11.1 Unesco's activities in foss for education, past, current and  (Page 2/6)

Ii. unesco activities envisaged and related to foss for education foss education solutions

1. needs analysis

There is a strong demand for Free and Open Source Software solutions based upon open standards from developing and emerging countries who want to initiate secondary school and/or higher education computerization programs, as well as to computerize public administration. The ability to customize a solution to the special needs of a country, and any school or university in the country as well as using open standards, are the key advantages of providing open source solutions. It is usually quite easy to find FOSS applications that can solve a specific isolated problem such as an LMS or CMS, but most of the time a global solution is needed and there is really a lack of integrated FOSS solutions for education.

2. vision

In view of these needs, UNESCO would like to explore the possibility of producing a complete FOSS Education Solution for higher education that would integrate a stack of software tools, guidelines, and good documentation.

A complete integrated FOSS Education Solution should be a technical roadmap with a stack of software tools and that could integrate for example:

1. A Generic Integration Engine or Framework that:
   • Should solve the current Student Information System (SIS) problem
   • Add value by integrating isolated software tools and providing bridges
   • Allow flexibility to add more applications to the stack
   • Provide a seamless Education IT environment
2. A Web Single SignOn (SSO) across or within organizational boundaries. It allows sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner (Shibboleth — (External Link) )
3. The Moodle Core
   • Course Management (search, create/edit/delete, classify, event management, etc …
   • User Management (add/edit/delete, authenticate, enroll, grouping, etc…)
   • Configuration Management (general configuration, site configuration, language, module, etc…)
   • Teacher&Student functions (register, logon, teaching, learning, finding resources, etc…
4. The Education Management System (EMS)
5. Guidelines and requirements for flexible IT Infrastructure
6. Guidelines for planning, budgeting and implementing
7. Step-by-step guide to implementing open distance learning.

3. tentatively skeleton for project management

Projects are usually divided into eight phases. Each phase has an objective, associated documents and deliverables. Phase 1: The first phase intends to produce a Requirements Evaluation and Project Proposal document.

Areas to be addressed include:

• Fundamental Problem to be solved
• Tasks/functions the FOSS Education Solution will perform
• Benefits/Savings/Cost Justification
• Economic
• Contribution to EFA goals and objectives
• Quality
• Performance Requirements
• Security
• Compatibility/Migration
• Product integration
• Packaging
• Related/Dependent Projects; Other Dependencies

The project proposal document should set the background, define the fundamental concepts, compare and evaluate the alternate FOSS Education solutions in terms of functionality and compatibility, and should be accompanied by a thoughtful analysis of the current isolated FOSS Education Solutions and the desired integrated FOSS solution. It should also identify the missing components if any.