Nigeria´s Learning Passport is an education model for basic and secondary level education, tailored to the needs of children who are either out of school, or in need of support to ensure that the education they are receiving is of sufficient quality.

This initiative is aiming to improve the education of learners in countries that face barriers to learning because of poverty, discrimination, conflict and disaster, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria's Learning Passport platform is part of the Federal Government's Education Cloud Project for the provision of e-learning from basic to tertiary for all learners.

The platform includes learner and teacher modules to assist with teaching material preparation and better interaction between the two critical groups. Nigeria is one of several countries to launch the Learning Passport (LP). The LP promotes continuous learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic by offering high-quality, flexible learning that includes free educational content and skills development courses for all children, youth and teachers.

The GDL team has been working with the Government of Nigeria and UNICEF in a collaborative effort to increase the availability of high-quality reading resources in underserved communities in Nigeria. The result is a seamless stream of content flowing from the GDL to the Nigerian Learning passport platform, including 440 books and literacy games in Nigerian English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

The collaboration between the Global Digital Library (GDL) and the Nigeria Learning Passport project is part of pathfinding pilots under the Digital Public Goods Alliance.

These pilots are meant to increase the number of countries implementing DPGs, promote and support the creation of DPGs in low- and middle-income countries, and increase national capacity for implementing projects utilizing DPGs.

UNICEF Nigeria re-uses content across 5 different languages from the GDL.

UNICEF Nigeria

Kolibri is an adaptable set of open solutions specially developed to support learning for the part of the world without Internet access. Centered around an offline-first learning platform that runs on a variety of low-cost and legacy devices, the Kolibri Product Ecosystem includes a curricular tool, a library of open educational resources, and a toolkit of resources to support training and implementation in formal, informal, and non-formal learning environments. 

Kolibri is being used in over 200 countries and territories around the world, and serving millions of learners and educators living in underserved contexts where the internet is costly, unreliable, or simply beyond reach.

The Global Digital Library has provided content to the Kolibri project since 2018, and in 2021, the GDL content channel was one of the most used content sets on Kolibri side by side with Khan Academy, Phet and CK-12. 

The GDL team has worked with the team behind Kolibri to also include support for H5P. Support for H5P was introduced in 2022. 

Kolibri is an adaptable set of open solutions especially developed to support learning for the part of the world without Internet access.

GDL and the Kolibri platform

World Bank study with the GDL and Feed The Monster

A recent intervention by the World Bank that provided children with cell phones preloaded with two EdTech solutions developed with support and funding from  the Norwegian Agency for Development and All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD), 

 that EdTech can improve reading outcomes for children in low resource contexts in as little as five days, with learning outcomes continuing to improve one month out.

 engaged 9,000 Nigerian households with children between the ages of 6 to 9 with film screenings aimed at motivating parents to support their children’s education and reshape attitudes around gender bias along with a lottery, in which one-third of the participants received smartphones preloaded with access to the Global Digital Library (GDL) and 

. During the 5-day intervention and one-month follow-up, the children who received the phones as well as their siblings, saw substantially increased literacy and numeracy test scores, leading the World Bank to recommend that EdTech interventions like this should be considered in programs and projects addressing literacy, education and child protection.

 the Global Digital Library is home to more than 8000 books in 100 languages, all of which can be read and translated on web and mobile platforms as well as downloaded or printed. 

, which was jointly funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the mobile operator Orange, and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). 

The project sought the development of smartphone apps to build foundational literacy skills and to improve psychosocial well-being for Syrian refugee children who were out of, or struggling in school. When 

, Research has found that children using the app scored higher on oral reading fluency, which is a strong predictor of reading comprehension. Data also showed girls making gains, indicating that the app could provide girls who are denied other opportunities a chance to acquire and improve literacy skills.

Key findings in the World Bank intervention

online presentation about the intervention

, the World Bank reported on the background and key findings of the low-cost, light-intervention study.

