A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.
Good
Subscriber Account active since
When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
edX, an e-learning non-profit founded by MIT and Harvard, offers free and affordable online classes to improve education accessibility to 25 million students.
The site is partnered with more than 90 of the world’s leading universities, non-profits, and NGOs to offer courses from Java programming to the Science of Happiness for free. Students also have the option of paying for a certificate of completion (usually $40-$300) that they can add to their CV, resume, and LinkedIn page. The site also has budget-friendly options for Professional Certificates, MicroBachelors, MicroMasters, and Master’s programs.
As one of its founding universities, MIT has 211 classes available on edX, including 17 computer science courses. Below, you can browse and audit free courses on everything from an introduction to computer science to quantum information science to the intersection of philosophy and mathematics. You can also take advantage of MIT’s OpenCourseWare, where they publish virtually all MIT course content for the public.
You can browse all computer science classes on edX here.
Length: 9 weeks
Certificate cost: $75 (College credit also offered through Charter Oak State College)
This course is the first part of an introduction to computational thinking, programming, and computer and data science. Without any prior experience in computer science or programming, you should be able to exit the course with both an understanding of how to think computationally and write programs to tackle problems.
The class focuses on breadth rather than depth. You’ll learn about Python, simple algorithms, testing and debugging, and data structures. You’ll also get an informal introduction to algorithm complexity.
*This course begins on June 2, 2021, but enrollment is currently open.
Length: 15 weeks
Certificate cost: $300
This course offers an in-depth introduction to the field of machine learning. Students cover topics from linear models to deep learning and reinforcement learning through hands-on Python projects. It’s also the last course in the MITx MicroMasters program in Statistics and Data Science.
*This course begins on September 6, 2021, but enrollment is currently open.
Length: 10 weeks
This is part one of a three-part series on digital systems. It’s based on a course offered by the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and covers topics like digital encoding of information, principles of digital signaling, combinational and sequential logic, implementation in CMOS, and more.
Using your browser for design entry and simulation, you’ll get to design and debug circuits at both the transistor- and gate-level, culminating in the creation of a 32-bit arithmetic and logic unit.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 10 weeks
This course covers topics like the design of a processor instruction set architecture, how to translate high-level programs into sequences of computer instructions, the design of the datapath and control logic for a 32-bit processor, and the role of caches in the memory hierarchy.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 10 weeks
This interactive course teaches students how to turn a processor into an entire computer system. You’ll learn virtualization as a way to share a single processor, along with the basic organization of a simple time-shared operating system, appropriate techniques for parallel processing, and how to use pipelining to increase a processor’s throughput.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 5 weeks
Certificate cost: $169
This course teaches students foundational techniques for designing the microchips used in smartphones, self-driving cars, computers, and the internet.
Length: 5 weeks
Certificate cost: $169
Slightly beyond the Level 1 class, this course teaches students how to speed up digital circuits and build amplifiers in the design of microchips used in smartphones, self-driving cars, computers, and the internet.
Length: 7 weeks
Certificate cost: $169
Students learn about cool applications, op-amps, and filters in the design of microchips used in smartphones, self-driving cars, computers, and the internet.
Length: 15 weeks
This introductory synthetic biology course brings together computer science, engineering, design, biotechnology, genetic engineering, and biology. Students learn how to engineer biological systems and program organisms to perform novel tasks.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 12 weeks
In “Paradox and Infinity,” you’ll be introduced to highlights from the intersection of philosophy and mathematics. You’ll learn about infinity, time travel, and free will, as well as computability and Gödel’s Theorem.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 12 weeks
This course is part one of two courses focused on writing good software using modern engineering techniques.
Students learn how to write programs that are safe from bugs, easy to understand, and ready for change. They learn about Java programming, software testing, code specifications, and abstract data types.
It takes 12 weeks to complete.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 10 weeks
This is the second course on writing good software. It digs deeper into what makes good code “good.” Students also explore two paradigms for modern programming: grammars, parsing, and recursive datatypes; and concurrent programming with threads.
It should take students ten weeks to complete.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 4 weeks
This course is designed to focus on the theory behind modern discrete-time signal processing systems and applications. Each topic includes a set of automatically-graded exercises for self-assessment to help digest concepts and preview topics.
It should take students four weeks to complete.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 13 weeks
Learn how to leverage IT to design health information and communication technology (ICT) solutions for the developing world. This course especially highlights how to design in resource-constrained settings. Students also learn about global health burdens, health informatics, design thinking, evaluation and monitoring, and the software development process.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 5 weeks
This class is part of a three-course series that teaches students about quantum bits, quantum logic gates, quantum algorithms, and quantum communications. It helps build foundational knowledge to understand what quantum computers can do, how they work, and how you can contribute to discovering new things and solving problems.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 5 weeks
The second part of Quantum Information Science builds on the foundational introduction provided in the first course and explores simple quantum protocols and algorithms, including quantum teleportation and superdense coding, Deutsch-Jozsa and Simon’s algorithms, Grover’s quantum search algorithm, and Shor’s quantum factoring algorithm.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Length: 7 weeks
The third and final course in Quantum Information Science is an introduction to the theory and practice of quantum computation. It builds on the previous courses’ foundational knowledge and the simple quantum protocols learned during the second course. Students learn about formal models for quantum noise and quantum communication channels, simple quantum error-correction codes, including the quantum Hamming code, quantum key distribution protocol, and distributed quantum protocols and algorithms.
*This course is currently archived, but materials are still available to audit.
Sign up for Insider Reviews’ weekly newsletter for more buying advice and great deals.
You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here.
Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected].
For you
