Hello all! Axim Collaborative is pleased to announce a new funded contribution project to help advance the Open edX platform.
The goal of this project is to compile a comprehensive set of screenshots and recordings of the platform with the Open edX theme and the Indigo theme, so that we can use these artifacts to conduct a thorough usability audit of the Open edX theme. We’re hoping to identify bugs, gaps, and areas where we can improve upon the functionality and usability of Open edX theme for the community.
We are seeking proposals from existing community members as well as qualified organizations looking for a first project to join the community. All proposals from providers interested in undertaking this work must be submitted by 7/31/2025 and Axim expects to choose a provider by 8/15/2025.
We will provide the chosen provider with access to a sandbox using the Open edX theme and one using the Indigo theme. Please see the detailed acceptance criteria for the project before developing your proposal. Those interested in submitting proposals should send them to Chelsea Rathbun (crathbun@axim.org), Sarina Canelake (sarina@axim.org) and Jenna Makowski (jmakowski@axim.org).
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Very good idea! Are there any plans to do a cross-browser review? I think it would be useful to take screenshots and recordings in the most popular browsers today (for example, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera).
Also, my team has already started analyzing this themes review, @Stanislav_Neichev will ask some clarifying questions.
Thanks!
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Excellent question! This sounds to me like a good idea. I’m wondering how much scope this would add to the proposal.
Any thoughts from the technical side (once you’re back in office), @sarina ?
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hello Chelsea, yeah, we got a few more questions:
- Do we need to record/screenshot the Legacy LMS, CMS and additional functional parts like Programs & WooCommerce?
- How detailed should the report be? For instance, Course cards on the Learner Dashboard can have dozens of statuses, etc.. Shall we screenshot/record all of them?
- Shall we consider mobile view (responsiveness) during reporting/screenshoting the UI?
- Shall we consider RTL & translation specifics?
- Shall we consider 2 modes on the Indigo theme (light & dark)?
- Are there any requirements for the format of the screenshots/video recordings? (e.g. image size, resolution, etc)
- Shall we consider all the roles of the system during the screenshoting/recording? (e.g. discussion moderator, staff, learner, platform admin, etc.)
- Will the repository/confluence for the report/template be provided to the executor? (e.g. we will have some space in Open edX Confluence to document everything)
Thanks!
Thank you for your questions @Stanislav_Neichev
- We only expect recordings and screenshots of the tutor-supported MFEs listed in the linked Acceptance Criteria. Does that fully answer your question?
- Good question. What we want to determine is how well the Open edX theme functions today without any adjustments or fixes, get a general feel for how the theme looks and feels for users. To your example, if a course card on the instructor dashboard has a different status - would the theme behave differently for that card? We don’t need to see every iteration of a possible field value on every page, but we want to be able to get a general sense of areas where the Open edX theme is behaving, where its misbehaving, and where there might be areas for improvement from a look and feel perspective. Does this help answer your question?
- Good question - my gut says no, but let me triple check on this and get back to you this week.
- Another great question question - my gut says yes to RTL, but no to further translation specifics, but let me triple check on this one as well and get back to you this week.
- From what I understand, the Open edX theme does not have light and dark modes, while Indigo does have the two different modes. For this reason, I’d say I only need to see the Indigo theme in light mode in order to compare the two themes side-by-side since we’ve captured the fact that a big bonus of the Indigo them is that it offers up a light and dark mode.
- No. The goal is for images and recordings to be clear enough to assess how functional the Open edX theme is. We trust the provider to provide screenshots and recordings that meet the need of conveying this information clearly. Luckily, with Milestone 1 only requiring the first few screenshots and recordings, we’ll be able to adjust any expectations around this if image size or resolution needs to be adjusted.
- This is an excellent question. My gut would be to only focus on the learner, staff, and admin user experience for this exercise since the RBAC work will likely alter the out-of-the-box roles that are available soon. Does this sound about right, @sarina and @jmakowski?
- Yes, this will be provided and will most likely be collected via a confluence page (see the template provided in the linked AC).
Some of these questions, I want a second opinion on. My aim is to get back to you by the end of the week on these questions. (Specifically, questions 2, 3, 4, and 7). Stay tuned.
Hi, Chelsea, thanks a lot for the answers, it definitely helps!
- Kinda answers. From this question, another one comes up:
1.1. Will sandbox provided have the configured/set up credentials, discovery service for learner-records MFE? Or is it done by the provider that will be performing the work? For instance, learner-records MFE may have a list of certificates from Programs, therefore, Programs may be required to install. Or other MFEs might require additional configurations (like enabling some waffle flag or something) - is it the responsibility of the executor?
- Got it, thanks! No behavior change in that example. Then it answers the question to some extent. But the behavior is not the only factor. Having the same behavior (like status change or something), we could have 1 status displayed correctly, another one - can be buggy.
- got it
- ok, got it
- got it, great!
For the rest of the questions, I’ll be waiting for the response. + additional question 1.1 + the question about cross-browser check from Peter. The cross-browser check will add up a significant effort.
Summarizing the answers,
- no other interfaces are expected to be recorded except the listed MFEs in ACs
- no need for checking the very little detail if it doesn’t change the behavior and is not buggy
- RTL is the case for checking & recording the UI in the report
- Dark theme in Indigo is not required
- Executor will provide the results in the report according to the template, but the template can be changed & the format in which the results are provided (like quality of screenshots/videos/explanations under the visuals) can be corrected after the Milestone #1
- Axim team will provide the Confluence space where the executor can document the results
I got firmer answers to your original questions:
Question 2: We don’t want/need to see all the statuses. We want to see the overall view of each page (not all the possible states each page can be in). For example: On the instructor dashboard, we’d want to see what the instructor dashboard looks like for a course admin (someone with all permissions).
Question 3: No, not for this project.
Question 4: No to RTL or translations: we’re looking for the functional difference between the two themes. We’re not conducting a translations audit for this project.
Question 7: For all of the tutor-supported MFEs we list, we want to see the screenshots and recordings taken from a learner account (EXCEPT FOR the Instructor Dashboard and fe-app-authoring pages, which should be taken from an admin account).
And for your follow-up question - we’ll provide sandboxes that have been fully configured for this project for you - confirming this with @sarina just to be certain.
Chelsea, thank you so much for the prompt response! It answers our questions, really appreciate it.
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