Read This, Then Apply for Support

Introduction

This OLE Center Manual is designed for use by groups interested in establishing an Open Learning Exchange Center in their country and for established OLE Centers to use as a reference as they develop their programs. Please send comments and suggestions on ways to improve the usefulness of this Manual to manual@ole.org

A. Mission and Strategy

The Open Learning Exchange is a social benefit organization with a big idea: it is possible to enable one billion children to gain access to Universal Basic Education by 2015.

Half of the world’s people earn less than US$2.00 per day. Over one billion school-aged children in more than one hundred nations do not have access to the most essential learning opportunities. Virtually everyone agrees that every child has the right to develop an intellectual, emotional, and economic life consistent with their abilities. But that is not happening. Given today’s world with its increasing inequalities, we will all be in serious trouble if that does not change - soon.

And it can. We believe that for the first time in history it is feasible for virtually everyone to have access to a quality basic education. Effectively managed, free and open educational resources distributed through the Internet, and supported by innovative low-cost information technologies, can now satisfy most of the increasing worldwide demand for Universal Basic Education. Achieving this goal is a matter of great urgency, and in the interests of all of us.

We believe that an adequate Basic Education enables one to:

  • Read local newspapers, magazines and books,
  • Complete job applications,
  • Write letters to friends and employers,
  • Manipulate numbers and financial records,
  • Engage in productive work involving skills with written words and numbers
  • Improve agricultural, food, nutritional, health and environmental practices,
  • Promote cooperation and manage conflict
  • Create and participate in music, art and culture,
  • Contribute meaningfully to the wellbeing of one’s family, community and nation.

We believe that the responsibility for providing Universal Basic Education rests with the governments of each nation but that OLE Centers, as social benefit organizations working closely with their governments while essentially independent of their governments, can function as critical catalysts, stimulating the changes that are needed in their country’s educational systems.

For this purpose, the Open Learning Exchange (OLE) was founded in 2007 to help establish a network of nation-based, non-governmental OLE Centers, fully in support of the UN Millennium Goals, each committed to achieving Universal Basic Education (UBE) by 2015 in their nation’s own creative ways.

B. OLE Centers

OLE Centers have three core responsibilities:

  • demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of UBE by 2015 through the innovative use of locally-adapted open source educational resources and appropriate technologies,
  • document, using evidence-based rather than simply “faith-based” approaches, the cost-effectiveness of such innovative approaches to achieving UBE, and
  • motivate the citizens of their nation and their governments to make the essential financial and human investments necessary to achieve UBE in their country by 2015.

This requires the following characteristics:

Center Structure

  1. A formally established, independent, non-governmental organization. This may be an existing institution, such as a university or independent agency or a new organization established specifically for these purposes.
  2. A strong local Board of Directors, committed to UBE by 2015 and capable of influencing their government, controls each Center. The Board may include representatives of the government but a clear majority of the Directors must be independent, non-governmental Directors. We encourage the Board to have Directors with private sector experience and responsibilities as well as those with educational and social services backgrounds.
  3. A full-time social entrepreneur as CEO who is fully committed to the OLE mission and has the experience and credibility to be able to work effectively with senior members of the public and private sectors.
  4. An explicit understanding with their government that they will work together to achieve UBE by 2015. This can be in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding that provides a clear indication of the government’s support for the catalytic role of the Center in demonstrating and documenting effective educational innovations and in motivating the public and government to implement such innovations on a nation-wide scale by 2015
  5. A Plan for achieving Universal Basic Education by 2015 in their country. This Plan needs to assume that the primary responsibility for achieving UBE rests with the governments and the people of their country. The Plan should show how the Center can act as a catalyst in achieving UBE by 2015, what the major barriers are and what the key milestones between now and 2015 must be met to achieve that goal.
  6. A business plan that will enable the Center to become financially self-sufficient within five years. OLE assumes that within five years there will be a number of OLE Centers well-established throughout the world that they can form their own OLE Network Association that will itself be self supporting. OLE recommends that Centers plan to obtain financial support from a variety of local sources, including contributions from those who directly benefit from each Center’s services.

Center Program

OLE Centers are expected to establish and maintain a program of services supportive of UBE by 2015. These should include at least the following five program elements.

