If you have a keen interest in e-learning, then you might have heard of edX offering high-quality courses. This company founded by Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) as a joint research venture quickly became popular across the world due to its low and accessible costs.
But because the platform is based entirely online, you might not actually know much about where edX is based.
E-learning is great because it has made higher education accessible to people all over the world, and edX in particular is great because it allows people to access Harvard and MIT-level courses, even if they live on the other side of the country. But where is the edX main office based? That is a good question!
In this guide, we’re telling you absolutely everything that you need to know about where the edX offices are based and lots more. Read on to find out more.
What Is edX?
First things first, let’s take a look at exactly what edX is. As we have established, edX is an online learning destination and an e-learning platform that was founded by Harvard and MIT as a research study, with the CEO being Anant Agarwal.
Learners could sign up for edX and access a wide range of different course materials totally free of charge as long as they enrolled as “audit learners” on the site.
This essentially means that the users give edX permission to access their data for their research study in return for the learners accessing the courses on edX for free. This really made edX soar in popularity as users could access Harvard and MIT-level qualifications online totally free of cost.
There are lots of different types of courses available on edX across a range of different subjects and topics, like computer science, data analysis, architecture, business, design, etc. and this is something else that made the edX platform popular.
Through edX, users across the country could access excellent high-quality education courses in lots of different subjects, and complete the course without even having to leave their own homes.
The “free of charge” part of edX might seem a little too good to be true, and that is because it is. While the course material can be accessed totally free of charge, users are required to pay if they want a verified certificate of their participation in the course.
So, if you wanted to put any leadership edX courses on your CV, you would need to pay for a certificate to prove that you completed the course. Now that we’ve taken a look at edX, let’s focus on where they are based.
Where Is The edX Main Office Based?
edX was founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012 as a totally online learning platform with online advance teaching. It’s goal was to enhance teaching and learning off campus. Of course, the company couldn’t be totally online and there was a requirement for a main office.
As MIT and Harvard are both in Massachusetts, there was only really one State that seemed feasible as a base, which is why edX is based out of Massachusetts.
More specifically, edX is based out of Cambridge Massachusetts. Cambridge is actually the city where Harvard is located, so the base of edX was really close to the University that funded the company.
Since 2012, a lot has changed for edX, but regardless of these massive changes, the company still has its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So, regardless of where in the world you are studying an edX course, the base for the company that created that course is located in Cambridge.
Does Harvard Still Own edX?
As we have said, edX has changed a lot since it was first founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012. The main reason for this large amount of change is the fact that Harvard no longer owns edX. (Check out our article ‘Why Did Harvard Sell EdX? [What You Need To Know]‘)
edX started out as a joint research project between Harvard and MIT, but like all research projects it eventually reached a point where neither University had the time or resources to continue the study. That is when edX changed hands.
Despite being a research project, edX is also a fully-fledged company. So, like many companies, it operates on the basis of shares. In 2021, Harvard sold its majority stake in the company to an organization called 2U, and since then, 2U has run edX instead of Harvard.
A lot of the old Harvard and MIT courses remain on edX, but the platform is no longer operated by either of these companies.
Instead, 2U is in charge of edX. 2U is an e-learning giant that was founded in 2008. The company mainly focuses on non-profits and works a lot with universities to make courses accessible to those with limited resources. So, 2U and edX were very much a match made in Heaven.
The biggest difference between Harvard owning edX and 2U owning edX is their locations. Harvard set up edX to be based near the University because it made sense. However, 2U is actually based out of Maryland, so many people expected the headquarters of edX to change when 2U took over.
However, that didn’t happen. Instead, the headquarters of edX still remain in Cambridge, Massachusetts to this very day.
Do Employers Take edX Seriously?
If you are somebody who really enjoys e-learning, then you might find yourself pretty attracted to edX, and it makes sense. edX is an excellent global online learning platform with lots of different courses available to users across the globe.
But before you pay for the certificate of an edX course you have completed, you might want to ask if employers actually take edX qualifications seriously.
Well, you will be pleased to hear that most of the time, employers will take edX courses seriously. That is why these high-quality courses are totally worth taking the time to complete.
The main reason why employers take edX courses more seriously than other online courses offered by e-learning companies is the fact that edX was set up by 2 of the biggest universities in the USA.
All the early edX courses came directly from Harvard and MIT, so when you completed an edX course, you were essentially completing a qualification with one of these universities. In other cases, you could earn college credit, which The Global Freshman Academy pioneered. (See also ‘Do edX Courses Give Grades?‘)
It is worth noting, however, that most employers will only take your edX qualifications seriously if you have the certification to prove that you completed the course. So if you, for instance, complete an electronics course, it won’t be worth much without the certification.
Without the certificates, there is no proof that you actually completed the qualifications, so employers will likely be uncertain about the qualifications until you provide them with the certificates. (And if you’re interested in seeing if edX’s competitors are a better choice, see our article ‘Codecademy VS edX: Which Is Best In 2023?‘)
As we said earlier, there is a fee associated with obtaining these certificates, but if you are applying for a new job, it is totally worth paying the fee to receive the certificates.
Summary
In short, the main edX office is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It makes a lot of sense that the main offices of this platform are located in this area as this is the same location where Harvard University is located.
edX was originally founded in a business development collaboration between Harvard and MIT, so it makes sense that the main offices are in the same State as the universities that founded the company.
Since then, edX has actually been taken over by the parent company 2U, an e-learning company founded in 2008 and based in Maryland. So you might have expected the headquarters of edX to move when this new company took over.
However, this didn’t happen, and edX is still based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Thanks for reading!
