This is an experimental partnership with edX.

They're essentially testing out how our engine might work as a replacement for their class forums. They educate people. Online. For free. We like that, so we're willing to see if we can help or not.

While a lot of their needs fit pretty well (specific questions about course concepts, etc.) some of what they're doing isn't a natural match for our model (gtky, back-and-forth discussion, etc.). But we thought it was worth seeing how it would work if we gave them the tools and let them try them out.

Given the size of the test, we're not too concerned that the network will be overrun with users who have incorrect expectations of what's allowed (and our "normal" sites have a pretty wide range of rules, anyway).

I wouldn't stress too much here - this may prove to be a short-term experiment. If it turns into something bigger, we'll clearly have to invest some more in clarifying any differences between these sites and our "official" network.

This was an experimental partnership with edX.

We were essentially testing out how our engine might work as a replacement for their class forums. They educate people. Online. For free. We like that, so we were willing to see if we can help or not.

Unfortunately it didn't work. If it did, we would have invested more time clarifying the difference between these sites and our "official" network. But academic coursework is very temporal by nature, and they never quite created the core community needed to make these site "work." Pedagogy isn't one of the strengths of Stack Exchange, so that didn't leave much of a value proposition to augment classwork in any sustainable way.

Most of these sites have been closed. CS50 still gets a reasonable amount of traffic, so we agreed to leave it operational as long as it continued to do so, but none of these sites appear in our network listing.

You can read more about this in

A Set of Stack Exchange Sites for Universities

This is an experimental partnership with edX.

They're essentially testing out how our engine might work as a replacement for their class forums. They educate people. Online. For free. We like that, so were willing to see if we can help or not.

While a lot of their needs fit pretty well (specific questions about course concepts, etc.) some of what they're doing isn't a natural match for our model (gtky, back-and-forth discussion, etc.). But we thought it was worth seeing how it would work if we gave em the tools and let them try them out.

Given the size of the test, we're not too concerned that the network will be overrun with users who have incorrect expectations of what's allowed (and our "normal" sites have a pretty wide range of rules, anyway).

I wouldn't stress too much here - this may prove to be a short-term experiment. If it turns into something bigger, we'll clearly have to invest some more in clarifying any differences between these sites and our "official" network.

This is an experimental partnership with edX.

They're essentially testing out how our engine might work as a replacement for their class forums. They educate people. Online. For free. We like that, so we're willing to see if we can help or not.

While a lot of their needs fit pretty well (specific questions about course concepts, etc.) some of what they're doing isn't a natural match for our model (gtky, back-and-forth discussion, etc.). But we thought it was worth seeing how it would work if we gave them the tools and let them try them out.

Given the size of the test, we're not too concerned that the network will be overrun with users who have incorrect expectations of what's allowed (and our "normal" sites have a pretty wide range of rules, anyway).

I wouldn't stress too much here - this may prove to be a short-term experiment. If it turns into something bigger, we'll clearly have to invest some more in clarifying any differences between these sites and our "official" network.