Open edX

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 in	Multilingual (14)
Created by	Piotr Mitros, edX, CRL/Axim
URL	www.openedx.org
Commercial	No
Launched	January 2012; 13 years ago (January 2012)
Current status	Active
[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

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]

Software

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	Sumac	2024-12-17

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

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.^[14]

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