A keynote address on the interoperability of Open edX and how to make it work with or within other systems. Includes info about single sign-on, third party integrations, and more. The talk was given by Appsembler Founder/CEO Nate Aune at Open edX Conference 2016 at Stanford University. www.appsembler.com

1. Open edX &
Interoperability
June 14, 2016
Nate Aune
CEO/Founder
nate@appsembler.com
P: (617) 701-4331
Making Open edX play nicely with others

2. Agenda
● Who is Appsembler?
● What is interoperability?
● What are the means of integrating Open edX with other systems
● Examples of integrations
● Questions from you!

3. Who is Appsembler?
● leading Open edX solutions provider
● provide customization, implementation, hosting and support
● friends of edX Inc. (conf. sponsorship, hack days, referrals)
● headquartered in Cambridge, MA
● Customers: Microsoft, MIT Sloan, Penn State University, Open
University, Financial Times, Intersystems, Cloudera, Metalogix

4. Definition of INTEROPERABILITY
: ability of a system to work with or use the parts or
equipment of another system

5. “Adapter Frenzy!” by Andrew Turner - https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajturner/3736209089

6. Some observations from customer conversations
Open edX is a piece of a larger
puzzle.
Easily getting data in and out of
Open edX is critical.
The larger the organization, the
more systems need to be
integrated with.
Some integration requests are
best declined.
Lightweight integration is usually
better than tight coupling.
Customizing the core codebase,
presents risk for the customer.

7. Means of integrating Open edX with other systems
Courseware: XBlocks, LTI, JSInput. Future: SCORM, TinCan/xAPI, H5P
Single sign-on (SSO): OAuth2, SAML, Shibboleth, CAS, Office 365
APIs: programmatic enrollment, syndicating course catalog, mobile apps
Javascript widgets: Google Analytics, Intercom, Segment
Raw data dump: MySQL, MongoDB, tracking logs
Custom development: Integrating with Salesforce, Marketo, Infusionsoft

8. Examples of integrations
Video hosting providers - Youtube, Brightcove, Ooyala, Wistia, S3, etc.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) - Cloudfront, Akamai, Fastly
Real-time video chat - Hangouts, Big Blue Button, WebEx, Gotomeeting
Analytics - Google Analytics, Segment, Adobe Site Catalyst, etc.
CRMs - Salesforce, Hubspot, Infusionsoft, Intercom
Marketing automation - Marketo, Intercom, Hubspot
Forums - Discourse, Piazza

9. Examples of integrations (continued)
Adaptive learning - Cerego, Knewton, SmartSparrow
Office Productivity Tools - Google Drive/Calendar, Microsoft Office Mix
E-Commerce - Cybersource, Stripe, Paypal, Magento
Other LMSes - Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, Saba
Reporting - Excel, PowerBI, BigQuery, Hadoop

10. Embedding content

11. Embedding content or exercises
● Open Learning XML (OLX) (https://open.edx.org/blog/open-learning-xml-olx-format)
● IFrame XBlock (https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/open-edx-ca/en/latest/exercises_tools/iframe.html)
● JSInput (https://open.edx.org/js-input)
● SCORM
● LTI (https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/open-edx-ca/en/latest/exercises_tools/lti_component.html)
○ Embedding content that lives in another LMS
○ Using a 3rd party tool to embed an exercise

14. Exposing content

15. Content reuse across disparate systems
● Re-use MOOC content in residential courses delivered by LMS
● Treat Open edX content as library of modular learning objects
● Avoid teaching learners/faculty how to use a new system
● Open edX for advanced assessments and multi-faceted
learnings experiences and LMS for student management
● Centralized identity management and student performance
data flows into the LMS gradebook

17. Programmatic enrollment

22. Roles defined in
Salesforce

23. Salesforce integration

24. Create a certificate
Add signatories

25. User’s email
address is
nate@nate.com
User nate@nate.
com is a partner
Nate Aune
nate@nate.com
Register
Registration form Is “nate.com” an
employee, customer or
partner?
Only shows
courses for
partners
Course listing

26. Motivation &
learner engagement

27. Learning Path
Learners can enroll in a
learning path
Auto-enrolls them in a
sequence of courses
Tracks which course they
need to take next
Now provided through Open
edX XSeries

28. Welcome
Reminder
Congratulations
Marketo integration with Open edX

29. Intercom integration with Open edX

30. Send targeted messages either in-app or by email

32. Syndicating
course catalog

33. Powered by
Open edX?
Actually it’s a
Drupal site!

35. openedx.slack.com

36. Course discovery API endpoint
courses.edx.org/api/courses/v1/courses
API Documentation
https://openedx.atlassian.
net/wiki/display/AC/Course+Discovery+A
PI
Complete description of planned
Integration on edX.org
https://openedx.atlassian.
net/wiki/display/AC/Course+Discovery+a
nd+Inter-IDA+Messaging

37. Video
conferencing tools

40. In summary
Leverage LTI to expose Open edX
content to other systems
Leverage LTI to integrate with
other LTI-compatible tools
Use the enrollment API to enroll
learners programmatically
Use the Course Discovery API to
expose the catalog to your CMS
Leverage SAML or OAuth2 to
provide single sign-on for users
Use the analytics API or raw
tracking logs to generate reports

41. Continue the discussion!
TOPIC: Interoperability Birds of a Feather Session
Wednesday, 9:00 - 9:45 AM in Room 292
Questions?

42. More info
LTI consumer
https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-partner-course-
staff/en/latest/exercises_tools/lti_component.html
LTI provider
https://open.edx.org/blog/open-edx-lti-tool-provider
Course discovery
https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/display/AC/Course+Discovery+and+Inter-IDA+Messaging