Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 5, 2026

Open edX

The Open edX platform is the open-source software, originally developed by Piotr Mitros, 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. The source code can be found on GitHub. Maintenance was transferred to edX, an MIT/Harvard education initiative, in 2012.

Last revised
Jun 5, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
513 w
Citations
16
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Open edX
Logo of Open edX
Type of site
Online education
Available inMultilingual (14)
Created byPiotr Mitros, edX, CRL/Axim
URLwww.openedx.org
CommercialNo
LaunchedJanuary 2012 (January 2012)
Current statusActive
1

The Open edX platform is the open-source software, originally developed by Piotr Mitros,23 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.56 Maintenance was transferred to edX, an MIT/Harvard education initiative, in 2012.

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 Maple11 2021-12-20
Nutmeg 2022-04-12 Olive12 2022-10-11
Palm 2023-06-14 Quince 2023-12-11
Redwood 2024-06-09 Sumac 2024-12-17
Teak 2025-06-26 Ulmo 2026-01-15


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

References

References

  1. Rosenberg, John S.; Shaw, Jonathan (2021-09-10). "edX Exit". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  2. "Open edX Version History".
  3. "Piotr Mitros, web page".
  4. "Stanford to collaborate with edX to develop a free, open source online learning platform". Stanford University. 3 April 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  5. "edX". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  6. "EdX-platform". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2017-04-29. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  7. Lederman, Doug (2021-11-17). "2U Completes Purchase of edX". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  8. Rosenberg, John S. (2023-03-30). "Axim Online Education Venture Debuts". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  9. "Sites powered by Open edX Platform - Open edX Community - Open edX Confluence". openedx.atlassian.net. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  10. Open edX Named Releases https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-developer-docs/en/latest/named_releases.html Archived 2019-08-01 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Documentation for the Open edX community | edX". docs.edx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  12. "changes in the "Olive" release | Open edX". raccoongang.com. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  13. "Open edX Architecture". edX Inc. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. "Open edX Community Working Groups – Open edX". openedx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  15. "Shaping the Future of Education Together – Open edX". openedx.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
External links