Principles

1. Open by default. Content is published under an open license, in open formats, with no gatekeepers. Anyone can read it, copy it, improve it, and build on it.
2. Concepts, not containers. Knowledge is broken into the smallest concepts worth learning, each stated once as something a learner can do. That one statement is the concept’s definition everywhere. Courses, degrees, and platforms are optional wrappers; the concept is the unit.
3. Outcomes over seat time. Progress is measured by what a learner can do, never by hours attended or a calendar.
4. Coherence is explicit. Every node declares what should come before it, and what comes after is computed. “What next?” is always answerable, from any node, on any platform.
5. Evidence over attendance. Every credential is backed by an assessment that produces evidence a stranger could inspect.
6. The learner owns the credential. Credentials are issued in a verifiable, portable format that travels with the learner, not with a platform account.
7. Grows where people reach. Nobody can write every concept in advance. When someone reaches for a concept that is missing, a stub is created and kept, so the next person builds on it instead of starting over. What grows is also pruned: duplicates are merged and dead ends are retired.
8. Crowdsourced and reviewed. Content is proposed, reviewed, merged, and versioned in public, the way open-source software is.
9. Free forever. Open Degree is built as a nonprofit commons. Its curriculum, tooling, and credentials cost nothing to use.
10. Platform neutral. Open Degree publishes the graph; platforms and tools walk it with the learner. DIY Degree is the first learning engine to offer Open Degree as a source. It will not be the only one, and the standard never assumes a particular platform.
11. Teachers are allies. Open Degree exists to give every teacher, inside or outside an institution, a free curriculum to teach from and a common language for what their students achieve.