List of Features
Below is a list of benefits and features that the Open edX platform provides. Please search for the platform capabilities, using the filter function below.
| Perspective | Category | Feature | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Authoring platform | Easy to use authoring tool | Authors can build courses intuitively. No need for long training sessions for the authoring platform. |
| Authors | Authoring platform | Multi-user authoring capability | Team work is facilitated. Many authors can work simultaneously in the same course. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Allows instructors to create engaging learning sequences | Learning sequences can be created and organized into a structure of sections and subsections. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Preview before publishing | Facilitates the review of content to avoid publishing errors. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Author checklists for course readiness | Checklists help course staff ensure courses are fully ready before launching them. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Courses can be scheduled for automated release | The entire course can be automatically published at a specific date in the future. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Content restricted, based on dates | Each section or subsection in a course can be automatically published at a specific date in the future. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Due dates for specific components can be set | Due dates/times are supported for graded subsections. They are displayed to learners in their local time zones. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Course templates management | Courses can be exported and imported to be used as course templates. |
| Authors | Course Creation/Settings | Course contents reusability | Course sections, subsections, and components can be easily duplicated and moved for re-use in other parts of the course. This saves time, since the content does not have to be re-built from scratch. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | HTML5 content authoring included in the platform | The Studio authoring platform allows course builders to add or embed their HTML5 content. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | Video | Embedding video from YouTube, or any other video streaming provider, is available. Streaming video directly from Open edX is also possible using the native video pipeline. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | PPTs, PDFs, and other similar content formats | All web-enabled formats can be included in a given course. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | Live events/webinars + virtual classrooms and real-time communications | Live webinars or video conferences can be embedded and authentication can be supported for different conferencing tools through an LTI integration. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | H5P components | H5P components can be embedded and grades can be supported through an LTI integration available at h5p.com |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | Embedded content | Embedding lets you integrate additional external content into the courses. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | SCORM content | SCORM support is available via a third party XBlock. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | XAPI content | Not natively available. It can be integrated using third party services. |
| Authors | Formats supported for learning content | LTI protocol (learning tools interoperability) | Open edX can act as an LTI consumer and also as an LTI provider. |
| Authors | Content libraries | Platform supports the creation of content libraries | Content libraries allow for the re-use of content in multiple courses and for the random drawing of content from a library into a course. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Types of problems/activities and configuration options. | Several problem types are available for authors to build activities and improve learning. Available with multiple configuration options, error tolerance, randomization, limited number of attempts, time between attempts, response visibility controls, etc. This allows for easy course creation, as well as diversified courses for learners. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Multiple choice questions | Available with multiple configuration options, both with a basic editor and an advanced editor. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Checkboxes (multiple choice, multiple correct answers) | Available with multiple configuration options, both with a basic editor and an advanced editor. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Short text response | Available with multiple configuration options, both with a basic editor and an advanced editor. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Numeric response | Available with multiple configuration options, both with a basic editor and an advanced editor. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Open response exercises, for example requiring the user to enter a text of at least x number of words or containing certain words. | This kind of exercises can be built using the custom problem extension points, or through an existing third party Xblock. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Clickable image | A component to build clickable images, with multiple configurations, is available. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Visual matching – drag and drop | A user-friendly component to build drag-and-drop exercises is available. |
| Authors | Assessment types | File submission | Open-response assessments can include the submission of files and controlling the type of files that are accepted. |
