Raccoon Gang – Results 2019

What was achieved?

Raccoon Gang has launched more than 100 Open EdX projects, working with:

1. Universities: Harvard, ASU, University of Washinghton, KTH, NTNU, others
2. Corporates: AMAT, Microsoft, Cybint
3. Training: Fastlane, Global Knowledge, Arrow, QA.com, Learning Tree

Our team is working on such Ukrainian projects:

• The International Organization For Migration is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers
• Prozorro is a hybrid electronic open source government e-procurement system created as the result of a partnership between business, government and civil society
• Ukrainian Weight Company is a manufacturer of weighing equipment at the Ukrainian market

Our Gang is Growing

Raccoon population is rising again! 🙂 Our gang has grown by 50%! And now we have 100 smart raccoons in our team!

To meet the growing Open edX hosting demand and to keep up the quality of our support services we have expanded our DevOps team. We’ve also expanded our team of Python Developers to provide advanced Open edX customizations, data connections, infrastructure development, etc. The team headcount growth is also driven by growing need in data science related projects and Open edX mobile apps customizations.

Product and Services Update

Raccoon Gang started to pump out lots of new custom features and changes in the Open edX platform:

RG Analytics Update

Data analytics is a learning technology with high priority for 50% educational organizations, that is why we continue improving and developing our RG Analytics tool every day. RG Analytics turns eLearning metrics into easy-to-use instructor reports that are based on diagnostic, cluster and descriptive analysis methodology.

Gamification Module Development

Gamification is a trend that everybody wanted to catch up in 2019, and Raccoon Gang is not an exception. Our team made a tremendous amount of work to develop a new Gamification module for the Open edX platform. We combined all trending gamification mechanics into one simple tool. Custom leaderboards, badges, ratings, and scores could be implemented into any Open edX platform in 2020.

eLearning Contribution

Open edX Conf 2019

The 6th in a row Open edX Conference 2019 was remarkable eLearning event, which attracted over three hundred developers, educators, and business professionals. Our team are really satisfied with the outcomes of this conference. Raccoons met old partners and made new friends. Raccoon Gang learned a lot of new interesting ideas and showed what it is capable of in such breakout sessions:

1. “eLearning trends: Where should Open edX go?”, Sergey Cujba, Head of Sales and Marketing presented the main points of developing Open edX according to modern eLearning trends

2. “RG Gamification”, Maksim Sokolski, Software Engineer demonstrated our first live gamification module for the Open edX platform

3. “Even more useful Analytics Tool”, Alexandra Nabokina, Project Manager presented main updates in our eLearning Analytics

The Top 5 eLearning Articles in 2019

Raccoon Gang isn’t only Open edX provider, our team also is taking part in writing original eLearning content that is worth reading. Here are our top 5 articles which were spreading on the Web and acknowledged by our readers in 2019.

1. How much does it cost to develop an online course?

Useful information that might be used to help course authors understand how much course creation costs in 2019 compared to 2018.

Number of views: 85310 (at the time of this writing)

2. Open edX: What Is It And Why 19 Million People Use It?

Post describes what the Open edX platform is and why it is the greatest open source LMS.

Number of views: 7734 (at the time of this writing)

3. Open Source LMS: Everything You Need To Know [Quiz included]

Article tells about an open source learning management system – the powerful tool for developing and deploying online training.

Number of views: 2017 (at the time of this writing)

4. Ultimate Design Guide to eLearning Gamification in 2019

This guide helps to implement eLearning gamification so that it can really work and engage your online students.

Number of views: 6034 (at the time of this writing)

5. Digital Badges in Education – What Are They?

Here’s all you need to know about the use of digital badges in education, their benefits, and mechanism.

Number of views: 1049 (at the time of this writing)

Feedback about our work in 2019

We are happy to receive such warm words from our partners regarding our work in 2019:

Andrew Ang, Harvard VPAL Research Group:

Raccoon Gang has been a great partner that has helped us with multiple web development projects. Their experience with hosting OpenedX instances, implementing LTI integrations, and general experience developing education applications has been especially valuable

Giorgos Psathas, Digital Marketing Specialist | Founder at Letsstudy:

The Raccoon Gang team is the most organized team I have ever collaborated with. Anastasiia – a Project Manager – never missed any deadlines and always willing to help in any request I have. Even Luci from the Finance department always available to answer my questions. Thanks for the work you do!

Marnix Wolf, IT-specialist of the  Egor Gaidar Foundation:

Maintaining the LaaS platform based on Open edX is quite a challenge. Working with Raccoon Gang however, makes it so much better. They know their way around on the edX platform and provide professional support whenever required. Whether it’s for regular maintenance or deep troubleshooting, Raccoon Gang is there to assist. On top of it all, they put the customer first in all their communications. This kind of dedication combined with a deep knowledge of edX is quite rare and special. As such we at Vijfhart are happy to work together with Raccoon Gang.

Our plans for 2020

The New Year wishlist is a favorite holiday tradition in Raccoon Gang, and we are glad to share our 2020 wishlist with our readers:

1. Release 2 custom modules for Open edX to improve its ability to meet ever-expanding range of online learning projects’ requirements.

2. Launch over 150+ new Open edX based projects

3. Release massive update of RG Analytics 2.0

4. Release a new Gamification Module for Open edX

5. Create or repurpose at least 15 Open edX xblocks

6. (As always) Continue improving Open edX platform

7. Create free eLearning ROI Calculator

We are so excited about great projects that are waiting for us in 2020 and we are very glad that more and more online learning providers join us on this journey. We would also like to express a huge gratitude to all the great people we were lucky to work with!

We wish you a lot of success and joy in the coming year! See you in 2020!