Core Contributor News for Sprint: Apr 26th - May 9th, 2025

Working Groups Core Contributors
,
1

Core Contributor News for Sprint: Apr 26th - May 9th, 2025

This sprint brought a mix of experiences. 73% rated their experience as either good or great, while 27% faced some challenges.

:tada: What are we celebrating?

@omar

  • Added more languages.

@Felipe

  • added support for django 5.2 in the package im maintainer

@pdpinch

  • The Teak RC is cut!
  • Teak testing has begun, and already >70% of the testing is done. A couple of folks from MIT are participating in testing, including one new person.
  • The Markdown editor that we restored to Studio is more popular than we realized.

@sdaitzman

  • I’ve been excited to hear more requests from engineers and other non-design contributors for reviews from the UX/UI working group (both synchronous and async)!

:sos_button: Who needs help?

If there’s anything you’re stuck on, need help with, or would like input on, please feel free to leave a comment in this topic. We’re here to support you!

:construction: What Pull Requests (PRs) need review?

As a CC, check for PRs that are stuck and need attention. Don’t have write access? No problem! You can still help by reviewing to move things forward. Ping Axim if there are issues merging after you review.

Below is a list of stalled PRs that need urgent attention:

Find a full list of PRs ready for review here, or focus on edx-platform PRs that need attention.

:memo: What are the Working Groups up to?

Working Group Latest Updates
BizDev Annabel Cellini presented a market analysis on Open edX’s positioning in North America and globally, highlighting growth in microcredentials and workforce education. Two strategic focus areas were proposed: workforce upskilling and global expansion through initiatives like Skill India. Discussions addressed competitive challenges, regional focus biases, and the need to grow in emerging markets. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-07 Partnership development Meeting
Build-Test-Release (BTR) The team reviewed Teak testing progress, with Chelsea updating test cases and initial feedback from testing underway. Updates were discussed on Forums v2 migration bugs (2U and MIT), feature flag coordination, and sandbox setup. Each release area (testing, management, docs, debugging) shared ongoing work, blockers, and open calls for help. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-05 BTR Meeting Minutes
Contributor Coordination The group is shifting to async updates via the issues board, with live meetings only when needed to resolve open points. There’s also a proposal for regular surveys to assess community health and improve governance processes. Further formal details will follow, but feedback and ideas are welcome. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-15 CC Working Group Meeting Notes
Core Product On May 6, 2025, a Special Teak Release Test-a-thon was held, organized by Chelsea Rathbun. The event aimed to provide the community with a virtual space and time to complete tests as part of the Teak Release Testing Process. Participants were instructed to select a test from the “TEAK TESTS” tab, perform it, and update the status in the testing sheet. If a test failed, participants were to create a GitHub issue with a detailed description and steps to reproduce. Feedback on unclear test instructions was encouraged, with suggestions to improve the testing process. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-06 Core Product Meeting Notes
Data Chelsea Rathbun presented the Teak testing sandbox for In-Context Metrics, inviting feedback. She also discussed the User Group Strategy, Use Cases, and MVP requirements, sharing related documents for community input. The team encouraged feedback on the technical design of the User Group model. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-07 Meeting notes
Deprecation The DEPR board review focused on process improvements, including renaming columns to match the OEP. The proposal includes implementing retro sessions for Studio waffle flips and pre-Teak breaking changes, with a question on the usefulness of flipping waffle flags from opt-in to opt-out. The review also covers feature toggle management, the readiness of codejail-service, and possible hackathon ideas to improve DEPR handling for temporary toggles. Latest meeting notes → DEPR Meetings Notes (2025)
Documentation The team emphasizes shared responsibility for tasks and collaboration. John Swope suggests using the conference to identify contributors for documentation roles. Sarina Canelake highlights the success of documentation on filing issues and proposes improving LTI integration documentation before the conference talk. They also discuss updating documentation on unsupported features in Open edX and how to qualify them properly. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-17 Docs WG
Educators No current updates available.
Frontend The meeting discussed Micro Frontends (MFEs) transitioning to buildless NPM packages to streamline development, including separating headers/footers into a “shell” app. It explored creating project repositories to manage MFE dependencies and simplify builds. There was also debate on deprecating Webpack in favor of faster bundlers like RSBuild or Vite and maintaining Server-Side Rendering (SSR) as an optional feature for performance benefits. The long-term goal is consolidating MFEs into domain-specific macro frontends for easier maintenance. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-08 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes
Large Instances The DevOps meeting on April 29, 2025, focused on scaling Open edX, with discussions on AWS infrastructure automation, migration optimization, and Kubernetes cost efficiency. The team reviewed AI tool integration, progress in reducing initialization times, and ongoing issues with forum migrations and micro-frontend bugs. Last meeting notes → Large Instances Meeting Notes 2025-04-29
Learning Tools (LTI) No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-01 Meeting notes
Maintenance The meeting covered several topics, including the upcoming update on the edx/brand-edx.org dependency, progress on the Python 3.12 upgrade, and the proposal to shift to bi-weekly meetings. DEPR updates included a review of the new OEP-21 language and upcoming re-reviews of DEPR tickets. Future priorities include the Node 22 upgrade, consolidating MFEs, managing major dependency updates, and ensuring the availability of relevant scripts and expert knowledge for edx-platform. Latest meeting notes → 2025-05-08 Meeting notes
Marketing No current updates available. Next meeting: May 21st. Last meeting notes →Agenda, April 16th, 2025
Mobile The Mobile Working Group discussed mobile feature explorations, SCORM XBlock testing issues, and offline download improvements. They are working on a mobile IAP plugin and optimizing the course dates API. Development on these topics is ongoing, with some delays in offline mode improvements. Last meeting notes →Agenda, April 16th, 2025
Technical Oversight Committee No current updates available. Last meeting notes → TOC Meeting Notes - 2025-03-12
Translation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-16 Translation WG Meeting
UX/UI Database of UX/UI Projects. Latest meeting notes →2025-05-15 - UX/UI Working Group Meeting

:date: What events are coming up?

:rocket: What are we working on?

:handshake: Want to participate in Core Contributor Governance?

  • Join us for the next Contributor Coordination Working Group Meeting on Tuesday, June 10th to collaborate on planning and aligning contributor efforts. We’re working on some exciting projects, and we’d love your input. Help us shape the future of Open edX!:right_arrow: Add the meeting to your calendar

:speech_balloon: Anything to add?

Share your thoughts in Slack (openedx.slack.com) or the comments below!

2 Likes