The Academy of the State Customs Committee (ASCCA) organized a virtual "ASCCA-edX® Conference" with the participation of the Customs officers of the State Customs Committee (SCC) and its agencies. The conference was attended by Gulu Novruzov, Chief of the ASCCA, John Schwartz, Head of edX®  Global Business Development, Anar Suleymanov, Chief of the SCC Secretariat, and more than 20 Customs officers, who successfully completed various online courses offered by  edX®.

edX® is a software platform that offers more than 3000 educational courses on a broad range of subjects. The key feature of edX® is that the courses have their own paces and schedule flexibilities that can be adjusted. Classes on this platform last for 4-12 weeks and each course has a video transcription. Currently, there are more than 34 million  edX® students from around the world, and more than 100 million registered students. edX® provides access to the online courses and classes offered by more than 160 most prestigious universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Berkeley, University of Queensland, University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, Kyoto University, and the University of Tokyo. edX® uses tools such as video, game lab, and 3D virtual molecule builder. The platform is an open-source allowing developers to create, share and evaluate diverse contents, modules and courses

Delivering a keynote address in the conference,  the ASCCA Chief Mr. Novruzov underlined that among the Azerbaijani higher education institutions, as well as the national Customs training institutions and Regional Training Centers of the Member States of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the Customs Academy  had been the first and only organization that cooperated with  edX®.

The ASCCA’s partnership with edX® allows both its students and in particular, the Customs officers, to benefit from numerous courses through the international online learning process.

Making the best use of the offered opportunity, the Customs officers successfully completed online courses on blockchain technologies, bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, data science, intellectual property law, contract law, psychology, innovation, leadership and other areas, and received 41 certificates.

Chief of the SCC Secretariat, Mr. Suleymanov said cooperation with edX® had been an important step in terms of building capacity to strengthen human resources and support Customs sector reforms in the context of the pandemic and changing conditions. Highlighting ownership, accountability, and empowerment as the three major principles of the WCO in the field of Customs reforms, Mr. Suleymanov stressed that such initiatives would also support the implementation of these principles.

The Azerbaijani Customs officers, who received certificates upon completing their courses of various prestigious universities through edX® since July 2020, shared their views on edX® courses with the participants.

edX® Head of Global Business Development, Mr. Schwartz, who joined the conference from the United States, said that edX had been created in 2012 by the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and  constituted the world's only non-profit, open-source MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform. He expressed confidence that the current and future achievements within the framework of the cooperation would support the further development of human resources in the Customs sector of Azerbaijan, and expressed the willingness of edX® to cooperate with the other universities of Azerbaijan, following the example of the successful cooperation with the Customs Academy.

The ASCCA’s Manager of International Cooperation and the edX® partnership project coordinator Mr. Elvin Mejidov spoke about the importance of the e-learning cooperation with the selected foreign institutions and future opportunities.

The participants' questions were answered at the end of the event.