The Open edX platform is the open-source software, originally developed by Piotr Mitros,[2][3] 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.[4] The source code can be found on GitHub.[5][6] Maintenance was transferred to edX, an MIT/Harvard education initiative, in 2012.

Open edX
Logo of Open edX
Type of site
Online education
Available inMultilingual (14)
Created byPiotr Mitros, edX, CRL/Axim
URLwww.openedx.org
CommercialNo
LaunchedJanuary 2012; 12 years ago (January 2012)
Current statusActive
[1]

When edX was acquired in 2021 by 2U,[7] 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.[8]

Uses

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Open edX was designed for the MITx project, which was renamed to the edX project and made into a separate 501(c)3 after Harvard joined. This 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.[9]

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

Software

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Version [10] 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[11] 2021-12-20
Nutmeg 2022-04-12 Olive[12] 2022-10-11
Palm 2023-06-14 Quince 2023-12-11
Redwood 2024-06-09

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.

The Open edX server-side software is based on Python, with Django as the web application framework.[13]

Community

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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.[14]

The community hosts an annual Open edX Conference, which rotates worldwide each year. In 2022 it was held in Portugal.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b Rosenberg, John S.; Shaw, Jonathan (2021-09-10). "edX Exit". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  2. ^ "Open edX Version History".
  3. ^ "Piotr Mitros, web page".
  4. ^ "Stanford to collaborate with edX to develop a free, open source online learning platform". Stanford University. 3 April 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  5. ^ "edX". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  6. ^ "EdX-platform". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2017-04-29. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  7. ^ Lederman, Doug (2021-11-17). "2U Completes Purchase of edX". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  8. ^ Rosenberg, John S. (2023-03-30). "Axim Online Education Venture Debuts". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  9. ^ "Sites powered by Open edX Platform - Open edX Community - Open edX Confluence". openedx.atlassian.net. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  10. ^ Open edX Named Releases https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-developer-docs/en/latest/named_releases.html Archived 2019-08-01 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Documentation for the Open edX community | edX". docs.edx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  12. ^ "changes in the "Olive" release | Open edX". raccoongang.com. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  13. ^ "Open edX Architecture". edX Inc. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. ^ "Open edX Community Working Groups – Open edX". openedx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  15. ^ "Shaping the Future of Education Together – Open edX". openedx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
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