The acquisition of edX by 2U, announced in June, has been finalised and edX has become a public benefit company. Under the terms of the transaction, edX’s funding mission is being safeguarded, and so are edX’s learners, faculty and partners – such as TU Delft – who contribute online courses.
The legally-binding commitments cover:
- operating edX as a public benefit company
- guaranteeing affordability through the continuation of a free track to audit courses
- protecting the intellectual property rights of faculty and universities
- ensuring that participating colleges and universities may continue under their standing agreements with edX
- protecting the privacy of learners who use the edX platform
- contributing to the ongoing development of the open-source platform Open edX, owned by the non-profit led by MIT and Harvard.
The latter will be a free-standing organisation – the Center for Reimagining Learning (tCRiL) that will focus on research and pilots on online education across the wider education spectrum. Open edX will have a small team of 12 engineers, with Jenna Makowski as project manager and Edward Zarecor as VEP engineering, and a Technical Oversight Committed.
Expected activities post-acquisition include:
- new investments to expand the reach and impact of edX
- call for proposals for courses on Essential Human Skills for the Virtual Age (funding $1Million)
- more ‘education-to-career’ pathways for learners from university and corporate partners
- 25 existing 2U partners joining the edX Consortium, including Howard University, London School of Economics and Political Science, Morehouse College, Syracuse University, UC Davis, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University.
Sample overview of offering by edX and 2U
