Until May 20th, edX is offering up to US$1,000 off some of its boot camp programs and 30% off other selected programs. This discount is to celebrate its Birthday - which is why the relevant code is EDXBDAY24.

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We've reported on generous discount offers from edX before that could be applied to professional certificates, XSeries, MicroBachelors® programs, MicroMasters® programs, and the verified track for its other courses. These offers attract those who want a credential to add to their resumes much of the content on the edX platform remains completely free of charge. However, as well as not leading to any proof of completion, the audit track doesn't let you particpate in grading exercises and this can be very frustrating. 

What's different in this offer is the "Up to US1,000 off select boot camps" and as we've never covered edX boot camps that is news.

Before we get to boot camps, here's the background to edX on its 12th Birthday.

It was in May 2012 that Harvard and MIT announced they were joining forces to provide an online platform called edX. This would serve the dual purpose of the providing an extra resource to campus based students and to provide free access to the two institutions undergraduate and graduate level courses to a wider, global, audience. edX offered its first courses in July 2012, by which time UC Berkeley had joined the line up.

In fact we had been following this initiative even before the initial announcement by participating in, and reporting on, the experimental MOOC that was billed as a prototype for future online MITx offereings. Course 6.002x - Circuits and Electronics attracted 155,000 students from 162 countries It was taught by Anant Agarwal, who at the time was Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and went on to be founder of edX. Currently Agarwal is the chief platform officer of 2U, the company that acquired edX for $800 million USD in 2021.

Over its first decade edX had been joined by 160 partners, mostly universities but also the Linux Foundation, AWS, IBM and others institutions, and had served reached more than 39 million learners, and exceeded 110 million course enrollments.

When it joined 2U, a for-profit educational technology company, there were fears that edX might change for the worse, but this doesn't seem to have happened. It is still possible to audit much of the platform's content for free and it has pioneered AI advancements that led to it being included in Fast Company’s 2024 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, which recognizes companies that are transforming business, shaping society, and paving the way for the innovations of tomorrow.

Using technology from OpenAI, 2U has taken steps to harness the power of generative AI to equip learners with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the era of AI with two facilities:

• edX Xpert can be thought of as a learner’s personal tutor and assistant on edX.org. In a growing number of open courses, learners can ask Xpert to provide summaries of video lectures and text material, break down complex concepts, answer follow-up questions, recommend modules for review, and provide practice tests. By March 2024 over 600,000 unique learners and edX.org site visitors had engaged with Xpert and asked over 350,000 questions.
• edX ChatGPT Plugin makes descriptions and links for all courses and programs on edX discoverable to potential learners directly within ChatGPT. Partners that have created audit track courses on edX can also opt-in to allow ChatGPT users to search and learn directly from their course content.

Boot Camps are another new feature of edX since it joined 2U. 2U's original boot camp program, intensive technology training programs designed to meet the needs of working adults across all educational backgrounds, had already seen 60,000 students graduate between 2016 and 2022 when they were rebranded to edX. As 2U Co-founder and CEO Christopher “Chip” Paucek stated at the time:

"In the face of a global tech talent shortage, our scalable boot camp model is bringing great non-profit universities and employers to the table to give thousands of working adults from all over the world the skills and tools they need to succeed in the digital economy. Together with our partners, we’re thrilled to expand the reach and impact of these important workforce development programs on the edX platform.” 

University boot camp programs at edX.org are available in a 24-week part-time and 12-week full-time format, and include up to 240 hours of live online classroom instruction, as well as extensive project-based work, asynchronous resources, 24/7 tutoring support, and career-planning services. Every boot camp student has access to industry-leading career support, including one-on-one coaching, resume templates and reviews, and interview preparation toolkits, as well as virtual career events with companies across 2U’s employer network. 

edX’s portfolio of  boot camp programs cover coding, data science, cybersecurity, UX/UI, and more. The latest addition is the Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp. Its program curriculum covers foundational concepts including Python, unsupervised and supervised machine learning, transformers, natural language processing, AI applications, time series forecasting, and AI and data ethics.

This boot camp appears to be included in the edX Birthday Promotion. Note, however that the offer of Up to $1,000 discount is restricted to students residing in the same country as the University involved. The Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp is offered by Michigan State University, University of Denver, The Ohio State University College of Engineering, and Southern Methodist University, Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Utah, and University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

To redeem the up to US$1,000 discount the steps are:

• Go to your chosen boot camp program page on edX.org.

• Fill out the form to request information. 

• You will receive an email with instructions for contacting the admissions team. 

• Speak with the admissions team to initiate the enrollment process and redeem your US$1,000 discount. 

The offer applies to any start date open for enrollment as long as you enroll and pay by May 20, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S.). 

More straightforwardly, to redeem the 30% discount on professional certificates, XSeries, MicroBachelors® programs, MicroMasters® programs, and the verified track for courses, enroll in your chosen program and use code EDXBDAY24 at checkout by May 20. The discount cannot be combined with any other offers for edX courses and programs.

For an earlier discount offer I selected one from each type of program inlcuded, see edX 20% Off For Back To You Season. More recently I looked at The Professional Certificate in Introduction to Python Programming. This program is suitable both for complete beginners and, with its emphasis on Computer Science as well as coding, for anyone who hasn't followed formal education in programming

More Information

edX Birthday Promotion

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