In northern Nigeria, the location of the intervention, 40% of adults lack formal education and less than 10% of parents read to their children. Only around 50% of the children attend primary school, around 35% of girls get married before turning 15, and the language used at school is rarely the one spoken in the home. Zero scores are common in third grade literacy tests. In other words, students could not read one single word in this language.

The Movies & Mobiles intervention included two components: aspirational films to reshape parents’ educational and gender attitudes, and $40 smartphones preloaded with GDL and 

 to increase the number of “study hours” available to children. Through a public lottery, one third of those who attended the films won a smartphone and picked them up in digital literacy sessions.

Researchers invited households living close to schools to the locations for community screenings of the films, which took place over weekends. Around 90% of the households that were invited attended the screenings, and 100% of those who won smartphones, picked them up.

When evaluating the data collected from the study, the World Bank reported that the aspirational films had a positive effect on parents’ attitudes on education and gender. School attendance increased by 34%. In addition, parents’ attitudes around girls shifted, with a 6% increase in parents’ aspirations to allow girls to attend school at 15, and up to a 16% increase in parents’ preference to delay daughters’ marriage age.

Notably, the children who also received the preloaded smartphones saw significantly improved learning outcomes. After using the apps for an average of around 8 hours during the first week, the children scored higher in a series of Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) modules; aggregating eight modules, the World Bank reported literacy impacts of .18 standard deviations.*

There was also a spillover effect on siblings from 6 to 12 years old. The World Bank reported a 10% decrease in zero scores in letter recognition, only slightly lower than the 11.3 decrease for the child receiving the phone. Siblings also saw a .16 – .23 stand deviation increase in numeracy modules. In other words, the use of the preloaded smartphones had a statistically significant effect of improving reading both with the children receiving the phones and their siblings.

In addition, households in which children received the preloaded smartphones saw a 22% increase in parents reading to their children, and a 25% decrease in the belief that parental education is an obstacle for helping their children learn.

The World Bank researchers concluded that low cost and light interventions utilizing EdTech solutions can have a significant impact on literacy for children in low resource contexts. While longer interventions, like learning camps with volunteers, can be more effective, they also require higher cost and more effort. To address the learning crises exacerbated by the pandemic, the researchers recommended the acceleration of testing mobile-based solutions for both offline and online populations.


Recent World Bank study shows that the GDL has big impact on literacy.

World Bank study on EdTech

Launched in 2011, All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) is a partnership of the United States Agency for International Development (

 that advances EdTech innovation and research to improve reading outcomes for marginalised children in low-resource contexts.

ACR GCD has been one of the most important partners for the Global Digital Library. Since 2011, ACR GCD has directed nearly a dozen grant and prize competitions aimed at supporting the most promising EdTech solutions for improving child literacy in developing countries. 

Many of the price winners, like the Asia Foundation, Ekitabu and Asafeer, have provided high-quality reading books to the GDL collection.

In the fall of 2015, Norway and Norad took the initiative to launch an international competition, calling for smartphone applications that could help Syrian children learn to read and improve their psychosocial well-being.

ACR GCD organised this competition called EduApp4Syria as an international innovation competition that resulted in two open source smartphone applications. The competition was funded by Norway.

A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD).

All Children Reading 

The Ministry of Education of Bangladesh translated over 300 children’s books from English into Bangla and 100 books into five ethnic minority languages (Chakma, Marma, Garo, Tripura and Sadri) in the framework of the Translate A Story campaign.

This was a book translation campaign to facilitate home-based early age reading. The campaign was a collaboration between UNESCO and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), with the support of other partners.

As part of this initiative, UNESCO and partners convened dedicated translation webinars for governmental agencies and individual translators who were interested in translating reading materials from English into relevant national languages. 

All translated books underwent a quality assurance process and were made freely available on the GDL platform. With relevant preparations and expertise made available from the governmental agencies, translated books can be aligned with curriculum standards, so that the books quickly can be approved for later use in the classroom or on the national platform.

The Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme, the Bangladesh government’s flagship digital transformation program, supported the translation in Bangladesh. Over 100 voluntary teachers and students were mobilized to translate the books. To guide them through the translation process using the online translation interface of the Global Digital Library, UNESCO and Norad organized an online workshop which was attended by 150 participants.

The cooperation between UNESCO and Norad on Translate A Story has been led and implemented by the Unit for Technology and AI in Education, Future of Learning and Innovation Team of the Education Sector. According to Dr. Fengchun Miao, Chief of the Unit, Bangladesh is leading in the number of books translated, followed by Palestine which translated 244 books into Arabic, and then Uzbekistan which translated 130 books into Uzbek and 100 books into Russian. UNESCO is also working with Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar.

As a next step, UNESCO will follow up on the actual use of the books in the local context, through online facilitation via the GDL and offline support. UNESCO also seeks to create a list of inclusive digital storybooks in mother-tongue languages approved by governments.

This project used the translation capabilities on the GDL to translate 300+ resources. 

UNESCO and the Government of Bangladesh 

During the development of the Global Digital Library, USAID, United States Agency for International Development, has been Norad´s most important strategic partner. 

GBA is a partnership of donor agencies, multilateral institutions, and civil society organizations, formed in 2018. The purpose was to bring global education partners together to end illiteracy through a coordinated effort to make sure the book market was able to address the growing book gap challenge. It is committed to bring books to every child in the world by 2030.

The USAID and the GBA contributions to the GDL are many, with more than 2000 high-quality library resources and classroom books in several languages, such as:

The GDL has also partnered with USAID, through the Global Book Alliance, in leading Translate A Story campaigns in various underserved languages.

Literacy is a basic right that empowers individuals and benefits society.

The Global Book Alliance

Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, it is estimated that more than half of the child population of the country has been displaced. In addition, local authorities have reported that more than 733 educational institutions were damaged or destroyed.

To ensure the learning continuity of out-of-school children from Ukraine, UNESCO, in cooperation with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the Global Digital Library, UNHCR, the EdTech Hub, the World Bank’s global EdTech team, H5P, Curious Learning, the Education Alliance, TV2 Skole and Elevkanalen, launched the Translate A Story Ukraine campaign. 

The campaign translated 170 learning resources and digital books into Ukrainian. The translated resources have been proofread and made available on the 

 and national Ukrainian online platforms. They will be freely accessible through mobile phones, tablets and other mobile learning devices.

More than 120 Ukrainian translators contributed to the campaign.

The Translate A Story Ukraine campaign gained momentum in April of 2022. Project lead from Norad Christer Gundersen was interviewed 

on BBC World Service as part of the campaign.

In collaboration with partners and volunteers, the GDL team translated more than 170 resources in just 5 weeks.

Translate a Story Ukraine

All content developed in Education.dev projects like the Global Digital Library is developed using H5P content types. We see H5P as the most important technology to ensure that our content remains platform agnostic, meaning that the content can be used across platforms.

Our friends at Joubel and H5P make it easy to create, share and reuse HTML5 content and applications. H5P empowers everyone to create rich and interactive web experiences more efficiently. All you need is a web browser and a web site with an H5P plugin.

H5P content is responsive and mobile friendly, which means that users will experience the same rich, interactive content on computers, smartphones and tablets alike.

H5P enables existing CMSs and LMSs to create richer content. With H5P, authors may create and edit interactive videos, presentations, games, advertisements and more. Content may be imported and exported. All that is needed to view or edit H5P content is a web browser. H5P content types and applications are shared on H5P.org. H5P content may be created on any H5P enabled web site like H5P.com or your own Drupal or WordPress site with the H5P plugin installed.

H5P is a completely free and open technology, licensed with the MIT license. Demos/downloads, tutorials and documentation are all available for users who want to 

All content on the GDL is based on H5P content types. You can also supercharge your website with H5P.



In the framework of the Translate A Story campaign, Unicef Viet Nam, in collaboration with GDL and the Viet Nam National Institute of Educational Sciences, VNIES, (under the Ministry of Education and Training) were aiming to provide access to free, high-quality digital early grade reading books and resources in local languages.

