Open edX’s technology possibilities are endless; this software can become the dominant, ubiquitous solution of the educational world, specially now that we know that it is used by the 31 member universities of the edX Consortium and Google is about to launch its MOOC.org, a YouTube-style portal for courses.
However, we are still far from that. What do we need, then, to guarantee the ultimate success of Open edX?
See this infographic created by ExtensionEngine.com. It highlights Stanford University’s recommendations in a paper commissioned by its Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning (we referred to this report recently at IBL Studios).
Basically, the xConsortium who runs Open edX must involve the open-source community with further conviction.
As developers and contributors to the Open edX community, and having worked for six universities, here at IBL we think that one of the most urgent recommendations is to set up a public bug tracking. Otherwise, there is no way to know if a bug has been identified and someone is addressing and fixing it.
Another practical suggestion is to attach some documentation to the frequent –almost weekly– software updates at GitHub.
Stanford advises to move to only 2-4 stable releases per year with notes, upgraded scripts, and improved packaging and clear version numbering. And that is fine too.
Open edX is amazing, disruptive technology. It is worth the effort!
