Open edX Community

There is a lot to share in this month’s newsletter, including a new way to connect AI assistants to the #OpenEdX platform, research on how governments are building national learning infrastructure, a case study from TeachSim at the University of Virginia, and a full calendar of fall events! Learn more 👇

Competency-based education runs on a simple idea: mastery matters more than seat time. As an open-source learning platform, #OpenEdX gives institutions the infrastructure to build truly competency-based and skills-based programs. For Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) members exploring how technology can support competency-based approaches, the Open edX® platform offers a proven, adaptable foundation — one already powering CBE and skills-based programs across higher ed and workforce development. Heading to ##CBExchange? Join us at these sessions: 🔹 Open Source, Digital Public Infrastructure, and the Future of Skills Mobility 📅 Thursday, October 1 from 10:30am - 11:00am Panelists include Annabel (Annie) Cellini (Open edX® project), Amanda Winters (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation), Robert McGough (Arkansas Department of Shared Administrative Services), and Amber Garrison Duncan, PhD (C-BEN) 🔹 It Takes a Kingdom: Shaping the Future of CBE in an Open Source Platform 📅 Thursday, October 1 from 3:30pm - 4:00pm Panelists include Jenna Makowski (Open edX® project), Mary Gwozdz (Unicon), Kathryn Green (Unicon), and Dr. Tara Laughlin (Education Design Lab) Check out the full conference agenda: https://lnkd.in/ge67riqw

If you're working on skills-based pathways, CBE program design, or the tech that supports them, come say hi at #CBExchange2026. The #OpenEdX team will be around all week, and we'd love to connect!

Open edX operators: 2 minutes of your time can help tell our community's story. 🌍 We're building the next Open edX Impact Report, and we want it to reflect the true global reach of this open source community: every instance, every learner, every course. The fastest way to contribute is already built into your platform. Go to /admin/survey_report/ in your Django admin, generate a report, and send it. What's shared: only aggregate counts, pulled automatically: ▪ Active courses offered ▪ Recently active learners ▪ Total registered learners ▪ Active enrollments ▪ Certificates generated * Your Open edX release What's not shared: no names, emails, usernames, or any individual learner data. Just totals.  The beauty of open source is that you can verify this yourself :) Why it matters: the Open edX platform runs in thousands of places we never hear about: universities, governments, nonprofits, companies. Without data, that impact stays invisible. Your numbers help us show funders, partners, and the world what open source education achieves, and help guide where the community invests next. Big instance or small, every report counts. Please submit yours today, and share this with anyone you know running the Open edX platform. #OpenedX #OpenSource #EdTech #OnlineLearning

How can we connect AI assistants to the Open edX® platform? Our partners at Blend-ed® wanted to see how AI assistants could help administrators manage smaller, repetitive tasks without bypassing the permissions and controls already built into the platform. That led them to build Open edX Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source project that allows MCP-compatible AI assistants to work with a defined set of administration and course-authoring tools. From assigning course roles to updating course content trees to generating certificates, Open edX MCP supports workflows across multiple areas. Learn more in the blog post by Zameel Hassan, Head of Product, Blend-ed. https://lnkd.in/gbb-Nb_B

C-BEN Partner Webinar: Open Source, Digital Public Infrastructure, and the Future of Skills Mobility What's actually available to build on when it comes to moving skills data between education and employment? That's the question at the center of our upcoming partner webinar, sponsored by Axim Collaborative - Open edX Community. This session brings together leaders working at the intersection of open source technology and public infrastructure to help state decision-makers cut through the noise and understand their real options. We'll dig into how open source platforms and shared standards can work as a public utility for talent and skills — infrastructure that any state, institution, or employer can plug into, rather than a proprietary system that locks them in. We'll cover: 🔹 What "digital public infrastructure" means in practice for skills mobility 🔹 How open source lowers the cost and risk of building this infrastructure 🔹 Key questions state leaders should ask vendors and partners before committing to a platform Moderator: Jason Tyszko, Senior Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Panelists: Amber Garrison Duncan, PhD, Executive Vice President & Chief Growth and Systems Transformation Officer, C-BEN Robert McGough, Chief Data Officer, State of Arkansas Annabel (Annie) Cellini, Axim Collaborative, Open edX Partnership and Ecosystem Growth 📅 Tuesday, September 22 | 2:00 PM CT Whether you're evaluating platforms, building a business case for open infrastructure, or just trying to understand the landscape, this session will leave you with a clearer, more practical view of what's possible. Register to join us! https://lnkd.in/gMNn2AiY

168 deployments. 49 countries. Zero vendor lock-in. #OpenEdX is a national infrastructure. Governments are no longer renting their education systems. Governments are building sovereign, open-source infrastructure they actually own: their data, their content, their sovereignty, their roadmap. What does that look like on the ground? Six themes emerged across 49 countries: 🌐 National MOOC hubs reaching millions of citizens 💼 Workforce upskilling at scale (10M+ candidates on one platform alone) 👩🏫 Teacher enablement infrastructure certifying tens of thousands of educators 🔒 Secure civil service training for entire government workforces 📋 Regulated-industry compliance and certification systems 🛡️ Crisis continuity infrastructure that doesn't go down when everything else does These aren’t features. This is what public infrastructure is supposed to do. 🔗 Full breakdown by Open edX® community member Juan Camilo Montoya Franco: https://lnkd.in/gcFyr2J8 #OpenSource #DigitalPublicInfrastructure

Want to learn more about the Verawood release? Join the Open edX® team on Wednesday, September 9 @ 1pm for a deeper dive into the new features! 🔗 Register today: https://lnkd.in/g-RZwi2R 📖 Explore the release notes: https://lnkd.in/eWRF9Swj #OpenEdX #OpenSource

This fall, Education Design Lab is bringing its Durable Skills Framework to the Open edX® platform! To date, the Lab’s durable skills courses have reached 30,000+ learners across community colleges, four-year universities, K-12 districts, and workforce and veteran-serving organizations. By making these courses available as open educational resources, more colleges and workforce providers can integrate durable skills into their programs. 🤝 Interested in bringing these resources to your learners or workers? Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/e-NwvmRE #OpenEdX #OpenSource #OER #CompetencyBasedEducation

The Open edX® Conference 2026 in Salt Lake City was a massive success, and it wouldn't have been possible without our incredible Cornerstone sponsor: Western Governors University (WGU)! From hosting us in their home city to anchoring some of the most talked-about sessions on continuous assessment, AI-simulated learners, and verifiable credentials, WGU went above and beyond to shape a learner-first, skills-forward event. A huge thank you to the WGU team! 📺 If you missed the live sessions – or want to revisit the insights – watch the full WGU playlist: https://lnkd.in/eW_QdB2V 📖 Read our latest blog post for a full recap of WGU's contributions: https://lnkd.in/eD5j_mjG #OpenEdX #OpenEdX2026 #WGU #EdTech