More than 1100 high-quality digital content resources, mostly books, were translated and created, also featuring leading children characters from marginalized communities. The resources were translated from English into Vietnamese, 8 ethnic minority languages and sign language. Amongst the resources were 50 games in early math translated into Vietnamese.

All translated books underwent a quality assurance process and were made freely available on the GDL platform. With relevant preparations and expertise made available from Unicef and VNIES, translated books can be aligned with curriculum standards, so that the books quickly can be approved for later use in the classroom or on the national platform.

The reading resources were launched in September 2022, and were introduced to schools and parents nationwide, especially in remote areas. In the beginning of October 2022, the GDL team visited schools in the Bac Ha and Hanoi areas to user test these resources in Vietnamese and Mong. The games in early math, story books and the reading experience were tested.

The team also worked with teachers in the same schools to co-create games in both numeracy and literacy. The teachers created new and adapted already made resources to make sure they were adjusted to the local context.

This project translated more than 1100 resources into 8 local languages.

UNICEF Vietnam

As a former flagship activity within the Global Book Alliance, the Global Digital Library (GDL) has been developed to increase the availability of high-quality learning resources in underserved languages worldwide.

Our mission is to provide free, high-quality educational resources for anyone, anywhere. We aim to create an individual learning environment for each child using adaptive, assessment-based learning methodologies. The GDL platform also facilitates translation of content into new languages.

The Global Digital Library provides more than 11000 reading resources across 140 languages. The platform now also includes early math, grade 2, 3 and 4 resources and games in English that will be translated into new languages in the years to come. 

The GDL provides assessment-based, adaptive learning materials that address the unique needs of an individual through just-in-time feedback, pathways and resources. These adaptive learning journeys have game-based assessments in real time to make learning fun. 

The GDL content can be curriculum aligned to any curriculum or learning structure. Ghana is the first country where the GDL resources are integrated into the national curriculum.

The GDL strives to be a library for all, and thus has continuous focus on universal design in its content, the user experience and the technology. It has been vital to user test with visually and hearing impaired children to make sure that no child is left behind.

Knowing that more than 90% of the GDL users today find and use our content on a cell phone, the platform is mobile first. However, the GDL can also be used on other devices, and even be printed on paper.

Both content and platform are released under an open license. Content can be translated and adapted into local languages, and the platform components can be used by anyone who wishes to do so. The content from the GDL can be used on other platforms both by governments and commercial companies.

The GDL is aimed at many different types of users and the platform is open for everyone. Intended users include ministries of education, school managers, teachers, donor agencies and their implementing partners, international and national non-governmental organizations, local publishers, digital distributors, content providers and households in developing countries.

The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is funding the project, whereas Sopra Steria has the overall project management responsibility of the Global Digital Library. Important partners providing content and support are UNESCO, UNICEF and a large number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The GDL platform is a collaborative endeavor which requires involvement from a broad spectrum of stakeholders in order to be truly successful and widely used. GDL content is also currently being provided by Bookdash, Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read, Storyweaver, African Storybook Project, USAID missions, All Children Reading: a Grand Challenge for Development, URC and the Global Reading Network.

UNESCO has been a long-standing partner promoting the GDL with a view to supporting early-grade reading in underserved languages. UNESCO has organized translation projects in countries such as Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Lao, Palestine, Indonesia and Ghana.

UNICEF is another strategic partner supporting translation activities and using content from the GDL in relevant UNICEF projects. Nigeria and Vietnam have been two of the first countries where UNICEF has been a strategic partner for the GDL. UNICEF has also been a partner and link to the Ghanaian Ministry of Education in the GDL effort to curriculum align its literacy and numeracy content to the competence aims of Basics 1 to 3 in Mathematics and English. This work proves that the GDL content fits very well with the curriculum in Ghana.

USAID is a former a strategic partner that has contributed both with books and supported the translation process, contributing with content covering 6 languages in Ethiopia, 3 languages in Senegal and 6 languages in Pakistan, all government approved.

Translate A Story is a GDL lead collaboration including UNESCO, ADEA and a number of other partners to organize translation campaigns to help translate learning resources into new languages. Translate A Story related activities have been organized in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Rwanda, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Ghana. In total, the Translate A Story campaign has resulted in more than 4000 new resources on the Global Digital Library.

GDL has more than 8000 open learning resources across 100 languages.

The Global Digital Library

Translate A Story is a Norad lead collaboration including UNESCO, ADEA, the World Bank, Creative Commons, USAID, Kolibri and a number of other partners to organize translation campaigns to help translate learning resources into new languages. 

Translate A Story related activities have been organized in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Rwanda, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, Indonesia and Ghana. In total, the Translate A Story campaign has resulted in more than 4000 new resources on the Global Digital Library.

Three Translate A Story campaigns that have made an impact, are the  Bangladesh, Ukraine and Indonesia campaigns.

In Bangladesh, the cooperation between UNESCO and Norad on Translate A Story was led and implemented by the Unit for Technology and AI in Education, Future of Learning and Innovation Team of the Education Sector. This was a book translation campaign to facilitate home-based early age reading, where UNESCO and partners arranged translation webinars for governmental agencies and individual translators. The Ministry of Education of Bangladesh translated over 300 children’s books from English into Bangla, and 100 books into five ethnic minority languages (Chakma, Marma, Garo, Tripura and Sadri) in the framework of this campaign. All translated books underwent a quality assurance process and were made freely available on the GDL platform. 

Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, it is estimated that more than half of the child population of the country has been displaced. In addition, local authorities have reported that more than 733 educational institutions were damaged or destroyed. 

To ensure the learning continuity of out-of-school children from Ukraine, UNESCO and partners launched the Translate a Story Ukraine campaign. The campaign translated 170 learning resources and digital books into Ukrainian in just 5 weeks, all freely accessible on the GDL through mobile phones, tablets and other mobile learning devices.

UNESCO and the GDL, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia, successfully organized two translation workshops. In the first workshop, in May 2023, more than 250 children’s story books were translated into Bahasa Indonesia in only 3 days! After the workshop, these resources were user tested in 4 different schools in Jakarta.


In the second three day workshop, in December 2023,297 story books were translated into 31 additional local minority and endangered languages spoken across Indonesia.

A third workshop was organized by the translators themselves in September 2024. 118 GDL books were translated into Bahasa Indonesia by 28 translators in three days.

Translate learning resources into your local or national language.

Translate A Story

Curriculum alignment is the work done to adjust or map competence aims and learning outcomes to content, assessments, learning activities and teaching methods. Clear alignment helps the teachers find learning resources for their students so that they can learn, and thus work towards and reach learning outcomes and competence aims. Curriculum alignment is part of an effort to support the teacher´s on their journey of teaching and to improve student performance.

Curriculums vary from country to country and in different parts of the world. Most curriculums of recent dates emphasize not only factual knowledge and subject aims, but also general aims. Foundational skills for life, such as reading, writing, mathematics, communication and digital literacy, are some of the foundational skills stressed in many curriculums. Core competencies often focused on are critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, collaboration, personal development, global citizenship and learning behaviors to mention some.

Placing the learner at the center of learning is essential. Inclusion and differentiation is crucial to make sure all learners have the best possible chance of learning. Modern curriculums also focus on pedagogical approaches where some of the goals are meant to ensure that the learners feel empowered and independent, that learning is relevant to the students, where there is assessment as learning, for learning and of learning to promote in-depth learning.

An example of a fairly new and modern curriculum is the curriculum in Ghana. Basic 1 to 3 in both Mathematics and English meet all the criteria mentioned above. Each strand has its content standards, the aim itself, indicators and exemplars, for example different methods and ways to count to find out “how many?”, as well as subject specific practices and core competencies. In the Ghanaian curriculum, the teachers are presented with many examples on how they can work with the aims in class. In many ways, the teachers have a teacher's guide in the curriculum itself.

Another example is the Norwegian curriculum. It is from 2020, and meets the criteria above as well. However, where the Ghanaian curriculum has focused on lifelong skills, values and core competencies in the subject curriculum, the Norwegian has a separate part presented as addition to the curriculum covering this for all subjects. Also, the Norwegian subject curriculums have a chapter on the four foundational skills tailored towards that specific subject. The subject specific aims in Mathematics are different from year to year, whereas for the subject Norwegian, they are the same for grade 1 to 4, 4 to 7, 7 to 10. In addition, no teaching methods, learning activities and so on are presented in the curriculum. Deciding what to teach and how to teach it, is completely up to the teachers in each school. In most schools, teachers create weekly, monthly and yearly plans for their teaching together with other teachers.

The United States and the Common Core State Standards

In the United States, there is no national curriculum. However, there are the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are the goals that have to be reached by the students. They were not developed by the Federal government, but they were fully adopted by the Department of Education at the Federal level. States are not required to adopt these standards, but if they do not, they will have to prove that their standards will get children college ready. Most states have adopted the standards and passed them on to the local districts. As a result of this, most publishers have changed their offerings to match these standards. How the standards are implemented in the classroom is up to the teacher depending on how strict the superintendent is. Some give teachers a lot of freedom, others very little. If a district adopts a particular curriculum, it is generally expected that the teachers implement that curriculum.

Curriculum alignment and the GDL in Ghana

The GDL content can be curriculum aligned to any curriculum or learning structure. Ghana is the first country where the GDL resources are integrated into the national curriculum for Mathematics and English. The GDL team has mapped the GDL content to the levels 1, 2 and 3 for Mathematics and English. In Mathematics, our content covers most of the content standards from Basic 1 through 3. We have looked at each of the content standards, and mapped them with specific early math games from the GDL in a spreadsheet. This is an example from the spreadsheet:

Describe numbers and the relationship between the numbers 0 to 100

Use number names, counting sequences and how to count to find out “how many”? 

To teach to this standard and indicator, the teacher can use all the 14 games from the GDL that belong to the topic Counting. In addition, the student can study two instructional videos on how to count by putting objects in a box, and by counting in order. Also, the child can assess itself with a Level up game, to find out whether it masters the topic or not. With 80% correct on the test, the child automatically is moved up to the next level, called Counting objects. If the child gets less than 80%, it is advised to work more on the topic before it plays the Level up game again.

In English (Reading), the GDL content consists of books on different levels and topics. There are books for Emergent Readers with wordless books, as well as books on Level 1 through 5 and Read Aloud. Here is an example from the spreadsheet:

The content standard B1.4.1 is: Respond to stories. B1.3.1.1 is: Listen to stories and be able to identify characters with their roles. When mapping the GDL content to the content standards in English, the team has selected good story books that can be used in class when teaching and learning about storytelling. The books chosen in Basic 1 are mostly from Level 1, but some are also Emergent Reader (ER) or from Level 2. These books have been specifically chosen because they fit the “teacher's guides” marked with yellow. They all have beautiful illustrations, and can be used to “Show pictures to guide learners to retell a story told in class”, “Let learners follow the pictures to retell the story logically” and “Guide learners to give personal responses to: Why do you like the story? What part do you like best?”.

Curriculum alignment and the GDL in Jamaica

The GDL team has also begun to map its content to the curriculum for Language Arts, Grade 1, in Jamaica. Here is an example:

 when working with the strand Speaking and Listening, the GDL team has suggested books in an appropriate level that makes the child able to describe for example his or her body, the child's teacher and the school's playground. Books such as

 are books where the child needs to make justifications or explain what it likes and why, and what it can and why.

Curriculum alignment and the GDL in Norway

The GDL team has looked more closely at the Norwegian curriculum in Mathematics, and seen that our content matches many of the competence aims. One example is: 

Order numbers, sets and shapes based on their properties, compare them, and reflect on whether they can be ordered in more ways

. GDL content that can be used to teach and learn about this can be found in for example the main topics Basic counting and Geometry. Another example is: 

Explore addition and subtraction and use this to formulate and solve problems from play and one´s everyday life.

 Relevant GDL content can be found in the main topics Addition and subtraction intro, Addition and subtraction within 20, Addition and subtraction within 100 and Addition and subtraction within 1000.

Curriculum alignment and the GDL in Illustrative Mathematics

When taking a closer look at the CCSS in Mathematics for kindergarten, they are divided into main goals and sub goals. An example of a superior area in Mathematics in the CCSS, is Counting and Cardinality, K.CC. The child is expected to know number names and the count sequence. In further detail, he or she should learn how to:

Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1)

Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0 – 20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

https://learning.ccsso.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Math_Standards1.pdf

One of more curricula in Mathematics is Illustrative Mathematics. Illustrative Mathematics is “a problem-based core curriculum rooted in content and practice standards to foster learning and achievement for all” (

https://curriculum.illustrativemathematics.org/K5/curriculum.html

), and has teacher materials and teacher guides for all grades. Kindergarten, lesson 12 “How many are there?” is addressing the CCSS standards for K.CC, and more specifically:

K.CC.A: Know number names and the count sequence.

K.CC.A.1: Count to 100 by ones and by tens.

K.CC.A.2: Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).

Illustrative Mathematics provides both materials for preparation as well as lesson plans.

Mapping the GDL content for Early Math to Illustrative Mathematics and more specifically the Common Core State Standards in the United States is easy, as all the superior areas are the same.

Curriculum alignment is the work done to adjust or map competence aims and learning outcomes to content, assessments, learning activities, and teaching methods.

Curriculum alignment

Open source describes software where the source code is available for anyone to view, use, change, and then share. Making source code publicly available allows others to build on and learn from it, and enables broad collaboration from people around the world. It's in your phone, your car, your TV, and your wifi-connected light bulbs. 

Open source components enable engineers to build on the work of a global community of developers to deliver better products faster and at a lower cost. Linux, the Apache web server, Android, Firefox, and WordPress are examples of open source projects you may have heard of. 

Copyright reserves the right to copy, modify, and distribute a creative work exclusively to the copyright holder. It exists to protect the rights of authors, artists, and other creators, allowing them to control if and to control how their work can be used by others. In most countries, it automatically applies the moment the work is created. Just because you can see or access a copyrighted work, does not necessarily mean that you can use or copy it. In order to work together with others, you need a way to share those reserved rights. A license provides a framework to do that. 

An open source license has two key parts: rights and obligations. Rights define things you are allowed to do. These directly correspond with the exclusive rights protected by copyright law. Obligations identify things you must do in return for those rights.

Choosing an open license for both content, data and code is a core element when developing open educational resources.

Without the right license, it's not really open source or open educational resources 

An effective open source license is one which allows for broad use, modification, and sharing of the code, without onerous restrictions. Ambiguous or vague licenses that don't explicitly grant the rights protected by copyright are problematic because they're open to interpretation. Additionally, if you're not absolutely certain you can comply with the obligations of a software license, you probably shouldn't use the software. If there is ever a legal challenge, you don't want to have to worry about the outcome.

When choosing a license for your project, we advice you to adhere 

The DPG Standard establishes the baseline requirements that must be met in order to earn recognition as a digital public good (DPG). This standard is designed to complement other relevant principles such as the Principles for Digital Development, and is applicable to DPGs in all sectors across the SDGs. The DPG Standard itself is an open project, open to contribution on GitHub, and developed in collaboration with organizations and experts.

 are accepted. For open content collections the use of a 

 is required. DPGs are encouraged to use a license that allows for both derivatives and commercial reuse (

), or dedicate content to the public domain (

); licenses that do not allow for commercial reuse (

Be sure to choose the correct license for data, content or code.

Open licenses 

There are some preferred document and file formats for the different types of e-books and content (such as storybooks and textbooks), and other resources that are developed for use across platforms and contexts.

In addition, for print-ready versions of the content, the documents should be in PDF format (PDF 1.4 – 1.7).

All texts needs to be encoded in UTF-8. This includes both metadata and textual content.

For audio files, we advise using MP3 (ISO 11172-3:1993).

Sampling rate = 96 kHz
Bit depth = 24-bit depth


Sampling rate = 48 kHz
Bit depth = 16-bit depth


Sampling rate = 44.1 kHz
Bit depth = 16-bit depth


Frequency ranges of different sounds vary, so the requirements for a digital version of your source recordings will also vary. Spoken word recordings are typically acceptable at audio level low (44.1 kHz). Field recordings that include natural and/or subtle sounds such musical recordings, should be captured at either high, medium or DVD Quality.

Below are some general guidelines for production of video files for use in low-bandwidth contexts:

Use the H.264 (a.k.a. x264) video codec to ensure video will play in web browsers

Short videos (5-10 mins long) should roughly be less than 15MB

Longer video lectures (1 hour long) should not be larger than 200MB

High-resolution videos should be converted to lower resolution formats: Here are some recommended choices for video vertical resolution:

Use max height of 480 for videos that work well in low resolution (most videos)

Use max height of 720 for high resolution videos (lectures with writing on board)

Using video compression and low resolutions is important for the context of use. 

Think of the learners and the device they will be using to view the videos.

 Consider also the overall size of the channel, 

 will be required for the entire collection of videos?

The Education.dev team follows the guidelines from our friends at Kolibri for video compression. For more detailed information on the use of compression tools, check out 

 developed by our friends at Learning Equality. 

Guidelines for educational resources and building blocks

Educational resource file formats

Open Standards is one of the most powerful tools we have to open up governments. These standards make it possible for the smallest supplier to compete with the largest. They make data open. They unlock the transformative power of open source software and they are crucial when developing open educational resources. These standards can be technical or semantic and are sorted by relevant application. This catalog is updated on a regular basis, and is in no way meant to represent a complete list of relevant standards and protocols.

The OER dev metadata standard (based on LRMI)
Learning resource metadata initiative 

Ogg MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group: Audio Layer III)

Standards relevant when developing educational technology or resources

Standard catalog

If your organization is developing learning resources in your project, you can contribute to our community of sharing by submitting your content to the Global Digital Library or EduPix.io. Content will only be published after it has been subject to quality assurance and proofreading.

Our guidelines consist of five steps to consider before submitting the content. Each step is explained in greater detail below:

Be sure that you own the rights to your content, or that the content is reused under a free license. This is important and goes for both texts and illustrations.

Be sure that the content complies with common accessibility guidelines for web content, such as WCAG 2.0.

Release the content under a free license, like Creative Commons. This will allow others to reuse and translate your content into new languages.

Publish your resources in EPUB, HTML or H5P format to ensure that the resource can be imported onto the GDL platform.

Add basic metadata to your resources. This will make it easier for others to find them.

1. Rights to your content, or reuse under a free license

The GDL or EduPix core platforms will only publish digital copies of Creative Commons or otherwise openly licensed, publicly accessible materials. All content will be marked with the correct license, authors and illustrators. Be sure that you own the rights to your content, or that the content is reused under a free license.

The primary licenses for the Education.dev projects are CC BY and CC BY-SA. These licenses drive innovation and creativity, including commercial reuse. Furthermore, they strongly support the overall Education.dev goal of sharing, translation and contextualization of educational materials, open textbooks and open educational resources. We will also accept other CC licenses, but no content including the ND clause.

Education.dev content guidelines for educational resources 

Education.dev (Beta)

Open Educational Resource Development

Our goal is to help organizations and projects maximize their resources, and ultimately their impact, through open standards, open data, open source, and open education.

Projects

Our collaborations

Feed The Monster

An interactive learning app that teaches children the fundamentals of reading!

Documentation

Platform APIs, content creation, and file formats

Education.dev

All content is under CC BY 4.0