IBM Partners with edX.org to launch Professional Certificate Programs
Posted on August 8, 2018 by Antonio Cangiano
IBM has partnered with edX.org, the leading online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT, for the delivery of several Professional Certificate programs. Professional Certificate programs are a series of in-demand courses designed to build or advance critical skills for a specific career.
“We are honored to welcome IBM as an edX partner,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and MIT Professor. “IBM is defined by its commitment to constant innovation and its culture of lifelong learning, and edX is delighted to be working together to further this shared commitment. We are pleased to offer these Professional Certificate programs in Deep Learning and Chatbots to help our learners gain the knowledge needed to advance in these incredibly in-demand fields. Professional Certificate programs, like these two new offerings on edX, deliver career-relevant education in a flexible, affordable way, by focusing on the skills industry leaders and successful professionals are seeking today.”
EdX.org is a great partner for us too, not just because they have an audience of over 17 million students, but because their mission of increasing access to high-quality education for everyone so closely aligns with our own.
“Today we’re seeing a transformational shift in society. Driven by innovations like AI, cloud computing, blockchain and data analytics, industries from cybersecurity to healthcare to agriculture are being revolutionized. These innovations are creating new jobs but also changing existing ones—and require new skills that our workforce must be equipped with. We are therefore taking our responsibility by partnering with edX to make verified certificate programs available through their platform that will enable society to embrace and develop the skills most in-demand” said IBM Chief Learning Officer Gordon Fuller.
The IBM Skills Network (of which Cognitive Class is part of) also relies on Open edX — the open source platform that powers edX.org — and we plan to contribute back the enhancements as well as support the development of this MOOC project. To learn more about how we use (and scale Open edX) check out our [recent post] on the topic.
We are kicking off this collaboration with two Professional Certificate programs that might be of interest to you.
– Deep Learning (the first course in the program, Deep Learning Fundamentals with Keras, is open for enrollment today starts September 16)
– Building Chatbots Powered by AI (the first course in the program, How to Build Chatbots and Make Money , is open for enrollment today and already running)
The chatbot program includes three courses:
1. How to Build Chatbots and Make Money;
2. Smarter Chatbots with Node-RED and Watson AI;
3. Programming Chatbots with Watson Services.
Those of you who are familiar with my chatbot course on Cognitive Class, will recognize the first course on the list. The key difference is that this version on edX includes a module on making money from chatbots.
Node-RED is a really cool visual programming environment based on JavaScript. With little programming skills and the help of this second course, you’ll be able to increase your chatbot’s capabilities and make it interact with other services and tools, including sentiment analysis, speech to text, social media services, and deployment on Facebook Messenger.
The last course in this chatbot program focuses on other Watson services, specifically the powerful combination of Watson Assistant and Watson Discovery to create smarter chatbots that can draw answers from your existing knowledge base.
All in all, this program is still accessible to people with limited programming skills; though, you will get the most out of it if you are a programmer.
The Deep Learning program is aimed at professionals and students interested in machine learning and data science. Once completed, it will include five courses:
1. Deep Learning Fundamentals with Keras;
2. Deep Learning with Python and PyTorch;
3. Deep Learning with Tensorflow;
4. Using GPUs to Scale and Speed-up Deep Learning;
5. Applied Deep Learning Capstone Project.
The goal of these programs is to get you ready to use exciting new technologies in the emerging fields of Data Science, Machine Learning, AI, and more. The skills you’ll acquire through these highly practical programs will help you advance your career, whether at your current job or when seeking new employment.
It’s a competitive market out there, and we are confident that these programs will serve you well. If you are an employer looking to re-skill your workforce, these programs are also an ideal way to do so in a structured manner.
The certificates also look quite good on a resume (or LinkedIn) as passing these courses and completing the programs demonstrates a substantial understanding of the topics at hand. This isn’t just theory. You can’t complete these Professional Certificate programs without getting your hands dirty, so to speak.
We also plan to launch more Professional Certificates in collaboration with edX.org, but if you have an interest in advancing your career in Data Science and AI, we recommend that you start with these two.
Antonio Cangiano is a Software Developer and AI Advocate at IBM and the author of Technical Blogging (2nd Edition): Amplify your influence. He is passionate about the craft of programming, AI, online marketing, and entrepreneurship. Keep in touch by reading his programming blog and by following him on Twitter.
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