Hi Everyone! It’s Faith again. I can’t remember when last I made a post on this blog. probably 2015, or 2016 or maybe 2018. Let’s just forget the past and move on with life.
So, yesterday I made an update on Facebook on how possible it is for someone to download full MOOC on edX onto your computer. I got lots of requests from interested persons from WhatsApp and Facebook. This motivated me to create a blog post addressing the issue, hence providing a catch-all answer to everyone’s questions and at same time resuscitating my long-dead wordpress blog https://faitholusegun487.wordpress.com
I will try to make this tutorial and as easy to understand as possible. I will make it less technical for people with no programming backgroung or experience.
So let’s get right to it, no perambulation….
HOW TO DOWNLOAD FULL EDX COURSES ONTO YOUR COMPUTER
Our GOAL
Download Full courses orderly arranged module, section and course-wise in a folder on your laptop…
Before we continue, let me show you why I think this is the most efficient way…..
When you download courses through this method, besides the fact that you don’t have to go on YouTube downloading all the videos one after the other (that’s if you even found them on YouTube), this method searches the videos, downloads them and automatically arranges them as defined on the course platform – course edX page. All files downloaded are dumped into a folder named as the exact COURSE NAME/TITLE on edX. Each module are orderly arranged into folders….
Also, besides video contents of the lectures that are downloaded, other files in the course such as PDF’s, Excel spreadsheet XLS, code or script files, and other written contents are also downloaded and placed in the appropriate folders they belong.
See the pictures below for what you are going to obtain after doing..
Requirements:
Most users who contacted me use the windows Operating System so take it the tutorial will take a window-centric approach. Other OS’ users like Linux and MAC too can follow along as the processes are similar as long as core requirements are installed on the PC.
Be sure to check if your system is 64 bit or 32 bit to remove all hassles when you want to install necessary softwares and dependencies.
N.B: You can check if your system is 64 or 32 bit by going to either “My Computer” or “This PC” on your computer. Right Click on the “My Computer” or “This PC” icon and select “Properties”. Here, you will find out if your Windows OS is 32 bit or 64 bit…….
This will be useful when you want to install “python”….
with the “pip” package platformer installed… Newer versions of python – 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 have pip included with it so no need for separate installation of “pip” except if you want to update pip….
package which is found on Github-> See the link to download here
-> this is already included with the edx-dl package though you might still need to upgrade it for compatibility….
STEP 1:
INSTALL PYTHON – SET UP PIP PACKAGE INSTALLER.
To install python on your computer if you don’t have it already, go to the official python software foundation page here
For example, direct download link to version 3.7.7 for 32 bit windows here
Download the Python Executable Installer (EXE) format compatible with your PC (that is, 64 bit or 32 bit…. 32 bit is also written as x86 bit).
After python executable installer has been downloaded, locate where it is downloaded on your laptop (default is the “Downloads” folder C:\Users\Public\Downloads) and THEN “right click” on it (the python exe file) choose “Run as Administrator” to install.
You can follow through the installation with all the Defaults and most importantly during installation “Check the Allow Python to be added to PATH variable checkbox.” This is important as it will enable you to be able to execute python commands from your command line (Windows DOS prompt – CMD).
After successful installation of Python on your PC, test if everything works fine by going to the command prompt. I am afraid that I’m starting to sound very technical which I want to avoid in this DIY tutorial….
OK! Let’s go on. To go to command line on Windows…. Press down the Window Key on your keyboard + R key. The DOS Run prompt is open at the bottom left corner on your PC screen. In the input Field, type “CMD” or “cmd”, press enter, you will enter the command prompt.
The command prompt is the black screen with text on it….. You would see this
To test if python is installed (provided your checked the “Add Python to PATH box”), just type “python” in the above command line… you should get something like this.
This shows that you have python installed and are ready to go…..
We also need to check if “pip” is installed and ready to go on your python…
Press “Control+Z” then “ENTER” to exit the above python prompt and type this in the DOS prompt
“where pip” or you type “pip –version” plus ENTER…. If pip is available then you will have this….. showing the location where “pip” is installed on your computer…. The same thing could be used to check for python installation “where python” or you type “python –version” NB: the dash is double dash —
Oh I’m so sorry! I think this post is getting boringly long. This is what I will do. I will break it into two parts – this current post, part 1 for installation of necessary softwares and dependencies – and part 2 shall be for actually doing the dirty work of downloading; that is, achieving the goal we set from the beginning of this tutorial.
Now, having installed “python” and “pip” is running on our test PC, we will go to the last section of this part which is downloading the “edx-dl”
package from github….. That takes us to Step 2 of this tutorial.
STEP 2:
DOWNLOAD THE edx-dl PACKAGE FROM COURSERA’S GITHUB PAGE……
First, what is edx-dl?
According to the Source’s Github page, the edx-dl is a simple tool to download videos and lecture materials from Open edX-based sites. It requires a Python interpreter (>= 2.7) and very few other dependencies which you my audience (that I assume to be not really technical or programming-savvy people) do not need to worry about. At least not now.
to download the edx-dl package from the source’s github page
You will find a button captioned “Clone or download”, click it and you will find “Open in Desktop” and “Download ZIP.” Choose the “Download ZIP” option to download. Your browser will download it on your PC. See the image attached below…
Once the download has finished, Locate the ZIP File in your computer “Downloads” folder or wherever it is. Right Click on the ZIP File and Click “Extract”…. I do recommend that when the extract dialog opens, you should set the extract to target folder to your C:\ root folder…. It might be very useful to keep you out of unwarranted Windows path issues when using the tool…..
Once you have successfully extracted the files in the ZIP, you should have the path to the extracted folder to be C:\edx-dl AND the good news is you have come to the end of Part 1 of this tutorial series. Because you have successfully installed on you need to start downloading your beloved edX MOOC’s onto your own computer. Take your favourite beverage and relax, waiting for me to cool off my head to drop the Part 2.
Don’t forget to share this post if you like it and comment.
Thank you for taking your time to read this long and overly boring tutorial. Share you views and questions in the comment section below and I’ll be sure to answer every single one of them. And who knows maybe I will probably still follow this tutorial up with a YouTube video.
Still your boy and DIY troubleshooting expert,
Faith….
See y’all in the next tutorial
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