Badgr, written in Python by the new Badge Alliance Director Nate Otto, has been released. This is another great badging initiative that comes to the edX universe, in addition to BadgeOne. Badgr Server provides an API for issuing Open Badges and handles badge management for issuers, earners and consumers. According to its GitHub page, "it will soon provide integrated badge management and sharing for badge earners and tools for inspection, exploration and discovery of Open Badges and a world of learning opportunities." The edX.org portal plans to use this server, along with the badge XBlock developed by IBL Studios. EdX's portal blog and Concentric Sky –the company that Nate Otto works for– posted this week describing their collaboration.
The next Open edX software version, called Cypress, will be released between July 15th and 20th. This release will contain changes in social profile, 3rd party auth and single sign on, among other features. The first Release Candidate version will appear on June 26th. EdX plans for two weeks for testing and documentation. Sarina Canelake, Open Source Manager at edX, has explained the process on a post on Google's edX forum.
Open edX courses now can take advantage of Creative Commons licensing The Open edX platform has started to incorporate Creative Commons licenses for websites that choose to offer them. Course staffers can enable this feature simply on Advanced Settings –setting the feature flag LICENSING to true. In addition, edX has joined the global Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. The Delft University of Technology played a big role in this story as well—the CC plugin was developed during Open Education Week 2014, an Open edX hackathon organized by Delft.
The second Open edX conference will take place on October 12-13th at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, according to their organizers. Registration is open. Booking in advance will allow to save $100. Wellesley –edX consortium member– is one of the most prestigious women's colleges in the US, and one of the top liberal arts colleges. It is located 18 miles away from Boston.
Creativity and innovation happen everywhere. Watch this video about the 1st Open edX Hackathon in France. #OPENEDXHACK was held for 48 hours during May 29-30, 2015, in eight French cities. IONISx, France Université Numérique and edX organized the event. The winning project was Gutenberg and Bruxelles, who wrote an XBlock to create interactive videos with problems. See all the projects here.
