edX celebrates self-motivated learners in India

Bengaluru, July 11: EdX students in and around Bengaluru gathered at an edX Meetup at Microsoft Research Centre to connect with edX CEO Anant Agarwal and IIT Bombay professor Deepak Phatak. The event was organized to celebrate self-motivated learners in India and honour edX learners across the country.

EdX is a nonprofit created by MIT and Harvard that brings the best of higher education to students of all ages anywhere in the world, via the Internet, with free curated courses. It represents a revolution in education and provides access to courses taught by the world's top faculty for free. Top universities like University of Berkeley, The University of Texas System, University of Toronto, UT Austin, Tsinghua University and IIT Bombay, among others contribute MOOCs to the edX platform.

Speaking at the occasion, Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX said, "When we are talking about edX in India, we are talking about ‘engaging and advocating education' with the second largest participant country supporting MOOC - comprising of 12% of our entire edX student population enrolled in one form of course or another on our engaging platform." Adding to this he said, "We are excited about the future and we will continue to evolve edX in a way in which blended MOOC models continue to enthral and engross the ‘scholar in you' and which will pave the way for a refreshed view at improving education from the grassroots level."

The event also included an address from Prof. Deepak Phatak who has been with IIT Bombay since 1971. He stated, "Our country has always had an affinity towards "quality education" both in the way it is taught and more importantly, on how it is imparted! Partnering with edX and its open source platform has been a revelation and this has already started yielding further results and has paved the way in extending the courses to cover vocational as well as classroom training. Every participant in our courses are encouraged to indulge, be challenged and have immensely benefitted from the edX platform. Enthusiastic ‘learners' from all walks of society will continue to reap the benefits of having a truly open education platform which evolves to cater to the needs of learners across the globe in delivering impactful education."

The edX Meetup gave the learners an opportunity to share their stories and talk about how online education and MOOCs have impacted and transformed their lives. Bill Thies of Microsoft Research India hosted this event and moderated discussion between the students and Dr. Anant Agarwal and Prof. Deepak Phatak.

About edX:
EdX is a nonprofit enterprise offering online courses from the 34 global institutions of higher education that comprise the xConsortium, along with a diverse group of leading organizations around the world that also contributes courses to edx.org. Founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, edX is focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research on an open source platform. Based in Cambridge, MA, USA, edX is focused on people, not profit.