New long-term support release expands source-code access, deployment options and community documentation
Open Assessment Technologies (OAT) is pleased to announce the release of TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3, which will be supported as a Long-Term Support (LTS) version.
This release marks another important step in our commitment to genuine open-source assessment technology. It gives open source developers and contributors a documented path to build TAO Community Edition from source, while offering several convenient deployment options.
Greater access for developers and contributors
TAO Community Edition is built to give institutions, developers and assessment professionals greater freedom to explore, deploy and contribute to digital assessment technology.
With TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3, advanced developers and contributors can compile the platform from its source code. The public full container image is available here:
Access TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3
By making the build process and supporting resources more accessible, this release responds directly to feedback from the developer community and reinforces OAT’s long-standing commitment to openness, transparency and community participation.
More ways to deploy TAO Community Edition
We have also expanded the installation guidance and deployment options available to the community. Users can choose the approach that best fits their environment and technical experience:
- Docker Compose: A container-based option similar to the TAO Community Edition 1.0 release from January 2026.
- Virtual machine appliance: A guided option for deploying TAO Community Edition in a virtual-machine environment.
- Raspberry Pi appliance: A detailed procedure for running TAO Community Edition on supported Raspberry Pi hardware.
These resources are intended to make TAO Community Edition easier to evaluate, deploy and adapt across a wider range of technical environments, from local exploration to developer-led implementations.
Explore the TAO Community Forum to connect with other users, ask questions, share your experience, and get support as you install and work with TAO Community Edition.
Improvements from across the TAO release cycle
TAO Community Edition 1.1 brings a substantial set of updates to the open-source community. It incorporates improvements and bug fixes from our commercial platform releases spanning November 2025 through May 2026.
The update includes improvements across authoring, portal workflows, delivery and platform security. Highlights documented include:
- Additional controls to help prevent early submission during a test session
- Improvements to paper-based testing workflows
- Better navigation between items that use the same attached PDF
- Improved manual-scoring configuration for audio interactions
- The WIRIS MathType editor enabled as the default math editor
- Portal usability, session-management and security fixes
- Improvements to diagnostic checks and the test-taking experience on iPads
Review the full May 2026 release notes and the preceding monthly notes for the complete record of documented changes.
An important note about release coverage
Because TAO Community Edition is packaged in several container and appliance formats, and because certain capabilities remain exclusive to TAO’s enterprise offerings, not every improvement described in the TAO source-code release notes from October 2025 through May 2026 should be assumed to be available in every Community Edition deployment. Some documented changes may still require additional quality-assurance review and verification for TAO Community Edition installations.
Continuing our open-source commitment
TAO Community Edition continues to grow as a global open-source assessment community, with recent activity spanning 766 unique IPs installations across 80 countries.
Open source has been central to OAT and the TAO mission from the start. By expanding source access, documenting the build process and providing more flexible deployment paths, TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3 gives the community more ways to use, understand and contribute to the platform.
We welcome developers, institutions and assessment professionals to explore the release, share feedback and participate in the continued development of open digital assessment technology.
Explore TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3: Access TAO Community Edition 1.1 RC3
Looking for support? Access out forum to connect with the TAO community.
