Overview

The Open edX community is preparing for deprecation of the Discovery service. As we move towards a modular vision for the LMS, there is a growing need for an in-LMS cataloging system that supports more than just flat course listings. This proposal outlines a path towards a new plugin that can:

• Serve as a replacement for Discovery.

• Reside within Studio

• Support a range of enrollables like courses, programs, and personalized sequences.

• Supports extensibility

This proposal outlines the discovery and initial design of a modular, plugin-based discovery catalog system for Open edX.

Brief Problem Statement

Many organizations—including higher ed, professional training providers, and MOOC platforms want to offer structured learning journeys: specializations, nano degrees, career tracks.

Today, Discovery supports only flat listings, with poor support for sequencing, grouping, or personalized curation. Users can't easily define prerequisite structures, offer tiered certifications, or support elective logic (“pick 2 of 4”).

Use Cases & Personas

This proposal is grounded in real needs from diverse Open edX users, facing limitations with the current Discovery and program authoring tools.

Persona 1: Academic Program Director (Higher Ed)

"I want to build a Data Science Pathway with 3 core courses, 2 electives, and a capstone — and offer a certificate when students finish 3 mandatory and 1 elective."

Key Needs:

• Structured pathway creation (core + elective logic)

• Configurable program-level certificates

• Easy authoring interface within Studio

Persona 2: Corporate L&D Manager

"Our onboarding program includes mandatory modules and optional specializations like regional compliance. I want to track progress and issue badges automatically."

Key Needs:

• Support for mixed program structures (required + optional)

• Badge and certificate automation

• Seamless learner tracking across programs

Persona 3: MOOC Learner

"As a learner, I want to see a path not just a list of courses.”

“I want to build my own learning journey by mixing courses across programs and understand how they connect to real-world careers."

Key Needs:

• Ability to explore connected learning pathways

• Transparent view of course-to-career progression

• (Future) Personalized recommendations

Current Pain Points Across the Board

• No support for grouping logic or cross-course prerequisites

• No UI in Studio to create or edit programs easily.

• Program discovery lives outside the LMS

• No path-based personalization or AI recommendations

Features

Authoring Experience (Studio)

We’ll add a new tab named “Programs” within Studio that will allow authors to create programs, add courses in programs, define completion logics, and set up certificates.

Program Creation Flow

1. The author will be able to define new program types (eg: nano degrees, specialisations, career pathways)

2. The author will be able to create programs and add metadata: name, image, description, estimated duration, difficulty, etc.

3. Add and sequence courses within the program.

4. Configure conditions

   1. Prerequisites of the programs (eg: students must know basics of python)

   2. Mark courses as required or optional

   3. Make course groupings within programs (e.g., “choose 3 of 5” logic, at least 1 course)

Mockups speak louder than text. Check out Authoring Flow for Programs here.

Certificate Configuration

The author will also be able to configure certificates within a tab in Programs, named as Certificates. They will be able to:

• Enable program-level certificates.

• Define completion logic to issue certificates For eg:

  • Complete all courses to issue program certificate

  • Complete a subset/group of courses to issue certificate

• Add tiered certification (Eg: Complete 2 out of 10 to get a basic certification)

• View certification logic (Eg: Complete all 2 courses in Core Courses AND Complete at least 1 of 2 courses in Specialization Courses)

Check out Certification Configuration for Programs here.

Open

Learner Experience

Integrated Discovery Interface

Learners will be able to:

• browse courses and programs in a unified display.

• search, add filters for programs and courses.

• View overall structure, requirements and outcomes of a program in the program's detail page.

• View sequence of required and elective courses and navigate to individual courses.