  1. A National Kids Library, online with free and open k-12 educational content for teachers and students that is aligned with their country’s educational goals and standards. The goal is for each Center’s NKL to contain free and open all of the educational content required for students to acquire a Basic Education and all of the knowledge and skills set forth by their governments as educational standards. The software Tool Kit for the National Kids Library (NKL) is under development by OLE and should be ready as a beta version by September 2008. It is designed to enable Centers to localize its language and content easily with a minimum of technical skill.
  2. A Course Development Studio that supports the development, translation and localization of teacher training and educational resources. Course Development Studio (Studio) enables teachers and other educators to develop courses suitable for their students, including localization and adaptation of materials downloaded from the Billion Kids Library and other sources on the Internet. The software Tool Kit for the Course Development Studio (Studio) is also under development by OLE and should be ready as a beta version by September 2008. It is designed to enable Centers to localize its language and content easily with a minimum of technical skill.
  3. A research and evaluation program, providing evidence for the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of various educational approaches in their country. It is essential for Centers to ensure there is evidence to support the innovations that they have developed and demonstrated with the students in their country. Careful and well-designed assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of various educational approaches need to be widely available to the country’s educators and policymakers.
  4. A public awareness program that promotes energetically both public and governmental support for the innovations and investments that are essential for achieving UBE in their nation. UBE by 2015 will require major new investments on the part of governments. Thus a key part of each OLE Center’s program must be to actively promote public awareness of the short and long-term value of UBE in their country and increase awareness of and support for the innovations that have been demonstrated to be cost effective in achieving that goal.
  5. Coordination with government and other initiatives that are addressing those conditions that must be met for UBE to be achieved such as nutrition, health, facilities and materials. UBE by itself will not solve the problems associated with poverty. Programs to promote UBE must be carried out in conjunction with other initiatives that address those conditions that are barriers to UBE. This includes programs that assure adequate food and health services, and the security and facilities that are pre-requisites to a prosperous community and nation. OLE Centers must therefore coordinate their work with those other initiatives that are related to achieving UBE.

C. The OLE Network

The OLE Network, currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is available to provide current and potential OLE Centers startup and ongoing support. We are not a source of significant funding.

Technical Assistance

We provide technical assistance in helping a committed group establish an OLE Center and we help Centers obtain the financial and human resources they require to become operational and effective quickly. This includes:

  1. Organizational and technical advice and fund-raising assistance,
  2. Tool Kits including basic software that enables Centers to quickly become operational. This Includes software that can be installed in the Center’s own server or over the Internet from the Network’s servers.
    1. Knowledge Kit (available September 2008)
      1. National Kids Library
      2. Course Development Studio,
    2. Learning Communities Kit for teachers (estimated available December 2008)
    3. Organizational Sustainability Kit (estimated available March 2009)
      1. Volunteer Service
      2. Ed Technology Marketplace.
  3. The Billion Kids Library containing the online free and open content aggregated from all of the Centers, millions of other k-12 free and open sources, an online volunteer database and a catalog of technologies that may be useful in achieving UBE by 2015. (Estimated available September 2008)
  4. Access to the global online OLE Network of Centers and like-minded organizations and social entrepreneurs for sharing innovative ideas and resources (available now: www.ole.org ).

OLE Network’s Business Plan

Our business model calls for helping as many OLE Centers as possible become important catalysts for their governments. Each Center, with technical and financial startup assistance from the OLE Network, should become financially self-sufficient within five years.

We are also seeking to develop sustainable sources of support that can provide long-term support for Centers as well as the Network. Following the OpenCourseWare model developed at MIT, we will encourage these Centers to form their own association and, at that point, decide, and pay for, whatever services they need from the OLE Network or elsewhere. Thus within five years the OLE Network should be supported by those Centers that find its services worthwhile and affordable.

D. How to Apply

The Manual is designed to provide a brief overview of the mission, strategy, organization and program of OLE Centers and the OLE Network. We are in the early stages of development and learning as we go. We welcome suggestions on how to improve our effectiveness in helping to ensure Universal Basic Education throughout the world by 2015.

Organizations and groups interested in becoming an OLE Center in their country should submit a proposal on this website by going to the Application.

We will respond quickly to your application and work with you to take the necessary steps to get started.