edX

You can choose from about four hundred courses in the edX catalog. This sounds like a lot, but once you begin to narrow the catalog by availability and category, your options narrow considerably. For example, there were just six courses currently available when I searched for Arts and Culture. With that said, edX tends to have more offerings in the sciences; there were nineteen courses available in computer science when I last searched.

Similar to Coursera, edX offers verified certificates for most of their courses. Verified certificates are optional, but some learners may decide to sign up so that they have some proof of their participation in the course. More than anything else, these certificates are for you. There are several studies now that indicate that students who pay (even a little) for online classes are significantly more likely to complete those classes.

The cost of a verified certificate is (sort of) up to you. Because edX is a not-for-profit platform, they use your verified certificate "contribution" to support the development of the site. That contribution can start at $50; however, edX is happy to accept more lavish donations (hence to open field).

Once you complete a course, you will receive a hyperlink to your certificate, which you can share at will. While it is a far cry for an accredited degree, a verified certificate does provide you with some proof of enrollment, should you want to notify your prospective or current employer of professional development.

As with other online courses, edX structures classes around video lectures. A typically lecture is divided into a series of clips, usually fewer than ten minutes each, and some as short as two minutes. The professors clearly enjoyed their green screen.

While most of the videos were short and lively enough to sustain my interest, I did find that my attention wandered when the professors began using the tablet capture feature to work through what were, for me, some relatively onerous formulas. With that said, Exoplanets did include a prerequisite of high school math and physics, both of which I have not used in an embarrassingly long time.

While none of the courses in which I enrolled used interactive learning tools, edX showcases an interactive periodic table in their introductory demo course.

Along the same lines, edX also supports a drag and drop tool.

The majority of edX courses run for specific durations. This Frankenstein course, at Berkeley, required just four weeks.

In any edX course, you can expect free, online access to ancillary resources. (That said, there are sometimes optional readings that you may choose to buy). In the case of my Frankenstein class, a PDF of the novel was embedded directly into the course.