edX

edX was founded in May 2012 by MIT and Harvard, based on the MITx initiative, created by Piotr Mitros, Rafael Reif, and Anant Agarwal in 2011 at MIT. Gerry Sussman, Anant Agarwal, Chris Terman, and Piotr Mitros taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, drawing 155,000 students from 162 countries. In 2013, they partnered with Stanford and in June 2013 they reached 1 million students. edx.org released as open source, creating Open edX.

In September 2014, edX announced a high school initiative. The following month, edX announced professional development courses, and in March 2015 it partnered with Microsoft.

In April 2015, edX partnered with Arizona State University to launch the Global Freshman Academy.

In September 2016, edX launched 19 MicroMasters programs. It launched an additional 16 MicroMasters programs the next year.

In January 2018, edX partnered with Microsoft and General Electric to provide subsidized online courses and guaranteed job interviews. That same month, Tech Mahindra partnered with edX to re-skill workforce on new tech areas. Later that year, edX introduced nine Master's degrees on the platform. The degree programs can be completed fully online and are offered by universities such as Georgia Institute of Technology and University of California San Diego.

On January 10, 2020, edX launched two MicroBachelors programs. The programs offer undergraduate level courses which can lead to university credit for degree seeking students.

Subsidiary of 2U (2021-present)

On June 29, 2021, edX and 2U announced they had entered into a definitive agreement to merge. 2U would acquire edX's assets for $800M in cash. On November 16, 2021, 2U completed its acquisition of the edX business and website from the nonprofit organization.

According to Anant Agarwal, when 2U acquired edX, it “made a legally binding commitment to preserve and advance edX’s founding mission..." Jefferson D. Pooley, a Muhlenberg University professor and Harvard graduate said “The whole sale itself was a betrayal and a fundamentally misguided choice by Harvard and MIT to betray, in my view, the trust that faculty and students put into it when they signed onto the platform.”

Research

In addition to educational offerings, edX is used for research into learning and distance education by collecting learners' clicks and analyzing the data, as well as collecting demographics from each registrant. A team of researchers at Harvard and MIT, led by David Pritchard and Lori Breslow, released their initial findings in 2013. EdX member schools and organizations also conduct their own research using data collected from their courses. Research focuses on improving retention, course completion and learning outcomes in traditional campus courses and online.

edX has engaged in a number of partnerships with educational institutions in the United States, China, Mongolia, Japan, and more to use edX courses in "blended classrooms". In blended learning models, traditional classes include an online interactive component. San Jose State University (SJSU) partnered with edX to offer 6.00xL Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, as a blended course at SJSU and released an initial report on the project in February 2013. Initial results showed a decrease in failure rates from previous semesters. The percentage of students required to retake the course dropped from 41% under the traditional format to 9% for those taking the edX blended course. In Spring 2013, Bunker Hill Community College and Massachusetts Bay Community College implemented a SPOC, or small private online course. The colleges incorporated an MIT-developed Python programming course on edX into their campus-based courses, and reported positive results.

Open edX platform

Open edX platform is the open-source platform software developed by edX and made freely available to other institutions of higher learning that want to make similar offerings. On June 1, 2013, edX open sourced its entire platform. The source code can be found on GitHub. The platform was originally developed by Piotr Mitros in 2011, with maintenance transferred to edX in 2012.