Help Build the Ultimate Open edX Guide

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Hi everyone :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

We’re creating our first pillar post for OpenCraft, tailored to institutional decision-makers, ie. leaders at universities, governments, and large organizations exploring the best LMS options. This guide is a chance to deliver real value and showcase OpenCraft as an Open edX expert.

But we don’t just want to repackage what’s already out there. The most valuable insights come from your real-world experience. So that’s where your knowledge comes in… What do you think institutions should know more about? It could be a practical tip, an underrated feature, a powerful customization, or a lesson from a challenging implementation - anything you’ve seen that makes a real impact (the aim isn’t to create DIY content, we want to create something for decision-maker guidance.)

Key information to guide your thoughts:

Draft Pillar Post Structure:

Here’s the working structure for our guide - designed for universities, corporations, and government institutions evaluating LMS platforms. Please add your two cents in the thread. Nothing is set in stone!

TL;DR

  • A quick summary for institutional leaders, IT decision-makers, and procurement teams:
    • Who this guide is for
    • What you’ll learn (LMS evaluation criteria, real-world implementation advice, Open edX use cases)
    • Why Open edX offers unique value as a secure, scalable, and customizable open-source LMS

1. Why Institutions Are Choosing Open Source LMS Solutions

Keyword focus: Best open-source LMS, customizable learning management system

Open edX Explained: An Open Source LMS Built for Institutional Innovation

  • Origins and evolution (MIT and Harvard roots, edX.org, global adoption)
  • What makes Open edX different from other open source platforms

Why Open Source? The Institutional Advantage

  • Control over features, data and hosting
  • Customization of features, UX, branding and integrations
  • Global community and transparency
  • Alignment with academic/government values (eg, openness, autonomy, public good)

2. Key LMS Evaluation Criteria for Institutions

Keyword focus: Scalable LMS for universities, secure LMS for government, Open edX for enterprise

Security, Scalability, and Compliance at Scale

  • Why secure hosting, data protection, and uptime matter for governments and large institutions
  • Open edX security architecture and compliance support

Integrations and Custom Features that fit your Institution

  • Compatibility with campus tools (SIS, CRM, SSO)
  • Custom pathways, certifications, mobile UX

Customization Without Vendor Lock-In

  • Branding and learner experience
  • Tailored features and pedagogical models

Open Source vs SaaS: Cost and Flexibility Compared

  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and hidden costs in SaaS
  • Why institutions choose to self-host or work with Open edX partners
  • Comparison table: Open edX vs Blackboard vs MoodleCloud vs Canvas LMS-as-a-service

3. Future-Proofing Your LMS Investment

Keyword focus: Customizable learning management system, corporate training platform open source

What’s Next: Trends Shaping the LMS Landscape

  • AI and adaptive learning
  • Microlearning and modular content
  • Data analytics and personalized learner journeys

Building an Agile and Adaptable Infrastructure

  • Planning for change, scale, and institutional growth
    How Open edX positions institutions for long-term success

4. Real-World Implementation Tips

Hosting Models that Fit you

  • Self-hosted vs. partner-hosted: control, cost, and complexity

Keys to a Smooth Rollout

  • Stakeholder alignment and governance
  • Training, support, and institutional onboarding
  • Designing for adoption across departments

5. Success Stories

Highlight OpenCraft case studies across sectors (gov, higher ed, enterprise). Ideally we can link to our existing case studies…

6. How OpenCraft Supports your Open edX Journey

Keyword focus: Open edX for enterprise, customizable learning management system

Strategic and Technical Services

  • Architecture, development, integrations, UX
  • Security audits and performance optimization

Long-Term Partnership and Maintenance

  • DevOps, updates, scaling
  • Becoming your LMS co-pilot, not just a vendor

Leaders in the Open edX Community

  • Contributions to the platform
  • Thought leadership and collaboration

7. Let’s Talk about your LMS needs

  • Schedule a Discovery Call
  • Download the Full Guide (PDF)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! :bulb:

Log time here. Our budget is limited so while your feedback is important please be a bit time sensitive :slight_smile:

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Maybe mention the opportunity to institutional stakeholders to become involved in shaping the future of the platform - participate on product advisory boards, contribute or review code/features/plugins, even sit on the TOC.

