Omnikampus is basically Open edX and our enhancements to it. After we decided to create a distance education software product, we analysed a lot of software, some of it closed, some of it free. At the end of this study, we decided that Open edX was the best software, and there are some reasons for this decision.

Open edX is flexible, easy to integrate with other systems, customisable, reliable and community-supported free software. The sharing nature of free software enables us to obtain this world-class software without paying licence fees per student. We find this very essential for a field such as education, where equal opportunity is of utmost importance. On the other hand, Open edX makes it possible for us to meet the obligation of educational institutions in Turkey to host their servers domestically in accordance with KVKK.

Easy Integration

Open standards such as SCORM, xAPI, LTI, which are widely used in educational technologies, are supported by Open edX. When migrating from another system, these migration processes can be continued without losing data by using these standards. On the other hand, Open edX is compatible with third party software.

Customizability

Distance education has completely different needs according to the needs of each institution. A distance education software should be able to focus on group work when necessary, be presented with a minimal design if necessary, be able to produce and display complex mathematical formulas or be supported by artificial intelligence when necessary. Open edX is a free software and its architecture makes it very suitable for customization by focusing on the needs of the user.

Open edX has a modular structure that allows for the development of add-ons without touching the core software: XBlocks. Thanks to this architecture, special developments can be made for the desired educational solution and used as an add-on without having to understand the entire software or even download it in its entirety. This modular structure has been strengthened even more with the microfrontend architecture that comes with the Olive version in particular. These features make it much easier to make customizations for Open edX according to user needs.

Community Support

Open edX was founded in January 2013 by MIT and Harvard University. The 10-year-old project is actively used by well-established institutions. The fact that most of the software is written in Python, which remains up-to-date and popular, is one of the harbingers of its longevity. The platform has had community support since its early days. The community provides active support in areas such as marketing, release processes, translations, data structure design, and front-end design.

Community support is one of the most important guarantors of the longevity of a software. Because migration processes of distance education software can be costly in terms of time and money. Therefore, instead of changing frequently, it seems a more reasonable option to prefer a software that is expected to be supported for many years, used and supported by well-established institutions. 55 million users receive education in services using Open edX infrastructure. 53 languages are supported by Open edX. According to Times’ Higher Education World University Report, 9 of the top 10 universities use Open edX.

Security

The fact that a software is free and its source code is open is a very advantageous situation in terms of faster detection and faster fixing of security vulnerabilities. Open edX has a software development cycle that is extremely agile in preventing security vulnerabilities by releasing a version every 6 months. We prefer to trust transparent and open systems rather than a closed box with closed source code.

Cost

Most educational institutions in our country do not have the budget to buy LMS services by paying licence fees per student. By using Open edX, it becomes possible to use a world-class system without paying high licence fees.

We are working with Open edX for the reasons mentioned in the article and we are witnessing the correctness of our decision every day. For more information, you can check our article on the needs of distance education, our views on why a learning management system should be a free software, or our comparison of Open edX with Moodle, which is also a popular software.

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