We’re excited to announce the 10 finalists for the eighth annual edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning. The finalists represent faculty and educators from institutions around the globe behind a variety of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), ranging in topics from healthcare to sustainability and mathematics. These MOOCs are available for all learners to audit for free at edX.org.
The edX Prize is an annual award that celebrates the contributions and innovations of educators in the edX community and amplifies the powerful role that online learning plays in the transformation of education today. Additionally, the award recognizes educators who have demonstrated a commitment to the open and online education community and have taught courses and programs that continue to inspire and engage edX learners everywhere.
“This remarkable group of educators continues to embody the unwavering passion, dedication, and innovation within the edX partner network,” stated Anant Agarwal, edX Founder and Chief Platform Officer at 2U. "The 2023 edX prize finalists represent diverse institutions and disciplines and are steadfast in their mission to expand society's knowledge and understanding through free and open courses. On behalf of the millions of learners on the edX platform, we extend our gratitude for their tireless efforts to fuel the world’s ambition through education.”
The 2023 finalists include (sorted alphabetically by institution):
- Dr. Ben Milbourn, Dr. Wenn B. Lawson, Professor Sonya Girdler, and Katherine Browne / Autism and Mental Health / Curtin University
- Professor Jenny Dankelman and Dr. Arjun Knulst / Biomedical Equipment: Repairing and Maintaining Biomedical Devices / Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)
- Professor James Freericks / Mathematics and Computational Methods / Georgetown University
- Dr. Ming Yen Ng and Dr. Varut Vince Vardhanabhuti / Advanced Cardiac Imaging / University of Hong Kong
- Brian Buechel, Brian Neiswander, Nikola Trica, Pragya Lakhotia and Megan Thompson / MATLAB Essentials / MathWorks
- Dr. Crystal Sands / Information Literacy / Thomas Edison State University
- Professor Santosh Panda, Anushree Badola, Chris Smith, Sumana Sahoo and Nibedita Sinha / Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Essentials / University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Dr. Ronald Irwin and André Weisner / Developing Feature Stories / University of Cape Town
- Professor Ofra Mayseless, Dr. Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Amir Freimann, Dr. Arie Kizel, Dr. Pninit Russo-Netzer, Galit Hanien, Shay Hanien, Sharon Fayerberger and Yafit Auerbach / Cultivating a Caring and Benevolent Environment in Education / University of Haifa - Israel
- Dr. Elliott Kruse / Leadership and Organizational Behavior / Universidad Tecnológico de Monterrey
Each year, a panel of select educators and leaders from across the edX community helps evaluate the submissions and choose the finalists and winner. Evaluation criteria include: effective, engaging, efficient, and equitable teaching methods, and course innovation with an emphasis on learner-centered design. This year’s finalists also included two learner-nominated courses.
Last year, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) professor Dick van Gameren took home the 2022 edX Prize for his Global Housing Design course. Focusing on the design of sustainable and inclusive housing, the course directly addresses the critical global need for urban development expertise, with close to a billion people worldwide currently living in inadequate housing. This year’s winner will be announced at the beginning of October at the 2023 Global Forum, an in-person convening of edX’s partners and leaders in online education from across the globe.
