By Nick Anderson, Washington Post
The start-up, a year old as of last Thursday, conveys a casual/hectic vibe in its office suite in Cambridge. Catered lunch and granola bars sustain the 20- and 30-somethings who work long hours building and servicing the Web platform. (One spring day there is Quiche Lorraine, tortellini and apple-cranberry salad.) For diversion, there is a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of polar bears in progress on a table near the break room. A monitor hanging from the ceiling delivers real-time metrics on usage of the Web site. Sheets of paper posted on a wall seem to indicate the number of certificates earned by students who had passed edX courses: 31,291 as of late March. EdX spokesman Dan O’Connell later said that that total was based on incomplete data. The sheets have been taken down. The Web site, which now counts 890,000 unique users, does not have a full tally of MOOC students who have earned certificates, he said.
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