Axim Collaborative and Raccoon Gang's Partnership
Innovative Solutions for the Open edX Platform
Project Overview
Raccoon Gang partnered with Axim Collaborative to enhance the Open edX platform through four transformative projects. These initiatives focused on a video tool for teachers to embed videos in their courses, upgrading the system for tracking learning activity, creating a system for learners to share verifiable digital certificates of their achievements, and finally, building a brand new mobile app for even easier access to courses on the go.
About Axim Collaborative, Inc
Axim Collaborative, Inc is a non-profit organization established by Harvard and MIT, building upon the success of the edX online learning platform. Their mission is to expand access to high-quality education globally and empower educators through open-source technology. Axim oversees the Open edX platform, a powerful tool used by universities and organizations worldwide to deliver online courses and programs to millions of learners.
Project 1: Sharing Credentials Initiatives
Raccoon Gang started the Sharing Credentials Initiatives to transform how earned credentials are shared and verified on the Open edX platform. This project aimed to integrate verifiable digital credentials and enhance interoperability with external digital credential platforms and wallets, ensuring learners could share and verify their achievements easily and securely.
Objectives
Adopt verifiable credentials (VC) to improve the sharing of earned credentials
Integrate Credly with the Open edX platform to streamline the issuance and management of digital badges.
Improve interoperability with external digital credentials platforms and wallets.
Provide learners with high-value credentials they can use in the real world.
Challenges
- Implementing a Learner Credentials Wallet for storing digital achievements.
- Developing an algorithm for signing and issuing Verifiable Credentials.
- Integrating Credly and configuring rules for issuing badges directly through Open edX.
- Limited options for learners to share program certificates earned on the platform.
- Difficulty verifying the authenticity of printed certificates or obtaining additional information.
Key Implementations and Innovations
by Raccoon Gang
Built a new system to convert Open edX credentials (certificates) into secure, digital formats.
Enabled learners to share these digital credentials easily, allowing others to verify their authenticity.
Developed functionality to send credentials to learners' preferred destinations, such as digital wallets or badge accounts.
Set a general approach for sharing credentials that can adapt to new technologies and integrations.
Created a reference implementation for connecting the system with various digital wallet providers, including the DCC/W3C and EU wallets.
Enabled the integration of Credly with the Open edX platform, allowing for streamlined badge issuance and management.
Added the ability to configure various rules for issuing badges: ANY COURSE completion, ANY COURSE completion EXCEPT a specific course, ONE OF MULTIPLE SPECIFIC COURSES completion, and more.
Impact and Future Opportunities
The Sharing Credentials Initiatives improved how credentials are shared and verified on the Open edX platform. By integrating Credly and enabling extensive rules for badge issuance, Raccoon Gang provided a flexible and scalable solution for credential management. The project sets new standards for the future by enabling the issuance of verifiable digital credentials that align with the latest standards, such as those outlined by the EU. Learners can now easily share their achievements and digitally verify their credentials, enhancing their value in the real world. The initiative provided a more adaptable credentialing system, improving interoperability with various digital credential platforms and wallets.
Project 2: Mobile Application
This project aimed to align with Axim’s mission to provide globally accessible teaching and learning platforms, even in bandwidth-constrained environments.
Objectives
Develop a new Open edX mobile app using the latest technology.
Enable easier customization and faster development cycles.
Create a flexible and scalable mobile solution to serve diverse client needs.
Challenges
- The old edX mobile app was becoming increasingly limiting.
- Onboarding new developers was time-consuming.
- Customization and new feature development were costly for clients.
Key Implementations and Innovations by Raccoon Gang
SSO AUTHORIZATION. Implemented single sign-on (SSO) for seamless user login across multiple platforms.
DATES FEATURE. App level dates view presenting users with all deadlines across all enrolled courses.
CALENDAR INTEGRATION. Ability for learners to sync educational schedules with personal external calendars.
WHITE LABELING. Enabled customization of the app's appearance to match the branding of different institutions.
WEB PROGRAMS.Integrated web-based programs for a comprehensive learning experience.
PUSH NOTIFICATIONS. Deliver updates and announcements through push notifications.
OFFLINE MODE. Access course content without an internet connection
VIDEO UPLOADS. Enabled video uploads directly from the app.
PRIMARY COURSE. Centralized access to the main course content.
COURSE HOME NAVIGATION. Improved navigation within the course home page.
PROGRESS. Track learning progress within the app.
Impact and Future Opportunities
The new Open edX mobile app has modernized the platform, facilitating faster development cycles and improving community contributions. The app now offers a more user-friendly experience by addressing significant feature gaps and introducing new functionalities. Looking ahead, there are opportunities to continue refining and expanding the app’s features to maintain its edge as a leading mobile solution for online education.
Special acknowledgment goes to Marco Morales and Sam Daitzman from Schema Education, who played an important role in implementing the mentioned functionalities and features. Their expertise and contributions enhanced the success of this project.
Project 3: React Video Player Discovery and Technical Design
Raccoon Gang tackled a project to create a proposal for the discovery phase and technical design of a new React.js video player for Open edX. The goal was to address the limitations of the current video player and provide a modern, flexible solution that meets the requirements of the Open edX community.
Objectives
Develop a detailed proposal for the discovery phase and technical design of a new React.js video player.
Provide the new video player has similar functionalities to the existing video module.
Facilitate easier maintenance, collaboration, and extension for community developers.
Allow advanced use cases in course authoring and learning MFEs applications.
Challenges Overcome
- The current video player, built with vanilla JS, RequireJS, and Python, had high maintenance costs and collaboration difficulties.
- The player cannot be rendered directly inside MFEs, limiting advanced use cases.
- The new player needed to integrate with existing Open edX systems and support a range of video backends and features.
