Introducing openEducation

openEducation is about more than just course content. It is about everything you need to do to build a school, train teachers and conduct classes. You might like to think of it as a "school in a box".

The diagram below shows the content areas that we envisage openEducation will cover. But it's not, by any means, a complete list. That's because it will be completely extensible. If you want to write a custom module, you can.

Open, Extensible and Community Driven

Working with a board of education experts, A Global Obligation will define the initial course areas that openEducation will feature. In the context of textbooks, for example, this may include basic Mathematics, History and Language curriculums (amongst others). But because of the open nature of the project, if a user or group wants to write a module on another subject, they will be able to. Any such modules will be added to the library of available courseware.

Collaboration

openEducation is designed specifically to allow us to achieve our objective of providing universal primary education by 2015. We recognize there are many great existing open source projects, such as WikiPedia and Citizendium and WikiBooks. We believe our mission is specific enough and important enough to warrant its own project. We will share data with these and other sources. openEducation's data will be available via XML and its license will be open. We do not seek to re-invent the wheel, only to make sure our wheel is headed in the right direction.

Much like the leading OpenSource software development projects online, anyone will be able to contribute to openEducation. A Global Obligation will manage the resources required for openEducation, but anyone will be able to write their own module or contribute to an existing module.

Flexible Delivery

openEducation will allow audio, video, text and dynamic content.

Most importantly, it will provide tools for the easy creation of customized course content from a common corpus of knowledge. Our system will support the export of teaching notes, pupil workbooks and textbooks via PDF, or automatic submission to a print on demand service.

For schools with computers, we will support online or DVD-based access to our systems. Our data will be available via XML for others to make use of as they wish.

Culturally Sensitive, Globally Equipped

We understand the importance of maintaining traditional values and beliefs. We will work with the local authorities in the developing world to ensure that these important historical and cultural values are maintained. But our curricula and programs will also equip our students with the tools to live and work in an increasingly global world.

openEducation in context

Rest assured, the vast majority of your donation will go towards actually building schools and educating children. openEducation will be staffed as much as possible by volunteers. We will access data from external sources such as Wikipedia and out-of-copyright textbooks. We will encourage copyright holders to release their copyright and contribute content to openEducation. The openEducation platform will be built upon existing open source platforms, such as WikiMedia.

openEducation will encourage contributions from volunteers across the globe. We need teachers, course coordinators, editors, local experts (collators) and open source developers to make this happen. We already have many volunteers in these categories, but we welcome more. Throughout all this, we will always be open and transparent in all that we do. We will keep you updated on our blog, our mailing list and through this website. Our financials will be available quarterly to inspect. Our administration costs will always be less than 10%.

Read more about openEducation

In the coming weeks, you can read more about openEducation at our dedicated project page openedu.aglobalobligation.org