Get Started

UC San Diego Online is UC San Diego's branded instance of Open edX. Open edX is an open source learning management system with a large supportive community. It is the same platform that powers edX.org.

UC San Diego is committed to providing global access to scholarship and research via UC San Diego Online. UC San Diego Online courses and programs thus provide opportunities to learn from and engage with the campus community for both matriculated and non-matriculated learners worldwide.

A separate platform, Canvas, is used on campus to deliver face-to-face, hybrid and fully online courses and programs exclusively for UC San Diego students and affiliates. If you are a UC San Diego affiliate looking for your Canvas courses, please log in to canvas.ucsd.edu using your Active Directory credentials.

Hello, and welcome to UC San Diego Online!

We are happy to see you take the first step towards learning with us. Here are some starting points to help you get going in the right direction:

Register for an Account

If you have not done so already, please register for a UC San Diego Online account. If you are a current matriculated or concurrent enrollment student at UC San Diego, or you are a current UC San Diego Faculty or Staff member, you can use UCSD Single Sign On to create your account. Otherwise, you will need to fill in the information required, and then activate your account via the email sent to the email address you entered.

Didn't receive an activation email? Follow these instructions.

Find Courses

Our course list is always growing! Courses you enroll in can be found on your Courses page.

Enroll in a Course

When you find a course, click on it to be taken to the course registration page. Here you can find information on the course. Click on the Enroll button, then choose to go on the audit track or pursue a Statement of Accomplishment

Please keep in mind that many UC San Diego Online courses can be taken for free! You can update your enrollment to earn a Statement of Accomplishment while auditing a course. Please refer to the Upgrade Deadline section on the right side of the course outline page to know how long you have to update your enrollment.

Pursue a Statement of Accomplishment

Learn more about Statements of Accomplishment. Any Statement of Accomplishment you earn is a great achievement. If you have successfully completed a course and earned the Statement of Accomplishment, congratulations! A link to your Statement of Accomplishment will appear on your Courses page and you may view it from there.

Please explore the rest of our help articles to help answer any other questions you may have.

UC San Diego is committed to design and development processes that support providing an accessible website to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.

If you cannot access content or use features on any UC San Diego website due to a disability, please report the accessibility problem.

The UC San Diego Online Honor Code, together with the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, are agreements between you and UC San Diego Online. By using the online.ucsd.edu site, you are agreeing to be legally bound by these agreements, whether or not you are a registered user.

Put simply, the UC San Diego Online Honor Code states that, by enrolling in a UC San Diego Online course, you agree to:

• Rely solely on my own work in connection with all assessments, problems, homework and assignments (unless collaboration is expressly permitted);
• Complete all tests and assignments on my own, unless collaboration on an assignment is explicitly permitted;
• Acknowledge any and all external sources used in my work;
• Maintain only one user account;
• Not let anyone else use my username and/or password;
• Not engage in any activity that would dishonestly improve my results, or improve or hurt the results of others;
• Not post answers to problems that are being used to assess learner performance.

You’ll find the entire UC San Diego Online Honor Code here. Each course might also have specific agreements for learner collaboration and discussion.

Most current browsers will work on online.ucsd.edu. For best performance, we recommend the latest versions of:

• Chrome
• Firefox

Troubleshooting browser problems

Many problems with missing form fields, buttons that do not function, or other page display issues are caused by your browser. Here are some things to try to fix viewing problems:

• Make sure your browser is the most current version. You can use http://www.whatsmybrowser.org/ to check your browser.
• Check your browser settings to make sure both JavaScript and cookies are enabled.
• Clear your browser's cache. Here are instructions on clearing your cache in Chrome or Firefox.

While smartphones and tablets can be used to access and take courses, some more advanced problem types and content features may not function properly.

First, check our status page at https://status.ucsd.edu/ to be sure there is not an outage or larger technical issue. 

Many problems with missing from fields, buttons that do not function, server error messages or other page display issues are caused by your browser. Here are some things to try:

• Make sure your browser is a current version of Chrome or Firefox. You can use http://www.whatsmybrowser.org/ to check your browser.
• Check your browser settings to make sure both JavaScript and cookies are enabled.
• Clear your browser's cache. Here are instructions on clearing your cache in Chrome or Firefox.

Check our system requirements to ensure you meet our browser, computer, and mobile requirements.

If you can't find the answer to your question, or if you have general comments or feedback, you can contact the UC San Diego Online support team by clicking Still Need Help? in the top navigation menu on each page.

If you have a question about an assignment in a course, or want to ask your instructor a question, use the discussion forum for the course.