edX’s Response to Covid-19

The spread of Covid-19 across the globe has impacted every one of us. The majority of us are staying at home, where we’re working, learning, and teaching remotely. But as the world rapidly changes around us, what hasn’t changed is edX’s commitment to you and our global community.

We get that when it feels like the world has stopped spinning, it’s hard to see a path forward. That’s why as part of our commitment to you, we’re inviting you to find your path forward with us. Together with our university partners and the millions of learners who make up our community, we want to support you in every way we can. We’re here to help you stay connected and move forward.

Celebrate Together

As graduates and learners around the world achieve amazing education milestones apart, let's come together to celebrate in a virtual Global Graduation ! Join edX in supporting and congratulating students graduating high school and college, along with learners completing online courses, homeschooling children, and other learning achievements. Learn more and submit a message with words of encouragement at discover.edx.org/global-graduation.

Getting Back to Work

Over 300 million people around the world, with 30 million people in the U.S. alone, have lost their job due to the Covid-19 pandemic and we want to help. We are committed to providing an opportunity for people to re-enter the workforce as quickly as possible and with a stronger skill set than before. We are proud to announce the Workforce Recovery Acceleration Program. Designed to help all employees negatively impacted by Covid-19, we are offering an opportunity to earn a MicroMasters® Programs, Professional Certificate Programs or MicroBachelors® Programs credential at a 30% discount.

Stay Connected

It can feel overwhelming out there, but know that you are not alone. Check out these resources to learn about everything that’s going on and to connect with others around the world.

• Join Our Online Community : Our online learner Facebook community  is the best way to come together right now. This is a space for edX learners across the world to connect and discuss their experiences learning online. Ask for course recommendations, share your experience with edX programs, or find further resources to help you along the way in your online learning journey.

• Tips for Successful Online Learning: As a global nonprofit, our goal is to continue to be a resource to the growing online learning community. In this collection of online learning best practices, we share tips and strategies to help you succeed in your learning journey.

• How to Harness the Power of Online Learning: Learn more about how to unlock all of the benefits of this powerful way of learning, from taking full advantage of the flexibility to study any time, anywhere to using modular online classes to build skill sets that set you apart to forming lasting connections with fellow learners around the globe.

• edX Blog: Head to the edX blog for continued updates and resources to help you learn and stay connected through these unprecedented times.

• Free Scientific Self-Care Webinar: This is a remarkable time with uncertainty and changes to everyone’s routines. If you’re in this boat, structuring your time in new ways and reconnecting with your priorities, edX and UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center Science of Happiness hosted a webinar on Facebook live on April 3.

• Support & Help Center: If you are new to online learning or new to edX please visit our help center for your learner questions. Please check this resource before filing a ticket.

Learn What You Want to Learn

For those who are new to elearning, the edX learning design team has curated some of the most powerful, science-backed techniques in our How to Learn Online course to help prepare you with effective strategies to be a successful online learner.

• Working Remotely: For the millions who are adapting to working from home, The University of British Columbia has launched Re-Imagine Work: Strategies During Covid-19 and Beyond. For individuals and people managing small-to-medium organizations, this introductory course will provide inspiration to reimagine how working with others from a distance can be transformed using human-centered and UX design tools that have been applied across various design-oriented companies for decades.

• Epidemics Courses: You can take part in courses designed in partnership with leaders in the healthcare and research fields. These courses and certifications are in areas of healthcare concerning disease, public health, and recent epidemics. You can even check out our Epidemics course from HKUx where it features supplementary modules on Covid-19.

• Education Courses: These education courses cover a broad range of topics from educational policy and history to curriculum design and teaching techniques. Explore case studies in teaching and learn about how technology is increasing access to quality education on an unprecedented scale.

• Courses for High School Students: We want to bridge the college readiness gap – the difference between what you learn in high school and the knowledge you need to succeed at college and university.

• AP Courses: Explore free AP courses and other in-demand subjects with courses from top universities and institutions around the world.

• Social Science Courses: Choose from hundreds of courses and explore topics such as Social Work, Economics, History, Political Science, and more. Check out The Science of Happiness where you will learn science-based principles and practices for a happy, meaningful life.

• Vaccine Courses: Vaccines have proven to be one of the most powerful and effective ways of reducing morbidity and mortality and even eradicating diseases and perhaps the most critical piece for a successful post-Covid recovery. Explore courses developed in partnership with leading healthcare and research institutions in the United States and around the world. PennX has recently launched The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Use of mRNA Vaccines, taught by Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, professor of Infectious Diseases at Penn Medicine, whose groundbreaking research forms a foundational part of the two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines approved by the FDA in December 2020 from Pfizer and Moderna.

Additional Responses

For Medical Professionals

We launched a free course from Harvard to provide licensed non-ICU hospital clinicians with an understanding of mechanical ventilation. Given the increasing number of patients contracting Covid-19 and developing pneumonia, the medical system is, and will continue to be, in dire need of licensed medical professionals who can assist in the operation of mechanical ventilators.

University of British Columbia launched a course to prepare surgical care providers to deliver surgical care during a pandemic, while protecting their patients, their colleagues, themselves and their families from potential infection. Safe Surgical Care: Strategies during a Pandemic reviews aspects of a pandemic that are relevant to surgical providers, different timelines of a pandemic, and how provision of surgical care needs to change during these timeframes.

Javeriana University launched three Spanish-language courses on Covid-19 for health professionals. The topics of these courses, led by the Javeriana University School of Medicine, are related to: mechanical ventilation for non-intensivists; prevention, management and general measures of Covid-19 infection; and communication without harm during the pandemic. The courses are:

• Covid - 19: Ventilación mecánica para no intensivistas

• Covid-19: Abordaje inicial del paciente con infección por Covid-19

• Covid-19: Comunicarnos sin daño durante la pandemia

Columbia University launched a Crisis Resource Management course to help medical professionals learn critical skills for effective teamwork in a crisis situation. The course focuses on how to effectively make decisions and manage teams in a crisis situation, especially teams of strangers—a common occurrence for many health workers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The course provides real-life examples and simulations for medical professionals to practice these skills.

For Academic Institutions

edX Online Campus allows any university across the globe to offer in-demand and on-demand learning for their students, alumni and employees. Now, through June 30, 2020, qualified accredited higher ed institutions can access FREE courses and programs from select edX partners to help them transition to a remote learning environment and keep students progressing.

For existing edX partners institutions, the Remote Access Program provides their students with free access to courses and programs not just from their own universities, but from all edX partners participating in the initiative, helping students continue to learn online even as campuses close.

For Businesses

As organizations transition to exclusively-remote workforces, edX For Business is supporting efforts to keep their employees connected, learning, progressing and contributing. Our team works with companies of all sizes and budgets on turnkey solutions that deliver the skills and knowledge organizations and their employees need for today and the future.