Core Contributor News for Sprint: Nov 22th - Dec 6th, 2025

Working Groups Core Contributors
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Core Contributor News for Sprint: Nov 22th - Dec 6th, 2025

This sprint brought mostly positive experiences. 86% of participants rated their experience as good or great, while 14% reported a neutral experience or faced some challenges.

:tada: What are we celebrating?

@farhaanbukhsh

  • Proud of BTR WG for such amazing work on the releases

@omar

  • Progress with Transifex automation. Ulmo sync is done. Working on automatic sync for the projects.

@tpayne

  • We were able to introduce a common settings module for testing, and break the dependency of the CMS test module on the LMS test module (#37714).

:sos_button: Who needs help?

@ali_hugo

  • Has anyone in the community worked with proctoring tools other than Safe Exam Browser (SEB)? We’re looking for options to explore as part of our research for this proposal on a new proctoring tool.

: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 No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-11-12 Partnership development Meeting
Build-Test-Release (BTR) Ulmo.1 release preparation continues with active testing, documentation, and debugging work across all teams, while a security patch scheduled for Dec 16 remains the only notable blocker. Testing has progressed significantly, with 450 cases completed and key failures under review. The team is focused on finalizing new feature tests, resolving open issues, and ensuring readiness ahead of the Dec 18 cut. Latest meeting notes → 2025-12-15 BTR Meeting Minutes
Governance WG The Governance Working Group formally transitioned to an async-first model, updating its charter and restructuring contributor documentation and workflows. Significant progress was made on PR management, metrics, and a notifications initiative, now being refocused to support site admins after TOC feedback. Several strategic efforts continue into 2026, including contributor onboarding improvements and the Partners-as-Maintainers framework. Latest meeting notes → June-Nov 2025 - Activity - Governance WG
Core Product The meeting focused on two major items: reviewing the Enrollment Page Editor proposal, which was postponed again and will be revisited on December 16, and examining the RBAC (AuthZ) plans for Studio presented by Guillermo. Both topics aim to enhance course discoverability and strengthen permission management for course authoring. Further discussion and refinement are expected in upcoming sessions. Last meeting notes → 2025-12-16 Core Product Meeting Notes
Data No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-08-20 Meeting notes
Deprecation The group continued refining fast-track updates to the DEPR OEP, ensuring clearer guidance for deprecations and quicker decision-making. Discussions focused on consolidating criteria, improving documentation, and aligning processes across working groups. Additional updates will be reviewed in upcoming sessions to finalize the streamlined workflow. Last meeting notes → DEPR Meetings Notes (2025)
Documentation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-10-01 Docs WG
Educators No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-11-10 Educators
Frontend The group reviewed a proposed dependency freeze ADR for core frontend libraries (Node, React, Router, Query, Paragon, Frontend Base) to create predictable, aligned MFE development across releases. They discussed version targeting and feature-level requirements, library-specific upgrade considerations, and potential future migrations such as React 19 and TanStack Router. Next steps include updating the ADR, reviewing pending PRs, and planning the Paragon 23 upgrade within Frontend Base. Last meeting notes → 2025-11-20 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes
Large Instances No current updates available. Last meeting notes → Large Instances Meeting Notes 2025-10-28
Learning Tools (LTI) The Ulmo release testing sheet currently lacks meaningful LTI test coverage, and the group suggested reusing parts of the existing LTI Validation Test and reusable configuration docs to improve it. There is a known issue where LTI 1.3 launches fail when using reusable configuration (e.g., Turnitin), which still needs attention. On the LTI tool provider side, related work is on hold for now but will soon become a priority for Usman Younas. Latest meeting notes → 2025-11-25 Meeting notes
Maintenance The team discussed progress on Enterprise DEPRs, repository ownership, and maintainer expectations, with Usama Sadiq taking over maintainership of edx-repo-health and pytest-repo-health. A new Frontend Dependency Freeze ADR will guide consistent dependency versions across MFEs, while backend services remain out of scope. Upcoming technical work includes automated PRs to drop Django 4.2 and finalizing Python 3.12 support, which is expected to be backported into Ulmo. Latest meeting notes → 2025-12-11 Meeting notes
Marketing No current updates available. Last meeting notes →Agenda, Oct 14th, 2025
Mobile The team conducted a structured workshop to review and prioritize the Mobile Roadmap using a shared Figma board. Participants evaluated existing ideas, ranked their top priorities, and aligned them with overarching mobile themes such as learner experience, educator needs, platform adoption, and developer efficiency. The session ended with a short idea-generation sprint and next steps for refining themes and guiding 2026 mobile development focus. Latest meeting notes →Agenda, Dec 05th, 2025
Technical Oversight Committee The TOC approved the final election slate, and conference planning continues with interest in adding student and instructor voices. A proposal for community-wide notifications raised concerns, leading to consensus that messages should target administrators—not learners. 2U’s shift to deploying from release branches sparked discussion on adopting smaller, more frequent releases to improve testing, upgrades, and overall reliability. Last meeting notes → TOC Meeting Notes - 2025-11-12
Translation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-11-19 Translation WG Meeting
Design The meeting closed with preparations for the Ulmo Test-a-thon, led by Sam Daitzman. Participants were encouraged to support release testing, with special attention to design-related test cases. The goal is to boost coverage and ensure the Ulmo release meets visual and UX quality standards. Last meeting notes → 2025-12-04 - 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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