{"id":646823,"date":"2013-03-14T11:40:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T15:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=620473"},"modified":"2013-03-14T11:40:38","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T15:40:38","slug":"the-linux-of-online-learning-edx-takes-big-step-toward-open-source-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/646823","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cLinux\u201d of online learning? edX takes big step toward open source goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since launching early last year, edX,<\/a> the online learning site backed by Harvard and MIT, has emphasized its plans to be an open-source platform. Last week, in fact, at the SXSWedu education technology conference <\/a>in Austin, while arguing that it\u2019s good for online learning to have multiple players, edX\u2019s president Anant Agarwal said that edX could be the \u201cLinux\u201d to Coursera\u2019s \u201cMicrosoft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, on Thursday, the nonprofit took its first big step in that direction with the release of its XBlock SDK, the underlying architecture supporting edX course content.<\/p>\n

On edX, all of the course content, from videos and text to interactive periodic tables and online circuit simulators, is built from XBlock, Agarwal said. By opening up this source code, he continued, developers around the world can now add their own content modules or \u201cblades,\u201d as edX calls them.<\/p>\n

(He said the term \u201cblade\u201d comes from the idea that if the edX platform is like the handle of a razor, the architecture enables developers to plug in different blades.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hard-pressed to imagine how one organization could develop all the blades needed for all courses,\u201d said Agarwal. \u201cBy making it open, we get the community to develop these blades using the XBlock architecture. In this way, we hope we can very rapidly increase the breadth of the kinds of things that we\u2019re able to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Agarwal said, they\u2019ve just open-sourced the XBlock software and architecture but over time they plan to open up the rest of the platform through an open-source license. At that point, it will be easier for educators, developers and students around the world to not just contribute new content but integrate with edX in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

In the last year, massive open online classes (MOOCs) provided by edX, as well as startups Coursera and Udacity, have gained considerable traction. Just yesterday, a California state senator proposed a plan that would enable public universities in the state to award college credit for online classes<\/a>. Coursera and Udacity have enrolled more students and attracted more headlines but edX’s focus is on providing a high-quality, open learning platform. To date, it says about 675,000 students have enrolled and it has\u00a0announced partnerships with 12 academic institutions (including Harvard and MIT).<\/p>\n

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