Core Contributor News for Sprint: Feb 28th - Mar 13th, 2026

Working Groups Core Contributors
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Core Contributor News for Sprint: Feb 28th - Mar 13th, 2026

This sprint brought mostly positive experiences. 67% of participants rated their experience as good or great, while 33% reported a neutral experience or faced some challenges.

:tada: What are we celebrating?

@rodrigo.mendez

  • The RBAC - AuthZ for course authoring project closed Milestone 0! Milestone 1 is underway and Milestone 2 work is in refinement.

@Fox_Piacenti

  • It was great starting my first sprint as a contributor and maintainer. After clearing out/merging the old PRs for web_fragments, I determined we may be able to eliminate it as a separate project and bring it back into XBlock.

:sos_button: Who needs help?

@antoviaque

@rodrigo.mendez

  • I was worried about being able to finish the RBAC - AuthZ for course authoring project features in time for the Verawood cold cut on April 9, but since we have gotten extra resources from edunext and WGU and I’m more confident now.

@Fox_Piacenti

  • Not yet, but I’m sure I’ll have something soon.

: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. These are just some of the many PRs that require immediate review and action. In addition, there are several Draft PRs that need attention to move forward. Please take a moment to review and update them as needed so they don’t remain blocked. Thank you!

Stuck waiting for review

Draft PRs: Require review and updates to move forward:

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 The BizDev WG meeting will focus on aligning priorities and restructuring the group for 2026, consolidating focus areas into fewer, clearer pillars with defined ownership. Key discussions include defining an effective execution model, improving the market–product feedback loop, and clarifying data-sharing boundaries and AI positioning. The session will conclude by agreeing on concrete next steps and expectations for Q1 2026 to ensure outcomes, not just updates. Last meeting notes → 2026-04-02 Partnership development Meeting
Build-Test-Release (BTR) The group discussed updates to the release process, including tradeoffs between frequent smaller releases and impactful features, and confirmed that bug fixes and security patches should always be backported while feature backporting remains an open question. They agreed to create a clear proposal document to define the release process, improve visibility during development, and introduce earlier testing checkpoints. A proposal was made to shift the Verawood timeline by two weeks, alongside defining roles and calling for community participation in the upcoming release. Latest meeting notes → 2026-23-03 BTR Meeting Minutes
Governance WG The Governance WG focused primarily on planning a Contributions Review Hackathon to reduce the OSPR backlog, with OpenCraft and eduNEXT committing resources and a timeline set for April–May. The communication tools evaluation was completed, shifting efforts toward defining an action plan with open-source alternatives. Meanwhile, the Notifications Admin proposal remains blocked pending alignment with the Release Notes proposal, with ongoing discussions to unblock progress. Latest meeting notes → Feb 12, 2026 to Mar 23, 2026 — Open edX Governance WG
Core Product No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-02-10 Core Product Meeting Notes
Data The meeting announced the release of Aspects v3, compatible with the Ulmo named release, and a planned upgrade to Superset 6.0.1. The group also discussed a community survey to understand how institutions are using analytics and data tools like Aspects. Finally, an early overview was shared of Learner Pathways × Aspects, part of the broader modular learning and data strategy planned for a future release beyond Verawood. Latest meeting notes → 2026-03-04 Meeting notes
Deprecation The group discussed improving DEPR project management by introducing a clearer distinction between Abandoned, Rejected, and Draft (help wanted) statuses to better track ticket lifecycle and encourage community contributions. Deborah initiated outreach to find maintainers for enterprise repos, with plans to create DEPR tickets for unclaimed ones after March 26. Next steps include updating the OEP, documenting decision rationale in tickets, and publicizing the new status framework. Last meeting notes → DEPR Meetings Notes (2026)
Documentation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-02-04 Docs WG
Educators The working group reviewed logistics updates and explored EduNext’s new AI extensibility framework, which enables educators to use AI tools like chatbots and content generators within Open edX. Felipe demonstrated practical use cases such as a course-aware chatbot and an AI question generator, highlighting how the framework uses templates, scopes, and sessions to configure behavior and integrate with LMS data. Overall, the framework is positioned as both a ready-to-use AI toolset and a customizable platform, allowing institutions to build their own AI workflows while maintaining flexibility and avoiding core platform forks. Latest meeting notes → 2026-03-16 Educators
Frontend The group discussed workspaces as the preferred path forward for local frontend development, including how they would apply to tutor-mfe, while comparing them against alternatives like yalc, autoinstall, and npm prepare. They also reviewed major frontend-base porting progress, noting that Authn is nearly ready, Learner Dashboard still needs review, and unresolved blockers remain around publishing/branching ADRs and runtime config conversion needed for tutor-mfe. Additional attention is needed on template-site path fixes, migration how-to updates, and deciding when to backport frontend-base changes to master. Latest meeting notes → 2026-03-12 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes
Large Instances The meeting highlighted an emergency migration of a large Open edX instance after a data center failure affecting multiple availability zones, with plans to move to Google Cloud and learn from the process. Teams are actively working on Ulmo upgrades and testing, alongside addressing security concerns by updating legacy dependencies like jQuery and handling related issues. Additionally, there is ongoing exploration of vulnerability scanning tools (e.g., Trivy) to improve security during image builds, as well as continued infrastructure and stability improvements. Latest meeting notes → Large Instances Meeting Notes 2026-03-03
Learning Tools (LTI) No current updates available. Latest meeting notes → 2025-11-25 Meeting notes
Maintenance The meeting discussed consolidating maintenance efforts, including merging edx-platform maintenance topics into a single meeting and addressing a backlog of stalled PRs. To improve efficiency, the group proposed an on-call maintainer rotation responsible for PR reviews, upgrades, documentation, and bug triage. Next steps include increasing visibility of meetings, improving coordination tools, and implementing process updates like review deadlines and better PR handling. Latest meeting notes → 2026-03-05 Meeting notes
Marketing No current updates available. Last meeting notes →Agenda, Oct 14th, 2025
Mobile No current updates available. Latest meeting notes →Agenda, 2026-01-30
Technical Oversight Committee The Technical Oversight Committee discussed the opportunity to build a university-focused Open edX distribution, highlighting key gaps like classroom management, SIS integration, and multi-tenancy, while reinforcing a modular, platform-first approach. They also addressed the future of digital credentials, debating whether to deprecate the current service or invest in a more scalable, standards-based solution potentially integrated with external wallets or an LRS. Overall, the consensus emphasized strengthening Open edX as a flexible platform, enabling different products and ecosystems to be built on top of a smaller, more extensible core. Latest meeting notes → TOC Meeting Notes - 2026-01-14
Translation The Translation Working Group shared updates on a leadership transition and upcoming improvements in documentation, best practices, and community coordination. They highlighted the use of Transifex AI to automate translations, with high-quality outputs auto-reviewed and lower-quality ones requiring human validation. Key next steps include recruiting a new WG leader, improving workflows and tooling understanding, and reducing notification noise to streamline collaboration. Latest meeting notes → 2026-03-18 Translation WG Meeting
Design The session focused on a design share-out and feedback round for Unicon’s Competency Alignment UI proposal. Phillip Ball presented updated designs in Figma, showcasing a new approach to the Alignment UI and proposed updates to taxonomies. The discussion gathered early feedback to refine the design direction before next iterations. Last meeting notes → 2026-02-05 - Design Working Group Meeting

:date: What events are coming up?

  • We are excited to announce that Western Governors University (WGU) will be hosting the Open edX Conference 2026. May 19 – 22, 2026 • Salt Lake City, Utah

    • Register now and join the Open edX community in reimagining what’s possible in learning!

  • Join a working group meeting using the community calendar.

:rocket: What are we working on?

:handshake: Want to participate in Core Contributor Governance?

  • Participate to the work of the Contributor Coordination Working Group. The group works asynchronously using the working group tasks board, and we’d love your input there. You can review and comment on existing threads there, or post your own topic to discuss with the group by creating your own ticket on the board (“+ Add item” in “New topics and issues to discuss”).

:speech_balloon: Anything to add?

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

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