Contractor firm: EPWERY

I’ve started working at 2U as a contractor back in 2020 circa the start of the pandemic. It was a huge opportunity for me that lasted 5 years.

In all those years I’ve been part of several teams, I’ve started with the Academic Product team, developing and supporting tools like Atrio and its own internal design system Atrio UI.

Atrio team

Atrio is a set of 2U learning tools for Universities. I’ve worked in several closed-source projects:

• Academic Product: This is the backend of Atrio’s content manager.

Stack: Ruby / Ruby on Rails

• Dotlearn UI: This is the design system monorepo used by 2U which contains most of the frontend components that are used to show course content, also known as the “Player”.

Stack: ReactJS + Typescript

• Atrio UI: This is a React design system intended to contain simple components to be used across all 2U tools, similar to what the Paragon Design System is to edX Platform.

Stack: ReactJS

• CritiqueIt: Tool that allowed leaving notes in media for peer review.

Stack: ExpressJS (Backend), AngularJS (Frontend)

• Others: Several other minor interventions in projects like an analytics manager among others.

Leap team

Some time later, I transitioned to a new team and began working on a project called Leap, a tool designed to integrate exams into various Learning Management Systems (LMS). This platform enabled universities to seamlessly manage and deliver assessments within popular LMS platforms such as Instructure’s Canvas, LearningMate’s Frost, and Moodle.

Leap leveraged 1EdTech’s Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specifications to establish secure, standards-based connections with these LMS environments. The submitted data was then centralized and made available on Atrio, 2U’s learning platform, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined experience for both administrators and learners.

And I say “was” since in November 2021, 2U acquired edX due to the potential of acquiring substantially all assets of edX, a world-leading online learning platform and education marketplace.

Here comes edX

The acquisition of edX by 2U triggered a significant company-wide reorganization, shifting internal priorities toward integrating the edX platform into 2U’s broader ecosystem. As part of this transition, I joined a new team called Cosmonauts, where I spent the following year contributing to projects aligned with this strategic integration effort.

Cosmonauts team

This team was originally part of edX and brought years of invaluable experience that I was incredibly fortunate to become a part of. Without a doubt, it was the best team —and the best manager— I have ever worked with.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for #this team. They are consummate professionals: deeply focused on their work while also being compassionate, supportive, and generous with their time and expertise. Collaborating with them was truly seamless. I could always rely on the team to navigate challenges and make the best out of every situation.

I’ve worked in several projects for edX and Open edX. Most of them are open source, so I can share some Pull Requests I’ve made for each of them:

edX

• AI Spot / AI Aside: Generative AI service that uses OpenAI to summarize media ( text, video, etc.). This allowed students to hit a button and get a summary on the current course content.

Stack: Python + Django (Backend) and ReactJS (Frontend). - [See PRs]

• Learning Assistant: Backend for an AI chat tool that uses OpenAI that allows students to ask questions in the scope of a course.

Stack: Python + Django. - [See PRs]

• Frontend Lib Learning Assistant: Frontend side of the Learning Assistant.

Stack: ReactJS. - [See PRs]

Open edX

• Frontend App Learning: Frontend for the Open edX Platform.

Stack: ReactJS + Typescript. - [See PRs]

• edX Platform: The Open edX Platform is a service-oriented platform for authoring and delivering online learning at any scale. The platform is written in Python and JavaScript and makes extensive use of the Django framework. At the highest level, the platform is composed of a monolith, some independently deployable applications (IDAs), and micro-frontends (MFEs) based on the ReactJS.

Stack: Python + Javascript. - [See PRs]

• Frontend Lib Special Exams: This is a react library responsible for extending learning app with special exams functionality, e.g. proctored/timed exams.

Stack: ReactJS. - [See PRs]

Offboarding

The reasons for my leave (as I was told) was not due to my performance, but to a corporate decision to reduce expenses. 2U’s deal to aquire edX didn’t go as planned, and after several structural changes that involved layoff waves this time it was my turn, among several other developers.

I’m grateful with the time I’ve worked in the company. It made me grow as a professional and I’ve met wonderful people in the way.

Referrals

• Michael Roytman ([email protected]) - Sr Software Engineer I (Co-worker)
• Simon Chen (ex 2U/edX) - Director, Software Engineering (Manager)
• Varsha Menon (ex 2U/edX) - Sr Software Engineer I (Co-worker)
• Alison Langston (ex 2U/edX) - Sr Software Engineer I (Co-worker)