edX vs Google Cloud Skills Boost

edX is an online course provider offering courses, certificates, executive education, microcredentials and degrees from edX, member institutions, 2U and other organizations. Learners can audit courses for free, but the audit track limits content, omits graded assignments and certificates, and ends access to materials when the course ends. Verified individual courses start at around $50 and include graded work, a certificate and continued access to lectures, readings and lessons. Multi-course professional certificate programs start at around $500; executive education programs can cost at least $2,500. Courses combine video and text, discussions, and different problems and assessments; many are self-paced, and individual courses generally take two to six weeks. Android and iOS apps support enrollment, most assignments, discussions and offline video downloads, but not timed or proctored exams. Institutional and business offerings include LMS integrations, SSO, grade pass-back, analytics dashboards and administrative tools. edX reports a network of 100 million learners and more than 250 content partners.

Google Cloud Skills Boost, also called Google Skills, is a web learning platform for building skills including Google Cloud and AI. Its catalog combines courses and labs with videos, documents, practical activities, and quizzes. Cloud labs provide temporary credentials for practice using real cloud resources. Guided learning paths bring together selected courses or labs around a role, use case, or solution. Completing learning content can earn learners shareable skill badges and certificates. Subscription content includes material from Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, Google for Education, Google Marketing, and more. Labs require a laptop or desktop, an internet connection, and a supported browser, and a subscription permits one lab at a time. Current versions of popular browsers are supported; Firefox or Chrome are recommended. GEAR participants can claim 35 monthly learning credits at no cost. Google Cloud customers can request access to the Google Skills for Organizations catalog and other exclusive learning resources and programs.