Google Classroom vs Open edX

Google Classroom is a learning platform where educators can create classes, distribute coursework, and grade student work. Teachers can use customizable rubrics, reusable comment banks, bulk grading, and feedback during students’ work. Originality reports compare submissions with web pages and books; the listed allowance is five reports per class for Education Fundamentals and unlimited reports with peer comparison for Education Plus. Other learning tools include interactive practice sets, Read Along reading feedback, and questions embedded in YouTube videos. Classroom supports EdTech add-ons and connections to student information systems, and institutions can customize it through APIs. It is available on web, Android, and iOS, with support for up to 1,000 learners. Google says the core service has no advertising and personal information is not used or sold for ad targeting. Education Fundamentals is free for qualifying institutions; Education Plus is $6 a year. A 60-day trial is listed.

Open edX is an open-source platform for teaching and learning, combining course authoring tools with a learner-facing learning management system. Open edX Studio supports creating, managing, reusing and remixing course content. Aspects analytics turns enrollment, learner progress, assessment performance, forum activity and video engagement into metrics and visualizations. The platform supports LTI 1.3 integrations and extensible course components called XBlocks. Listed sign-in integrations include SAML and OAuth 2.0 providers such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and LinkedIn. Open edX supports assessments, certificates, APIs and mobile apps, and can be self-hosted. Universities, governments, nongovernmental organizations and enterprises use the platform. Institutions control their content, learner data, hosting environment and governance policies. The software has no license fees, but an organization operating an instance must arrange hosting, infrastructure, maintenance, support and customization. Organizations can seek implementation help from service partners. The project began in 2012 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its security process directs vulnerability reports to its Security Working Group and does not offer bug bounties.