I think it would be good to mention that Open edX is built around the Open Learning XML (OLX) data format, which has been a stable and backwards compatible format for the past decade, ensuring that your content data is always accessible and can be converted to other formats, rather than locked in to something proprietary.

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@cassie Thank you for all this work! :clap: I’ve added a few notes below.

  • Benefit from ongoing improvements and peer collaboration.
  • Reduce licensing fees and long-term vendor lock-in.
  • Technology tends to evolve rapidly.

Here are some strengths as per this SWOT analysis by Annabel Cellini at Axim:

  • Highly customizable and extensible, and flexible
  • Brand, Expertise, Higher Education trusted source, connection and knowledge of HE
  • Proven excellence
  • Multitenancy
  • Scalability
  • Sovereignty/Democratic community control
  • Community

Some focus areas from Annabel’s research:

  • Competency-based and non-degree education - Focusing on underserved learners seeking credentials, typically but not exclusively through community colleges. Growth in career-aligned credentials, competency-based learning, and apprenticeships
  • National upskilling platforms and initiatives - Supporting government ministries and large-scale workforce development programs, with successful examples including the e-She project in Ethiopia.
  • Institutions increasingly looking to serve historically underserved populations like adult learners.
  • Student preference for hybrid learning post-pandemic.
  • In-house product design team
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  • Cost per learner is much better at scale
  • Larger pool of providers capable of handling your customization and maintenance needs
  • Compliance is much easier when source code can be audited and certified
  • Data sovereignty and the ability to build in-house specialists and become entirely independent from outside contractors if desired (Kind of restating what you already said in the first point, but felt it was a good additional framing)
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These are all gold everyone! Wow thank you!

@antoviaque would you also like to add some points?

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@cassie This is a solid base, kudos! And between your post and the suggestions in this thread, a lot of it is well-covered.

There is maybe a point that could be worth making more central: instance maintenance and its long-term implications. Most providers just work on forks and don’t contribute the features - which creates a growing difference between the client or provider fork and the official version, which creates an exponentially growing pile of work to do at each upgrade. By being “upstream first”, contributing features and core changes as much as possible to the official version, it allows to keep the maintenance and upgrade costs from ballooning (and often upgrades to stall). This is a key differentiator, which helps to explain why we are more expensive upfront than other providers, but economical on the long term.

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Hey everyone :slightly_smiling_face: I need your help writing our pillar piece on why institutions are choosing open-source LMS platforms like Open edX. To make it manageable, I’m breaking it into section assignments - leveraging our in-house technical knowledge.

Assignment Strategy

Goal: An evergreen guide that helps universities, governments, and enterprises make confident LMS decisions and shows why Open edX (and OpenCraft) is the smart, future-proof choice.

Target audience: We’re writing for institutional decision-makers. They’re tech-aware but not necessarily technical. They care about value, scale, security, and long-term strategy.

Tone of voice:

  • Smart, helpful, confident but not salesy
  • Speak their language (governance, pedagogy, compliance, cost per learner)
  • Conversational but professional
  • Show we know our stuff with examples, data, and platform knowledge
  • Avoid fluff - keep it thoughtful, and valuable

Here’s how I’d like to assign each section based on role:

TL;DR
Writer: @cassie

1. Why Institutions Are Choosing Open Source LMS Solutions

Writer: @fox would you be up for this section?

