The Graph

Open Degree’s knowledge is one open graph. Every concept worth learning is a node, stated as something a learner can do, and every edge says what to learn before and after. The graph is the curriculum and the project’s core asset. Courses, assessments, and credentials all attach to nodes, and every platform that uses Open Degree is walking the same graph.

The graph exists to get past the container. A course is a box someone drew around a set of concepts for a particular audience. Boxes are useful, and Open Degree keeps them as optional courses, but a learner who needs one concept should not have to take the whole box. Here, they jump to the node.

Anatomy of a node

A node is an outcome: one file, one concept. Four parts matter.

• The statement. A first-person, measurable “I can …” sentence. This is the common definition of the concept, the thing every teacher, platform, and employer agrees they are talking about.
• Learn it. Free or open resources listed on the node, notes in the body for teachers and learners, and any course that teaches it.
• Prove it. The evidence that would convince a stranger, and the assessments that produce it, from a quick check of understanding to a full demonstration of mastery.
• Before and after. The prerequisites the node declares, and the nodes that declare it. “After” is computed, never written by hand, so it is always current.

A node also carries aliases, the other names people use for the concept, so a search from any of them lands here. Once a node is retired, supersededBy names the node that replaced it.

The learner loop

1. Find the concept. Search for what you are trying to learn and land on the closest node.
2. Learn it. Use the node’s resources, a course that covers it, a teacher, or whatever works for you. Open Degree does not prescribe the route.
3. Prove it. Produce the evidence an assessment asks for. Evidence that passes an adopted assessment can back a credential you own, issued by anyone who meets its requirements.
4. See what is next. The node shows what builds on it, with the concepts that unlock the most listed first. Pick the one you need and go around again.

Over time, the nodes a learner has proven form their own map of what they know. Keeping that map, and choosing which node to offer next, is the job of the platform or tool the learner is using. Open Degree provides the graph they are moving through.

How the graph grows

There is no end to the number of concepts, so nobody can write them all in advance. The graph grows where people reach for it.

• If the concept exists, you land on it.
• If it does not, a stub is created: a node with a title, a statement, a domain, and whatever else is already known. A stub is a real node from the moment it exists. It can be found, linked to, and declared as a prerequisite.
• A node’s “after” can point at stubs, so the next most important concepts are visible before anyone has written them.

Today a stub is a small contribution. Free AI tooling is planned to make asking for a concept as simple as typing it. Either way, the first person into an empty area leaves a trail, which is what gives the graph value on day one.

Remembered and reinforced

Nothing reached for is thrown away. A stub stays until it is filled, merged, or pruned, so the next person builds on it instead of starting from nothing. Nodes that many people use gain resources, sharper assessments, and more review; nodes nobody uses stay thin. Like memory, the graph strengthens where it is used and extends where it is needed, and every change is versioned in public.

Pruned and moderated

A graph that only grows becomes a thicket. Every node passes through the same lifecycle: stub, draft, proposed, adopted, deprecated. Contributors fill stubs into drafts. Reviewers move drafts toward adoption. Two nodes that turn out to be one concept are merged: one is deprecated with supersededBy pointing at the other, and its name becomes an alias. Only adopted nodes back credentials. Anyone can review, and a review is as valuable as a new node.

What Open Degree provides, and what is built on top

Open Degree publishes the graph: the nodes and their definitions, the edges between them, the assessments and credential definitions attached to them, and, as it arrives, free AI tooling to help contributors author, align, and review. All of it is open, versioned, and free.

Everything that touches an individual learner is built on top by others. A learning engine such as DIY Degree can offer the graph as a source, track which nodes a learner has proven, choose what to offer next, and add tutoring and motivation. A school can map its own courses onto nodes. An AI tutor can walk the graph with a student. An employer can read a credential back to the nodes it certifies. None of them needs permission, and none of them gets exclusive rights.

One definition per concept

The graph works because each concept has exactly one node and one statement. That is what lets an assessment written by one person measure a node taught by another, and a credential issued by one organization be read by any other. When learners, teachers, platforms, and employers all point at the same node, they speak the same language, and progress is recognized anywhere.