An Overview of Open EdX®
History of Open EdX®
- Open source piece of software
- Developed in 2014 via partnership between Harvard and MIT
- EdX.org is the non-profit business that runs on the Open EdX software. But they are not the same.
- Originally developed as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Still serves MOOCS as well as smaller or private courses.
- There are implications to this...
- Open EdX releases new versions about twice per year.
- Edx.org sold in 2021 to 2U. 2U has promised to keep Open EdX open source. Open EdX (the software) is still stewarded by MIT & Harvard.
The LMS and Studio / CMS
The LMS is the front-end. It is the part of the software that the students view. Every area that a student might view (the course, the dashboard, account settings, etc) is considered the lms.
Studio (sometimes called "CMS") is where course creators develop courses for the students. From here, administrators add content, modify settings, set up certificates, etc.
Changes that are made in studio are private until they are "published" to the LMS.
LMS Tabs
Course - A student’s first landing page, and the main tab for all course content, quizzes, etc. Admins can post introductions & announcements here, sorted newest to oldest
Discussion - A central place for all course discussions. All in-course prompts will display here as well a generic discussion topics
Wiki - Wiki Functionality for common terms and themes, rarely used
Progress - A students grade, broken down by subsection. Graded in real-time
Instructor - A tab only visible to course instructors and staff. For common admin tasks such a viewing student information & grades. Specific to that course.
Course Components
Course - The highest unit of measurement in EdX.
Sections - Large "chunks" of content, often corresponding to modules or weeks.
Subsections - Smaller "chunks" within a subsection. Common use case might be pre-work, lecture, and homework for a specific module.
Units - The vertical "pages" within a subsection. Navigation is left to right across the top of your unit.
Components (aka Block or X-Block) - "Content blocks". The smallest level of measurement in a course. These are any block of content like a text block, problem block, video block, or a custom x-block.
