[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

EdX, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched in May, now has the University of California, Berkeley, joining  its platform.

UC Berkeley will collaborate with edX to expand the group of participating “X Universities” – universities offering their courses on the edX platform. Through edX, the “X Universities” aim to provide interactive education wherever there is access to the Internet and will enhance teaching and learning through research about how students learn. EdX plans to add other “X Universities” from around the world to the edX platform in the coming months.

UC Berkeley will offer two courses on edX this Fall, and the university will also serve as the inaugural chair of the to-be-formed “X University” Consortium.

MIT launched its MITx online learning initiative in December 2011, with 6.002x as its prototype course, and more than 150,000 students worldwide enrolled. EdX was announced by Harvard and MIT in May, with each university committing to contribute $30 million toward the online partnership.

In addition to the funding commitments by Harvard and MIT, edX has already garnered outside financial support, including two individual leadership gifts. MIT alumnus Philippe Laffont, founder and chief investment officer of Coatue Management  has made a gift to support MITx in honor of MIT Professor Stephen A. Ward, Laffont’s thesis advisor at MIT. Harvard Alumnus Jonathan Grayer, former chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc. and cofounder of Weld North has made a gift in support of HarvardX.

EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the Web.