Open edX

From HandWiki
Short description: Educational support software
Open edX
Open-edx-horiz.png
Logo of Open edX
Type of site
Online education
Available inMultilingual (14)
Created byMIT and Harvard and edX
Websitewww.openedx.org
CommercialNo
LaunchedJune 2013; 11 years ago (June 2013)
Current statusActive
[1]

The Open edX platform is the open-source software whose development led to the creation of the edX organization. On June 1, 2013, edX open sourced the platform, naming it Open edX to distinguish it from the organization itself.[2] The source code can be found on GitHub.[3][4] The platform was originally developed as a research project at MIT, with maintenance transferred to edX in 2012.

When edX was acquired in 2021 by 2U,[5] the Open edX team and maintenance were transferred to the Center for Reimagining Learning (tCRIL), a nonprofit founded by Harvard and MIT with the proceeds from the acquisition.[1] In 2023, the nonprofit was renamed the Axim Collaborative.[6]

Uses

Open edX was designed for the edX project, which remains the largest global installation as of 2022, with over 3000 courses and 500,000 regular users. The Open edX community maintains a catalog of other installations, including fully-hosted learning sites open to public courses and 350 other instances run by organizations of all sizes.[7]

An Open edX marketplace also features partners that provide various services to community members running their own instances in multiple languages.

Software

Version [8] Date Version Date
Initial 2013-06-01 Aspen 2014-10-28
Birch 2015-02-24 Cypress 2015-08-13
Dogwood 2016-02-11 Eucalyptus 2016-08-26
Ficus 2017-02-23 Ginkgo 2017-08-14
Hawthorn 2018-08-07 Ironwood 2019-03-22
Juniper 2020-06-09 Koa 2020-12-09
Lilac 2021-06-09 Maple[9] 2021-12-20
Nutmeg 2022-04-12 Olive[10] 2022-10-11
Palm 2023-06-14

The platform has been released one to two times a year since 2013. Each release is named after a tree, honoring the tree of knowledge. Take a look at all the Open edX versions.[11]

The Open edX server-side software is based on Python, with Django as the web application framework.[12]

Community

Platform design and development have been co-designed with its community from early in the project's history. The community maintains several working groups focused on marketing, build-test-release cycles, translation, data design, front-end design, and code deprecation.[13]

The community hosts an annual Open edX Conference, which rotates worldwide each year. In 2022 it was held in Portugal.[14]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Rosenberg, John S.; Shaw, Jonathan (2021-09-10). "edX Exit". Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2021/09/jhj-edx-sold. 
  2. "Stanford to collaborate with edX to develop a free, open source online learning platform". Stanford University. 3 April 2013. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/edx-collaborate-platform-030313.html. 
  3. "edX". https://github.com/edx/. 
  4. "EdX-platform". GitHub. https://github.com/edx/edx-platform. 
  5. Lederman, Doug (2021-11-17). "2U Completes Purchase of edX". Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/11/17/2u-completes-purchase-edx-creating-free-degree-platform. 
  6. Rosenberg, John S. (2023-03-30). "Axim Online Education Venture Debuts". Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/03/axim-edx-successor-debuts. 
  7. "Sites powered by Open edX Platform - Open edX Community - Open edX Confluence". https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COMM/pages/162245773/Sites+powered+by+Open+edX+Platform. 
  8. Open edX Named Releases https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-developer-docs/en/latest/named_releases.html
  9. "Documentation for the Open edX community | edX". https://docs.edx.org/openedx.html. 
  10. "changes in the "Olive" release | Open edX". https://raccoongang.com/blog/is-open-edx-the-next-big-thing-in-custom-lms-world/#overview-of-last-open-edx-release-olive. 
  11. "Open edX Versions – What’s New and What’s Changed?". https://www.edunext.co/articles/lastest-open-edx-versions/. 
  12. "Open edX Architecture". edX Inc.. https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-developer-guide/en/latest/architecture.html. 
  13. "Open edX Community Working Groups – Open edX". https://openedx.org/open-edx-community-working-groups/. 
  14. "Shaping the Future of Education Together – Open edX". https://openedx.org/blog/shaping-the-future-of-education-together/. 

External links