The online learning market is getting saturated as the entire education industry is moving towards digitalization, thanks to the remarkable developments in the technology sector. Technology has continuously transformed various industries. The most recent and prominent example is the e-commerce industry. Today Amazon and Ali Baba’s combined worth is more than USD 2 Trillion. Compare this with conventional commerce, where many resources are spent on the intermediaries; hence, it saves costs, increases profits, and is convenient for the end-users.

Advancement in the education sector is also taking place at a very fast pace. The eLearning market is expected to exceed USD 1 Trillion by 2027. Open source is the future of eLearning platforms, and Open edX is one of the industry’s major players, making it a highly competitive market. Open edX’s unique features and attributes make it very powerful and resourceful for the eLearning platforms.

What is Open edX?

Open edX is an open-source learning management system (LMS) that empowers organizations worldwide to design customized and engaging online learning platforms. The Open edX platform provides the massively scalable learning software technology behind edX.

Open edX has been powering several e-learning platforms by offering useful features that make online learning much more accessible and convenient. Since it is open-source, it is constantly evolving and improving its offerings with the aid of a robust group of technology partners. Harvard University and MIT created Open edX for the well-known learning platform edX, and Google and Microsoft quickly supported it. 

What is unique about Open edX?

A successful eLearning platform has its specialty and uniqueness that help it stand out. Open edX is different from the rest of open source eLearning platforms in the following ways:

1. Scalability

Open edX describes itself as a free and open-source course management system used to host Massive Open Online Courses globally along with hosting smaller training modules. It is designed for self-paced learning and can also cater to several learners on the platform at a time. The ability to host and manage many learners helped Open edX establish contacts with universities, corporations, and government institutions. 

2. Interactive & Flexible

Unlike other eLearning platforms, Open edX can go beyond simple interactions in an online classroom with the help of xBlock plugins. These xBlock plugins provide an immense amount of flexibility to Open edX users. Course authors, administrators, and staff regard them highly as xBlocks enhance their authoring experience and make it easier for them to design a groundbreaking eLearning platform.

3. Powerful Tools and Integrations

The open edX community shares useful information on advanced topics that attract higher education institutions and universities. Open edX LTI tools can be used for communicating with external software; moreover, APIs used by Open edX further improve the user experience.

4. Global Recognition and Brand

With prestigious institutions like Harvard and MIT behind the platform, Open edX is recognized worldwide. It has a huge userbase and big giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and IBM are a major part of it. Top universities of North America, the Middle East, and China also use Open edX® to provide engaging and interactive learning content to their students.

5. Innovative

The powerful open-source interface of Open edX enables the world’s most brilliant minds to contribute to the platform; hence, innovation takes place continuously. The superior interface and the wholesome experience at Open edX is much more advanced and modern than the competitors.

6. Learner-Centric

The platform encourages learning in various ways such as by leveraging polls, wikis, social media, videos, and exercises. The wide variety of content types enables the content creators to design content that increases the students’ skills and competencies.

7. Powerful Analytics

Insights and analytics give Open edX a comprehensive edge over its competitors. Reports can be generated to detect problems faced by students during the course. The insights provided by the reports can be used to improve the course and can help the course creators by providing real-time feedback.

Advantages of using Open edX?

Apart from the unique features of open edX and powerful tools that come with it, there are a few additional advantages for content creators that they can explore while preparing content on an Open edX powered platform:

• Change the colors, fonts, language, and background of each microsite of your eLearning platform separately with ease.
• Different modules can be used for different courses by using multiple xBlocks across your eLearning platform powered by Open edX.
• You can use different payment methods that can also be used for different microsites at your eLearning platform.

To Wrap it Up

Open edX provides you an opportunity to build your eLearning platform where you can create and deploy online courses of your choice. It is an economical alternative to other open-source LMS platforms with its unique and powerful features as discussed earlier.

You can experience a fully managed and branded experience through a monthly subscription model that Open edX service providers are offering. Edly is one of the service partners of Open edX and it is proud to be the largest and amongst the earliest service providers at Open edX.

Are you thinking about giving Open edX a try to check whether Open edX aligns with your goals and budget? You can request a free demo at Edly and enjoy a 30-day free trial.

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