Here's a recap of our September newsletter:
In October, the Open edX Community will be called to elect 3 members of the new core decision-making body of the Open edX project — the Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) — and we need your help! The 3 elected community representatives will join the TOC, along with the 3 members from tCRIL and the 3 members from 2U.
The 3 elected community representatives have the mission to represent the community as a whole, but with each a specific focus:
If you are running an active course on Open edX, please register to vote! This includes any form of contribution to the authoring of a course, and particularly Teaching Assistants (TAs).
Voter registration is open until September 30th, and the election will be held in October. For more details about the election, see the TOC Community Election Charter.
Working Groups are community-led teams dedicated to an Open edX-related project that fit under an easily definable business process. They are designed to create and/or facilitate a particular feature set within the Open edX platform. They are also an authoritative body giving the community structure and a process for decision-making. For example, see this recent Open edX blog post presenting the Translation Working Group. Join the Open edX community and take part in our collaboration efforts!
Here's a frequently asked question: What's the distinction between edX, Open edX, and now tCRIL (The Center For Reimagining Learning)?
Ed Zarecor, Open edX's VP of Engineering, just helped solve the riddle by presenting an overview of the Open edX ecosystem at the September Community meetup. His presentation helps differentiate edX (the company, and learning destination), Open edX (the open source learning platform), and tCRIL (the non-profit entity that manages the Open edX platform along with the community). Ed also touches on the acquisition of edX by 2U in November 2021, tCRIL's mission, project governance, and a few more frequently asked questions.
-> Watch presentation recording
At the last Community meetup, Curricu.me founder John Swope presented a talk titled "Advanced Assessment in Open edX and how Anyone Can Use It", which offered insights into how non-technical or semi-technical course authors can leverage the platform's advanced components (JavaScript, Python, SCORM, etc.) to enhance their courses.
-> Watch presentation recording
The September Open edX Meetup will happen on Thursday September 22 at 10am EST. It will feature two speakers: John Swope, from Curricu.me, and Ed Zarecor, VP of Engineering at tCRIL. John will demonstrate how to use Advanced Assessment and Javascript within the Open edX platform with fun and flexible exercises. Ed will share updates regarding the Open edX ecosystem. Registration is free, so save the date and join us!
-> Register for the event on Eventbrite
The recording of the August Open edX Community Meetup is now available. In the event, Hen Eytan from Annoto discussed how to use interactive video tools within e-learning modules to optimize learning, and how to leverage their analytics tool to monitor learner engagement. Elizabeth Madariaga, from Edios Media, discussed the topic of localizing courses and connecting with learners in their native languages. She presented a case study on a recent course translation project, including the issuing of certificates in the students’ native languages.
Community members Edly have just announced the release of the H5P XBlock, giving learners the ability to easily self-host and play H5P content in Open edX. H5P is an open source tool used to create rich and easily embeddable course content such as interactive videos, quizzes, and presentations. Previously, H5P content could be integrated via the LTI XBlock with some tinkering, but the new H5P XBlock makes things much easier!
-> See XBlock Github repo for details
tCRIL are requesting contributions from Open edX Community members to help consolidate the platform's comprehensive documentation. The updated documentation will be organized around different personas and document types for an improved discovery experience. tCRIL are currently looking to crowdsource high-level tables of content for each persona. Click the link below to learn more and help!
-> Forum post for details and volunteering
The Build-Test-Release group is looking for volunteers to take on roles and support the delivery of the upcoming Open edX Olive release. Note that not all the roles require technical knowledge – for example, the group is also looking for people with project management or QA/testing experience. Get involved!
-> Read the forum post for the list of open roles
The Open edX Core Contributor Program grants community members expanded rights and ownership over various aspects of the Open edX Project, allowing them to actively participate in defining and deciding the direction of the platform. Members of the Core Contributor program earn this distinction by participating in Open edX community with distinction. They embody what we call the “3 Cs”: Commitment to the project, exemplary Conduct, and high Caliber contributions.
The program began in 2020, with an initial 9 community members being granted write access rights to various Open edX code repositories. Since then, the program has expanded to include nearly 40 core contributors, who not only commit code but oversee translations, manage projects, and more.
Recently we codified the program in OEP-54. “OEP” stands for Open edX (Enhancement) Proposal. An OEP is a document that details a specific decision being made by the Open edX community; the community agrees that they will follow the processes defined in the OEPs.
In OEP-54, we define various aspects of the Program, such as membership criteria and the nomination process for a new member. I’ll dive into some of these, with a focus on Core Contributors who commit code changes.
As we’ve expanded the number of Core Contributors who can commit code, we’ve also begun expanding the number of roles a Core Contributor can take on. Contributors are welcome to hold more than one role, as well! A full list of roles and responsibilities can be found at this link; a few roles I’ll highlight are:
For information on how to really dig into the community, see OEP-54’s “Where Do I Start?” section - there’s a lot of good resources there to get you started, as well as a few pointers on how you can reach out on the forums or to specific working groups. Joining a working group is a wonderful way to meet members of the community and get started on tasks identified by the group as having high value.
For those who code, I recommend joining the Build-Test-Release or Frontend working groups, as both groups tend to have a backlog of tasks they’d like people to pick up. The Deprecation working group is pretty fun (in my opinion!) - they focus on removing dead code from the system. They also tend to have a large backlog, but some tasks may be pretty complicated unless you know some Open edX architecture or are strong in Django/Python.
If you work at a company that’s developing Open edX features you’d like to someday see in the main codebase, you should reach out early in your development process to get pointers on the best way of architecting and implementing your change in order for it to have the greatest chance of being accepted. Reach out in the discussion forums in the Collaborative Proposals topic. Submitting your bug fixes, changes, and features upstream is a great path towards becoming a Core Contributor.
Community members who have demonstrated the 3 C’s, with a history of contributions to the Open edX project, may be nominated for inclusion in the program by an existing program member. For coders, the nomination would specify one or more repositories in the openedx GitHub organization for the nominee to get write access to. The process is designed to be straightforward and transparent: it takes place on the discussion forums, and other Core Contributors in the program weigh in on the nomination. Members are encouraged to give constructive feedback if they don’t feel a nominee is quite ready to join the program.
The Core Contributor program is administered by The Center for Re-Imagining Learning (tCRIL), the nonprofit organization that stewards the Open edX project. At any point on the road to becoming a core contributor, the program administrators may be reached in the #core-contributors Slack room in the Open edX Slack, or at cc-program-admins@tcril.org.
It’s been a joy and a privilege to be a part of the Open edX community and to have the chance to help administrate the Core Contributor program. I look forward to working with more and more of you as the program goes.
—---
Sarina Canelake
Engineering & Community Manager at Axim Collaborative
Sarina has 5+ years experience hacking on the Open edX platform and working with the Open Source community. She is dedicated to enabling open source contributors to the Open edX platform via extensibility and process improvements. She lives in Boston, MA with her 3 cat sons and has a lifelong love for all things Pokémon.
Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash
