The work of the Open edX community began in Uruguay

Open edX is an open learning platform powered by developers, technology providers, research teams, and users that got its start in academia between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Last Thursday, December 7, the Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC), Uruguay’s center of educational innovation and technology known as Ceibal and the National Institute of Employment and Professional Training (Inefop) agreed to start the Open edX community in Uruguay. 

This conference was a great opportunity to start exploring work together for the creation of open courses and specific uses of Open edX environments, as well as to start planning for 2024. The event was attended by Ed Zarecor, Vice President of Engineering and Chair of the Technical Oversight Committee of Open edX.

"Ceibal began working with Open edX and exploring this solution since an infrastructure was needed to be able to provide massive online courses for different users", said Leandro Folgar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ceibal and Fundación Ceibal. That exploration had had several previous instances, but when the pandemic arrived. The need was much more urgent and resulted in a deployment mainly for teacher training.

"Open edX offered us the possibility of having training courses for teachers in a self-carried out way and massively with a very high quality standard," added Folgar.

Starting to work with Open edX allowed Inefop to bring its own virtual environment with its courses. The work began during the pandemic.

"We wanted to have our own platform and in the search for platforms we came to Open edX through UTEC," recalled Ximena Ureta, coordinator of Inefop's Innovation and Design Unit. Participating in this community "is very important for us, since the Institute is in a process of redesign and being part of this community is a bridge to get closer to innovative experiences that are taking place in Uruguay and in the world," Ureta added. Recently, the Planning and Development Department was created, which in turn has an Innovation and Design Unit. Inefop placed Innovation in Vocational Training in a prominent place within its structure. “We are sure that this community will contribute to innovation in educational technologies” said Ureta.

"It is important to create an Open edX community from Uruguay because it responds to an international trend of creating massive open online courses (MOOCs) to work on specific skills. Today there are universities from all over the world working in this environment and contributing their knowledge. This will allow us to continue providing knowledge and digital solutions and be in permanent contact, generating synergy with the world's leading universities," said Juan Marrero, director of UTEC's Digital Transformation Center.

For next year, "we aim with this new community to generate synergy with Ceibal and Inefop, identifying opportunities for improvement that are of high impact for the three institutions. We expect to have an impact in the country" Marrero said.

Courses & UTEC

UTEC's journey on this platform began in 2013, when the University identified the existence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). During 2014 and 2015 the University created the first pilot that collaborates in leveling the knowledge of students in basic sciences. Since 2015, UTEC began to co-create courses with institutions and companies in the virtual environment created by the University and called it EDU. 

It is a University Digital Education (edu.utec.edu.uy) environment of massive open online courses where courses are offered together with other universities and institutions that are world leaders.

Currently, UTEC has developed more than 650 courses on this platform and more than 32,800 people have registered to participate since 2014. In addition, UTEC has participated in the annual conferences held by Open edX in different cities around the world.

This platform seeks to create digital learning experiences for students from all over the world. There are free courses, with verified certifications that prove that the student has completed the course and has acquired knowledge and skills that allow them to advance their professional career.