Content to include in section 1

Keyword focus: Best open-source LMS, customizable learning management system

Open edX Explained: An Open Source LMS Built for Institutional Innovation

  • Origins and evolution (MIT and Harvard roots, edX.org, global adoption)
  • What makes Open edX different from other open source platforms, eg:
    • Maybe mention the opportunity to institutional stakeholders to become involved in shaping the future of the platform - participate on product advisory boards, contribute or review code/features/plugins, even sit on the TOC.
    • Highly customizable and extensible, and flexible
    • Brand, Expertise, Higher Education trusted source, connection and knowledge of HE
    • Proven excellence
    • Multitenancy
    • Scalability
    • Sovereignty/Democratic community control
    • Community

Why Open Source? The Institutional Advantage

  • Control over features, data and hosting / Data sovereignty and the ability to build in-house specialists and become entirely independent from outside contractors if desired
  • Customization of features, UX, branding and integrations
  • Global community and transparency
  • Alignment with academic/government values (eg, openness, autonomy, public good)
  • Benefit from ongoing improvements and peer collaboration.
  • Reduce licensing fees and long-term vendor lock-in.
  • Technology tends to evolve rapidly
  • Cost per learner is much better at scale
  • Larger pool of providers capable of handling your customization and maintenance needs
  • Compliance is much easier when source code can be audited and certified

2. What Makes Open edX Different (Platform Deep Dive)

Writer: @braden would you be up for this section?

Content to include in section 2

Keyword focus: Scalable LMS for universities, secure LMS for government, Open edX for enterprise

Security, Scalability, and Compliance at Scale

  • Why secure hosting, data protection, and uptime matter for governments and large institutions
  • Open edX security architecture and compliance support

Integrations and Custom Features that fit your Institution

  • Compatibility with campus tools (SIS, CRM, SSO)
  • Custom pathways, certifications, mobile UX

Customization Without Vendor Lock-In

  • Branding and learner experience
  • Tailored features and pedagogical models
  • I think it would be good to mention that Open edX is built around the Open Learning XML (OLX) data format, which has been a stable and backwards compatible format for the past decade, ensuring that your content data is always accessible and can be converted to other formats, rather than locked in to something proprietary.

Sustainable Maintenance: Avoiding the Fork-and-Forget Trap

  • When evaluating an LMS, it’s easy to focus on features, but what happens after deployment matters just as much. Too often, vendors “fork” the Open edX platform, apply quick fixes or one-off features, and walk away. This creates technical debt, making future upgrades time-consuming, costly, and risky. Over time, your instance drifts further from the official Open edX releases, and each update becomes a mini-rewrite (or worse, gets delayed indefinitely). OpenCraft avoids this trap with an upstream-first model: we contribute changes and features directly to the core Open edX project. This keeps your platform aligned with the official version, simplifies upgrades, and dramatically reduces long-term maintenance costs.
    • Aligned with official releases
    • Lower long-term total cost of ownership
    • No lock-in to one vendor’s fork
    • Contributing to the global LMS community

Open Source vs SaaS: Cost and Flexibility Compared

  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and hidden costs in SaaS
  • Why institutions choose to self-host or work with Open edX partners
  • Comparison table: Open edX vs Blackboard vs MoodleCloud vs Canvas LMS-as-a-service

3. Future-Proofing Your LMS Investment

Writer: @cassie

Content to include in section 3

Keyword focus: Customizable learning management system, corporate training platform open source

What’s Next: Trends Shaping the LMS Landscape

  • AI and adaptive learning
  • Microlearning and modular content
  • Data analytics and personalized learner journeys
  • Competency-based and non-degree education - Focusing on underserved learners seeking credentials, typically but not exclusively through community colleges. Growth in career-aligned credentials, competency-based learning, and apprenticeships
  • National upskilling platforms and initiatives - Supporting government ministries and large-scale workforce development programs, with successful examples including the e-She project in Ethiopia.
  • Institutions increasingly looking to serve historically underserved populations like adult learners.
  • Student preference for hybrid learning post-pandemic.

Building an Agile and Adaptable Infrastructure

  • Planning for change, scale, and institutional growth
  • How Open edX positions institutions for long-term success

4. Real-World Implementation Tips

Writer: @fox would you be up for this section?