Key Implementations and Innovations by Raccoon Gang
We prepared a detailed discovery plan. This plan outlines the installation method, front and backend architecture, API contracts, and how the new player handles features like DASH and signed content.
We suggested building the user interface using React.js and wrapping the popular video.js library. We've identified the necessary APIs and plugins to ensure a smooth integration.
We've implemented features like direct video upload to S3, signed video URLs, HLS playlists, transcript translations, and embedding outside courseware.
On the backend, we finalized the XBlock architecture and prepared REST API contracts for efficient communication between the client and server.
We investigated using VTT transcripts and developed solutions based on the current implementation. This ensures a seamless experience for learners who rely on captions and subtitles.
We built a mapping between video.js events and Open edX events, ensuring smooth interaction between the player and the platform.
We proposed a team of experts, including a software architect, project manager, and business analyst, to complete the discovery phase within 280 hours over 5 to 8 weeks.
Impact and Future Opportunities
This project laid the groundwork for a modern, flexible React.js video player that addresses the limitations of the current Open edX video player. Using the video.js library and building a strong frontend and backend architecture will make the new player easier to maintain and extend, fostering better community collaboration. The improvements will enable advanced use cases and enhance the overall learning experience on the Open edX platform.
Project 4: Google Analytics Upgrade to GA4
Raccoon Gang tackled a project to create a proposal for the discovery phase and technical design of a new React.js video player for Open edX. The goal was to address the limitations of the current video player and provide a modern, flexible solution that meets the requirements of the Open edX community.
Objectives
Upgrade the Google Analytics implementation in the edX platform to GA4.
Provide support for Google Analytics in the Micro-Frontend (MFE) applications.
Challenges
- Google Universal Analytics was set to stop working on July 1, 2023. Additionally, only the LMS included a Google Analytics snippet, while MFEs could not inject the GA snippet.
Key Implementations and Innovations by Raccoon Gang
Updated the Google Analytics code snippet to a new version compatible with Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Added a new GA4 configuration variable.
Implemented a new GoogleAnalyticsService in @edx/frontend-platform/analytics.
Added a new configuration step in @edx/frontend-platform/src/initialize to support GA4.
Developed basic tests in the interface.test for GoogleAnalyticsService.
Used runtime configuration to retrieve the GA4 code based on the Site or MFE's ID.
Impact and Future Opportunities
This project upgraded the edX platform to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), ensuring it stayed up-to-date. It introduced comprehensive GA4 support across the LMS and MFEs, enabling more detailed tracking of user interactions.
Project 5: UI/UX Enhancements for Open edX
Raccoon Gang enhanced the UI/UX of the Open edX platform to improve usability and accessibility. These improvements, developed in collaboration with 2U, became part of the core Open edX Redwood Release, focusing on better navigation and course management features.
Objectives
Enhance the user interface and user experience of the Open edX platform
Improve navigation and course content accessibility with sidebar navigation.
Simplify course updates and configuration with new WYSIWYG editors and redesigned settings pages.
Challenges
- Updating the course unit names did not reflect in the sidebar navigation.
- Hidden units were visible in the sidebar navigation for staff users using the masquerading feature.
- Course sections, subsections, and unit names appeared missing in the sidebar for unpublished content.
- Hard user interaction with course updates and configuration tools.
Key Implementations and Innovations by Raccoon Gang
Introduced a new UI element on the side of the page that displays the user’s current course section, subsection, and unit, allowing for both linear and non-linear navigation through the course material.
Enabled learners to navigate the course using Next or Previous buttons, as well as clicking on any unit in the sidebar to view it directly, without having to go to the Course Outline page.
Added the ability for learners to collapse the sidebar to view the course content in a full-page format, enhancing the flexibility of the user interface.
Updated the sidebar to show an icon next to the unit name indicating completion status, providing learners with a clear visual indication of their progress.
Implemented a user-friendly editor for creating course updates and handouts, featuring basic word processing tools and HTML embedding.
Redesigned the page with feature tiles and configuration toggles, enabling easy on/off settings for major course features.
Updated design elements to improve the clarity and usability of configuration fields.v
Impact and Future Opportunities
The UI/UX enhancements significantly improved the navigation experience on the Open edX platform, making it more intuitive and user-friendly. Future opportunities include refining the UI/UX elements based on user feedback and continuously enhancing the platform.
Results
All projects modernized the Open edX platform, improving user experience, enhancing analytics capabilities, and providing more robust credentialing and mobile solutions. The collaboration between Raccoon Gang and Axim Collaborative has set the stage for continued innovation and growth in online education.
Project 1: Verifiable Credentials Implementation
Raccoon Gang implemented a new system for transforming traditional certificates into digital and verifiable credentials, improving credential sharing, verification, and interoperability with external platforms.
Project 2: Mobile Application Development
Raccoon Gang developed a new Open edX mobile app with advanced features and improved customization, enhancing the overall mobile learning experience.
Project 3: React Video Player Discovery and Technical Design
Raccoon Gang successfully designed a comprehensive proposal for the new React.js video player, addressing the limitations of the existing Open edX video player. This project set the stage for a modern, maintainable, and extensible video solution, enhancing the flexibility and scalability of the Open edX platform for future development and community collaboration.
Project 4: Google Analytics Upgrade to GA4
Raccoon Gang successfully upgraded the Google Analytics implementation to GA4, ensuring continued analytics support and enhanced tracking across the Open edX platform.
Project 5: UI/UX enhancements for Open edX
Raccoon Gang improved navigation and course management on the Open edX platform. Learners benefited from more intuitive navigation and clearer progress indicators, while course owners enjoyed simplified tools for updates and configuration.
Ready To Take Your Open edX Platform To The Next Level?
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- Make learning easier and more fun for your learners.
- Add powerful new features to your platform.
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