety of subjects including basic sciences, technology, engineering, business studies, humanities, education, social sciences, computational skills, personal development, or languages.

Many courses are free to learn including Machine Learning with Python, Probability, Manufacturing Process Control, Supply Chain Technology, and Systems, Principles of Synthetic Biology just to name one of the best edX courses online available by MIT

Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MITx)
Categories: Science, Business, Management
Level: Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced
Website: View page

12. edX Courses by Harvard University

Another founder university of edX is Harvard, which is the oldest institution of higher education in the US. The university is devoted to excellence in research, teaching, and learning and offers 150+ best edX courses online in a variety of subjects ranging from law, literature, computer science to humanities, religions or history.

Almost all their best edX courses are free to learn including Backyard Meteorology: The Science of Weather, Advanced Bioconductor, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Shakespeare’s Life and Work, and Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature.

Institution: Harvard University (HarvardX)
Categories: Science, Business, Management
Level: Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced
Website: View page

13. The University of California, Berkeley

As an edX partner and contributor, Berkeley University is committed to innovative learning and teaching by publishing and providing many online courses, degree programs, and MOOC projects. To enhance the learning experience, Berkeley is working with edX to establish small private online courses (SPOCs) on-campus around the world that will provide local faculty for high-level pedagogy.

To name a few examples of their variety, the number of free edX courses includes Academic and Business Writing, The Foundations of Happiness at Work, Blockchain Technology, or Writing for Social Justice.

Institution: University of California, Berkeley (BerkeleyX)
Categories: Computer Science, Business, Technology, Communication
Level: Introductory to Advanced
Website: View page

edX Courses Online – Pros and Cons

Benefits – edX provides free online self-paced courses. Self-paced and free learning can be both beneficial and distracting. One of the best benefits is that students who wish to learn but have only little chance to get enrolled in one of the top-ranked institutes of the world, can learn from anywhere for free. Any worker interested in advancing in a career can learn part-time with no effect on their jobs.

Obstacles – On the other hand, many learners get registered but often do not complete their edX courses. One of the reasons behind this could be that free and self-paced learning lacks the pressure of deadlines and money funding. Even though it is learning with the best universities, students might fail to effectively prioritize their learning lectures and get too relaxed. As a result they might lose their motivation to complete their edX courses online.

Review – The platform itself is technically up to date, and it is worth giving the best edX courses a try simply because it is free and because of the high quality and relevance of content to advance your career. You will then only need a well-structured learning plan, stamina, motivation and basic discipline to reach your goals.

Alternatives – There are many online learning platforms out there. Here is a handy overview to give you some further inspiration and comparison.

Best edX Courses 2021 – Verdict

The free access to quality education, applied skills, latest technology, and research-based learning is no less than a blessing. Students, workers, employers, and employees can learn high in-demand skills to not only advance their careers but to also help elevate society or alleviate poverty in less developed countries.

edX Premium – Those who can afford the small price of premium edX courses might enroll as premium learners because of two reasons. The first reason is to get access to assessments. As a result, you will likely be more confident after participating in course projects, assessments, and other activities, than those who don’t have access.

Secondly, you will also be awarded a valid certificate, that will prove any newly learned skills and will thus help you in advancing your career in the long run. Another reason to get enrolled in edX Premium is that, since edX is a non-profit platform, paid enrolments will enable edX to spread its services and support those learners in rather less privileged and underdeveloped areas of the world.

Last but not least, remember the words of Abigail Adams. She said, “learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

Have you tried edX? What are the best edX courses online in your opinion? Feel free to share your list in the comments below.

Credits: Logo Images by edX, Open edX.