| Authors | Assessment types | Peer graded questions | A user-friendly component is available to build and configure different types of open-response assessments. Grading can be configured with a customizable rubric and can be performed by the learners themselves, other peers, the instructors, or any combination. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Number of attempts control | Several ways to assess students’ performance. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Show response control | The feedback and problem solution display can be shown or hidden per problem. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Show correctness control | The correctness can be shown or hidden per problem. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Randomize problems | Problems can have built-in randomization, so that they have a variable set of parameters for learners. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Randomly pulling problems from a question bank. | Authors can create question banks using content libraries, and in turn use them to create randomized assessments within the courses. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Custom feedback control | Different problem types have a great level of control for feedback, based on learner responses. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Manual grades by instructors | Instructors can enter grades manually or override grades computed by the platform in exceptional cases. |
| Authors | Assessment configurations | Proctored exams | Using external tools and services, exams can be configured to be proctored. |
| Authors | Social learning tools | Polls in which the student can reply to a given question and then see the aggregated responses from the group | A poll component is available, with the option to either display or not display the aggregated responses to learners. |
| Authors | Social learning tools | Surveys where multiple questions can be added and the aggregated responses can be viewed by everyone | A survey component is available, with the option to display or not display the aggregated responses to learners. |
| Authors | Social learning tools | Can you have students submit ideas or examples and have them listed in text walls, word clouds or similar visualizations? | A word cloud component is available |
| Learner | Accessibility | Browser-based solution | Learners can easily access the platform via the browser, without the need to install any additional software. |
| Learner | Accessibility | WCAG compliance | All features conform to the WCAG accessibility standard, Level 2.1 AA (see https://www.edx.org/accessibility) |
| Learner | Accessibility | Video caption | Videos can have captions displayed on top and the user can reposition them as needed. Clickable captions to go to the exact position in the video are also available. |
| Learner | Accessibility | Video subtitles | Multi-lingual subtitles are supported for videos. |
| Learner | Platform usability | Easy and intuitive handling of the platform and courseware | The sleek and modern interface allows the user to start learning intuitively, increasing the learning quality and learner motivation levels. |
| Learner | Platform usability | Mobile use | The platform is web responsive. Learners can access the platform via mobile browsers. |
| Learner | Platform usability | Mobile app | A native mobile app is available for IOS and Android. |
| Learner | Learning content | Multiple ways to authenticate and access learning content | Easily accessing course content: – via SSO – via registering/log in – some content types can be visible without any register/sign in (public, public outline) |
| Learner | Learning content | Search course contents | Learners can search their course contents by keyword from the learner dashboard. |
| Learner | Personal learning space | bookmark course content | Learners can add personal bookmarks to specific course units. Bookmarks will be displayed in the specific unit and also aggregated in a list with the corresponding links. |
| Learner | Personal learning space | Student notes | Learners can add personal notes to specific course components. Student notes can be hidden/shown within a specific unit and also aggregated in a list with corresponding links. |
| Learner | Discussions (async) | Discussions forum | Course participants can engage in active discussions, which can be organized both as part of a course unit, and as course wide discussions. There are many configuration, management and moderation options for discussions. |
| Learner | Discussions (async) | Forum notifications for students via email or messaging, when comments are posted | A daily discussion digest can be sent for each learner to follow the activity on the discussions. |
| Learner | Other collaborative learning tools | Wiki pages | Wiki pages can be used for articles, course outlines, FAQs, and information specific to the units and components. |
| Learner | Progress/Certifications | Progress bar | Learner grades and completion of each activity in the course is tracked and can be seen by the learner and/or instructors. |
| Learner | Progress/Certifications | Course certification | Course certifications can be granted and the certificate templates can be customized. |
| Learner | Progress/Certifications | Certifications can be easily shared in social networks | Learners are able to share their success by connecting their social media accounts. |
| Learner | Progress/Certifications | Certifications can be downloaded as pdf | Allows the learner to easily download the certificate and receive it without waiting times. |
| Business/Management | User management | SSO (Single Sign On) | Third party authentication can be integrated with different type of providers such as SAML, OAuth 2.0 (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn). |
| Business/Management | User management | Invitation only | Learners can be invited to a course and receive a link to register in the platform. |
| Business/Management | User management | Self-registration capability | The platform can be configured for learners to be able to register themselves. |
| Business/Management | User management | Custom/mandatory user profile fields | Fields at registration can be configured to be mandatory or optional. Additional fields can be added via an extension plugin. |
