Inside EdX's Strategy for 2023: Subscriptions, Job Boards, and Funnel Builders —...

Slide from 2U’s Investor Day presentation

At 2U’s investor day last month, their key leadership shared various aspects of their business, including their plans for 2023.

I watched certain parts of their video to learn more about them, particularly the presentation by Anant Agarwal on “Key Innovations.” Agarwal, formerly the CEO of edX and now the Chief Platform Officer of 2U, discussed what they have in store for 2023.

Catalog Subscriptions

Nearly every major online provider I can think of has some form of catalog subscription, except for edX.

As per Agarwal, edX is set to introduce two types of subscriptions. One will be for specific programs (similar to Coursera Specializations) and will cost around $40 per month. The other will be a catalog subscription or an “all you can eat” subscription, as Agarwal refers to it.

Agarwal also predicts that these subscriptions will double their completion rates.

Job Board and Learner Services

EdX intends to extend 2U’s Career Engagement Network to all other programs offered by edX. Currently, this network is accessible to all 2U students and alumni enrolled in its bootcamps, degree programs, and non-degree programs.

Here is how 2U defines their Career Engagement Network:

2U’s Career Engagement Network is designed to help students chart clear education-to-career pathways and become employer competitive job candidates. Resources will include resume and interview preparation toolkits as well as workshops, webinars, virtual events, and career fairs with hundreds of companies across 2U’s employer network, including Google, Target, State Farm, H&R Block, TEKSystems, and Apex Systems. The Career Engagement Network will also offer students career-specific insights and information as well as the chance to hear from and engage directly with industry professionals and recruiters.

Video Clips, Try Its, Guided Projects, and MicroBootCamps

EdX is repackaging content from 2U Bootcamps, now known as edX Bootcamps, to create “funnel builders” for its higher priced Bootcamps.

During the Investor Day, Agrawal introduced “Try Its”, which are bite-sized courses designed to give learners a “taste of a longer program experience”. These courses take less than an hour and can be as short as 10 minutes. EdX has launched a few Try Its on topics such as Intro to Python, Intro to Design Thinking, Intro to Trello, Cybersecurity Basics, and Zoom Basics. The courses have 6,000 enrollments and have led to 25 Bootcamp enrollments.

EdX has also launched “Video Clips”, which are self-explanatory, but the user experience is bloated, with clips hidden behind an enrollment step. This could be for SEO purposes, which Coursera has been doing for a while.  Currently, Class Central has found 22 Try Its and 58 Video Clips.

Screenshot of IBM’s Cognitive Class labs interface

EdX has recently been experimenting with about 20 Guided Projects from IBM, which are similar to Coursera’s Guided Projects launched in 2020 after acquiring Rhyme for $10 million. In the case of edX, the Guided Projects direct learners to labs hosted on IBM’s Cognitive Class platform.

MicroBootCamps are only available to businesses and cost less than $5,250, based on the US tax code, which allows employees to exclude up to $5,250 of educational assistance benefits per year from their employer’s educational assistance program.