Content to include in section 4

Hosting Models that Fit you

  • Self-hosted vs. partner-hosted: control, cost, and complexity

Keys to a Smooth Rollout

  • Stakeholder alignment and governance
  • Training, support, and institutional onboarding
  • Designing for adoption across departments

5. Success Stories

Writer: @jordan would you be up for this section?

Content to include in section 5

Highlight OpenCraft case studies across sectors (gov, higher ed, enterprise). Ideally we can link to our existing case studies.

6. How OpenCraft Supports your Open edX Journey

Writer: @jordan would you be up for this section? I’ll assist with the product stuff (@cassie)

Content to include in section 6

Keyword focus: Open edX for enterprise, customizable learning management system

In-house product design team

Strategic and Technical Services

  • Architecture, development, integrations, UX
  • Security audits and performance optimization

Long-Term Partnership and Maintenance

  • Becoming your LMS co-pilot, not just a vendor
  • DevOps, updates, scaling

Leaders in the Open edX Community

  • Contributions to the platform
  • Thought leadership and collaboration

7. Let’s Talk about your LMS needs

Writer: @cassie

Content to include in section 7
  • Schedule a Discovery Call
  • Download the Full Guide (PDF)

@braden @Fox @gabriel @jordan if you have any suggestions on who else might be a good fit for the sections I’ve outlined, feel free to share! And if you’re interested in taking on additional sections yourself, even better.

Each section will have a different target word count, which I’ll detail in the Jira tickets I’ll set up by Thursday. Some will be as short as 150 words, while others will be closer to 500. Just a reminder: this pillar post is meant to serve as a high-level guide that we’ll eventually link out from with more in-depth articles.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’d love for us to knock this out next sprint (ie. posted on our website) :dart:

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I’ll tackle the sections I’ve already been assigned first, and if there are any left over once I’ve written those, I’ll be happy to grab more if there’s some.

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Awesome! I’ll create those tickets for you @Fox :slight_smile:

@braden @jordan could you let me know if you’re available to work on this next sprint?

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@Ali Let me know if you also have time to contribute. You write so well :blush:

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@cassie It all depends on the timeline. I’m off next week, and will probably have work that I need to catch up on when I get back. When would you need my help?

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Of course, you’re going on leave! No worries then :)

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@cassie No problem, I’m available to work on my sections next sprint as well.

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Thank you!

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@cassie I’m available.

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@Fox @jordan @braden I’ve run out of a bit of time this week to put together the tickets for these pillar posts but I’ll do them on Monday so you have them when you all wake up :slight_smile:

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@Fox @jordan @braden Adding this here so you all see it :slight_smile:

You don’t need to treat each point I mentioned in the task topic as a separate heading, they’re just there as guidance. Feel free to combine, leave some out, or add others if they add the right value for leads.

If you think it would benefit the overall piece to go over the specified word count, that’s absolutely fine. We’re mainly keeping an eye on budget, so as long as the section is genuinely useful and thoughtfully put together, there’s no need to stick rigidly to the limit. Just let me know if you think you’ll need more hours.

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@cassie Hi Cassie, sounds good! Do you have a due date in mind for this? My drafts are almost complete, I just wanted to double check. Mine should be fine within the allotted hours. Thanks!

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@jordan The sooner the better :)

cc. @Fox @braden

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@braden @Fox @jordan

When you’ve completed your sections, please start the review process. I’ve outlined it below:

  • Ensure you’ve added your draft to the relevant sub-page within this section.
  • Ping your reviewers on your pillar post ticket and mention they have 1 hour each to review. Perhaps give them a heads up that you’ll be sending something through soon.
  • Once the review is completed, address the comments. If you need more than 1 hour please let me know.
  • Ping me when you’re done and ready for the Gramlee proofreading process. I will be putting all the sections together to be proofread in one fell swoop.

Ideally I’d like to get this proofread at the beginning of the next sprint. So ping me on your ticket if you don’t think you’ll be able to make this deadline.

Thanks again everyone! :slight_smile: