One of the things that excites us the most at Tendenci is seeing other people really accelerate open source across all sectors. Not surprisingly we see community building as essential in both academics and in business. Because business… can be just a bit too “business like” when we like to work hard but also play hard. Another thing I love to do is talk to clients. And being open source, and as a company with no commissions but that takes care of our people by doing the right thing, it’s fun sometimes to highlight great open source projects that aren’t directly related to Tendenci (but OK, all of these do integrate with Tendenci as they are all based on Django as well.)
Open Source Django projects that Integrate with Tendenci
How about a community discussion board with karma points, community building, banning of bad guys, rewards for the helpful. It includes a playful board you could say personifies the balance between making a gamified application and what some refer to as gamification. I don’t want a gold coin, but I do like the respect of my peers. Misago is just that. And being Django it integrates with Tendenci which is also Django. 
Or EdX Online Training – great for tracking CE credits and timely releases of assignments and much more.
Our implementation of EdX for internal use isn’t quite as pretty but it still shows that we love education. EdX is great to train employees, members of your association, your volunteers and much more. The screenshots below are our actual EdX demo site as well as the one we use internally.
Course writing in Django EdX. Oh, and you can import courses from other people as well! Sharing is one of the values of Open Source! But what about course material? How about CNX Openstax! Write your textbook online, let people download it or print on demand. Most CNX textbooks are even free! And of course CNX is also written in Django and Python like Tendenci which makes it part of our big integrated solution that you can deploy OPEN SOURCE. You stay in control.
Is this a trend? Yup. We aren’t the only ones who have noticed. You can read about the growth of MOOC’s or massive open online courses in several tech and education articles and quickly moving into the mainstream.
How do you track all of those students if you are a giant school? Well, how about Django-SIS? Yup, manage an entire school, even alumni with django SIS (School Information Systems).
http://burkesoftware.com/demo/
The future is exciting folks. And it’s accountable. Let’s just celebrate the HUGE growth in open online education we are seeing in the community.
Know of a great education, CE, learning resource? Tell us in the comments!