EdX collaborates with Microsoft to Launch IT Development Courses

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- EdX, the nonprofit online learning initiative, welcomes Microsoft Corp. as its first corporate member to offer MOOCs on edX.org. Through this program, Microsoft will offer the edX global learning community courses to acquire the core development skills needed to be successful in the cloud-first, mobile-first world.

Taught by Microsoft experts, these first courses focused on in-demand skills, feature interactive coding, assessments, and exercises, and are now open for enrollment. Anders Hejlsberg, technical fellow at Microsoft, will co-teach Introduction to TypeScript; with Introduction to Bootstrap, students will learn a popular front-end web development framework; Programming with C# will help learners gain expertise in a widely used programming language for .NET; additional courses in fast-growing technologies such as cloud computing, data platforms, and Office 365 are also available on edx.org. Students can enroll in Microsoft courses for free or obtain a verified certificate for a fee. Enrollment opens today, with courses beginning at the end of March.

"We are pleased to welcome Microsoft to edX," said Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX. "Microsoft has already made significant contributions to the edX platform by developing an XBlock that enables course creators to embed Office Mix lectures into their edX courses. With these new MOOCs, millions of edX learners around the world will gain important technical skills to excel in their careers."

"Microsoft has a long history of working within the community to make coding and app development more accessible and rewarding to the growing number of people who want to help shape the technology industry," said Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President & Chief Evangelist, Developer Experience (DX) at Microsoft. "Together with edX we can provide new opportunities for students and developers from around the world to create innovative applications, services, and experiences that have a meaningful impact on today's mobile and cloud centric world."

This new initiative expands upon edX's recent collaboration with Microsoft's Office Mix. With Office Mix, educators produce videos and online lectures that deliver an engaging experience to students, with support for audio and video recordings, screen captures, hyperlinks, and digital ink.

Microsoft courses include:

• Programming with C# 
  C# is a widely-used .NET programming language that is designed to provide a simple yet powerful language for general purpose programming needs. Students will learn the fundamentals of C# supporting cross-platform application development.
• Introduction to TypeScript
  TypeScript is a new highly-productive superset of JavaScript that is rapidly gaining currency amongst developers who build and maintain large JavaScript applications. In this course, co-authored by Anders Hejlsberg, students will learn language syntax and how to use TypeScript to generate JavaScript for any platform.
• Introduction to Bootstrap
  Bootstrap is a mobile-first web UI framework originally developed at Twitter that has become a foundational technology for front-end web development. This course will investigate the power of Bootstrap and how to implement it in applications.
• Querying with Transact SQL
  Transact-SQL is the structured query language for SQL Server. This course will show how to use Transact-SQL to code a range of solutions, ranging from retrieving data from a SQL Server database to implementing transactional programming logic.
• Building Cloud Apps with Microsoft Azure
  This course takes a patterns-based approach to building real-world cloud solutions on Microsoft Azure.  Students will learn the latest tools and technologies in cloud development and study the techniques for cloud-based application design.
• Introduction to Office 365 APIs
  Office 365 offers the tools users need to get work done anywhere and on any device. In this course, developers will learn how to create robust cross-platform applications using Office 365.
• Windows PowerShell Fundamentals
  This course provides fundamental knowledge and skills needed to use Windows PowerShell to automate common administrative functions in Windows-based clients and servers. Students will get hands-on practice to replace manual, repetitive, and time-consuming operations with effective, automated solutions in both local and remote scenarios. This course is offered as part of the edX Professional Education series and has a fee associated with it.

About edX
EdX is a nonprofit, open-source enterprise offering online courses from more than 60 member institutions, composed of both leading global universities and colleges and a diverse group of prominent organizations from around the world. 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.

Media Contact:
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Communications Manager, edX
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