| Business/Management | User management | Instructors/tutors can be assigned to a subset of learners | Learners can be added to a cohort, and course content can be displayed or hidden based on a cohort. Instructors are able to see all the cohorts. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Self-enrollment capability | Learners can self-enroll to the courses that are configured. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Invitation only | Courses can be configured to be invitation only. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Survey enrollment (based on a response) | Courses can have entrance exams and be configured so that only learners who pass the exam are able to access the course. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Guest access settings | Courses can partially be made available for guest access. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Batch enrollment capability | Instructors can batch enroll learners in a course by a list of emails or user names. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Course prerequisites control | Limited to 1 prerequisite course per course. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Access based on invitation | Courses can be configured to be invitation only. |
| Business/Management | Course enrollment management | Access based on password / enrollment code | This can be accomplished via the ecommerce module + discount coupons. |
| Business/Management | Learner tracking | Leaner activity tracking/monitor learner progress | Progress is monitored as measured by grades and by the completion of each of the course components. |
| Business/Management | Learner grade management | Gradebook | A centralized gradebook service can be configured. |
| Business/Management | Learner grade management | Configure rubrics for manually graded exercises | Configurable rubrics are available for peer-graded and staff-graded exercises. |
| Business/Management | Certificate management | Manage certification templates | Templates can be created and configured by organization and by language. Fields in the template can be overwritten per course. |
| Business/Management | Certificate management | Bulk generation of certificates | Course instructors can generate certificates in bulk for learners. |
| Business/Management | Certificate management | Revoke certificates | Certificates can be revoked individually or in bulk by course instructors. |
| Business/Management | Reporting | Course enrollment report | User reports are available per course and can be downloaded in CSV format. |
| Business/Management | Reporting | Course performance report | Available per course, including the grades in each of the graded subsections and in each of the graded activities. |
| Business/Management | Reporting | Problem response report | Available for each of the graded problems. |
| Business/Management | Reporting | Survey response report | Anonymized data can be downloaded. |
| Business/Management | Mass communication | Mass email | Available per course. |
| Business/Management | Mass communication | Email based on scheduling | Partially supported via nudge emails functionality. |
| Business/Management | Automated notifications | On new enrollment to a course | Learners can be notified by email when they are manually added or removed from a course. |
| Business/Management | Course management | Import/export courses | Courses can be exported and imported from a native format. |
| Business/Management | Custom branding capabilities | Custom domain (URL) | Supported |
| Business/Management | Custom branding capabilities | Web app branding | The web app theme can be customized via changes in the templates and styles. |
| Business/Management | Custom branding capabilities | Organization branding | Can be accomplished using multi tenancy configurations. |
| Business/Management | Ecommerce capabilities | Course access purchase | Available via the Open edX ecommerce application. |
| Business/Management | Ecommerce capabilities | Course continuation purchase | Available via the Open edX ecommerce application and the use of multiple course modes. |
| Business/Management | Ecommerce capabilities | Course certificate purchase | Available via the Open edX ecommerce application and the use of multiple course modes. |
| Business/Management | Ecommerce capabilities | What payment processors are supported for the courses that have a price | PayPal, CyberSource, and Stripe are included in the codebase. Others can also be implemented as extensions. |
| Business/Management | Ecommerce capabilities | Discount/enrollment codes support | Partial and total discount codes can be made available with different configurations. |
| Business/Management | Multitenancy | Course catalog segmentation | Courses can be segmented into multiple organizations or multiple course catalogs. |
| Business/Management | Multitenancy | Multi sites | More than one site can be deployed (in subdomains, each with their own theme), in order to have different configurations for different sets of courses. |
| Business/Management | Web content capabilities | Native CMS capabilities | Availability to publish content outside of the courses, for example on the homepage, additional pages, etc. via modification of the templates. |
| Business/Management | Web content capabilities | CMS integrations | Can integrate with CMS/marketing website (WordPress, Drupal, etc.) and display user information, course catalog, enrollment status. |
| Business/Management | Other technical specifications | Scalability options | Platform can be scaled vertically and horizontally, based on the services architecture used. |
| Business/Management | Other technical specifications | Extendibility | Platform offers APIs and multiple endpoints to exchange data with external services, allowing integrations with 3rd party systems. |
| Business/Management | Other technical specifications | Accessibility compliance | WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. |
| Business/Management | Other technical specifications | i18n | Translations are available for dozens of languages. |
| Business/Management | Other technical specifications | Data protection compliance | Platform is GDPR compliant |
| Business/Management | Hosting | Cloud based hosting | Platform is built to be hosted on cloud services (AWS, OpenStack, Azure, Google Cloud, etc). |
| Business/Management | Hosting | On premise installation | Platform can be hosted on premises. |
| Business/Management | Licensing | Type of license | The Open edX platform is open source software. Its code is publicly available and released under the GNU Affero v3 license. |
This list of features for the Open edX platform has been produced as part of a collaborative effort with members of the Open edX community. Special thanks to eduNEXT, Abstract and Opencraft for their contributions.