The Sankoré project, launched in 2009 with the support of the French government, aims to make digital education accessible to developing countries, especially to Africa. In order to reach this objective several actions have been taken. A program was created in order to provide equipment to digital classes in Africa, an interactive whiteboard software was developed and an open platform that allows the creation, the dissemination and the sharing of free educational resources was started. The platform's name is Planète Sankoré and it is based on XWiki. Based on the same platform as the Curriki platform, the Planète Sankoré website allows professors and their students to simply access the lessons and courses managed by members of the platform.

1. CASE STUDY
Digital
Educational
Resources

2. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
2
The Sankoré project, launched in 2009 with the support of the French government, aims to make
digital education accessible to developing countries, especially in Africa.
In order to reach this objective, several actions have been taken. A program was created in order
to provide equipment to digital classes in Africa, an interactive whiteboard software was
developed and an open platform that allows the creation, the dissemination and the sharing of
free educational resources was started. The platform's name is Planète Sankoré and it is based
on XWiki.
Context and stakes
The GIP ENA is a public interest group that aims to promote digital education in Africa through the
use of open solutions and open educational resources.
Their project involved the creation of an organized collaborative library, which was validated by an
editorial board and an assembly. The group has chosen to collaborate with a service provider,
particularly the WebDoc company.
The collaboration was organized in two main steps:
• initial requirements consideration: the library worked due to the content provided by users by
index integration and powerful search features. Users could be anonymous in case of research
and the retrieval of information or learning material, while professors would need to ID
themselves in order to deposit resources (validated by moderators and assessors), such as:
images, audio, videos, or images/cards collections.
Sector: education
Need: create a digital
community and support the
development and the
distribution of resources
Solution: a digital - education
community
Product: XWiki Enterprise

3. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
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• a study conducted by WebDoc in order to identify the best reference websites that could serve
as a basis for design specifications
Curriki.org, which is based on XWiki, was among the listed websites. It was chosen by WebDoc as a
reference (over 45,000 available OER, contributory model, a powerful multi-criteria search engine,...)
and later approved by their customer, the GIP ENA.
Needs and constraints
To complete this project, WebDoc wanted to use a solution that had already proved its value. Among
other things, the company in charge of the project needed to be able to understand the project, to
bring together an experienced team and to adapt to Sankore’s project management methods, by
providing a qualitative service at the same time (no delays, adjustment needs ...).
The main constraints were:
• using an open software that was already stable enough (even if its development is extended)
• having an index engine that was easy to use by non-specialists both for bookmarks and learning
objects
• integrating the standards for the learning objects description (LOM Fr for school-> Learning
Object Metadata
• interfacing with structured databases (such as ORI / OAI): project still in progress in February
2013
The solution
XCLAMS/Curriki Platform
The Planète Sankoré website is developed on the XCLAMS platform, which is already being used by
Curriki.org.
XCLAMS (XWiki Collaborative Learning Asset Management System) is the XWiki solution for Education
and is developed on top of the XWiki Enterprise product.

4. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
4
Its main features are:
• an innovative interface to add educational resources in several formats: wiki, HTML, zip, video and
more
• an intuitive navigation interface to visualize educational resources and knowledge paths
• a powerful search engine based on XWiki Lucene allowing to quickly retrieve resources
• a personal advanced space for each user
• dedicated features for collaboration within groups including the blog, messaging, the wiki and a
knowledge sharing platform
Planète Sankoré is an OER/ER database
Planete.sankore.org is an Open Educational Resource (OER) and Educational Resource (ER) database.
Adding resources to the database can be done in different formats, in particular using the .ubz format,
which corresponds to the interactive resources created with the 3.1 Sankoré software.
Each resource is defined by metadata (education level, topic, resource type) which allows to effectively
organize and quickly find them. Resources can also be gathered in knowledge paths in order to deal with
a particular topic or to address a specific student category (i.e.: mathematics lessons for college students).
The website features a powerful multi-criteria search engine that allows to find, evaluate and share the
best database resources.
The website is open to everyone with an appointment and requires a registration to contribute.
Services provided by XWiki SAS in collaboration with WebDoc
As part of this project, WebDoc and XWiki SAS carried out the following services:
• adaptation of the original code to fit the project’s requirements
• ergonomic adaptation
• graphical chart adaptation (with important constraints)
• expertise in BOM management and standards compliance
• internationalization of the data schemes
• publication of the software source code

5. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
5
Some examples of implemented features
Below are some of the features implemented for this project:
Find, share and rate resources:
• find numerous free and open Numerical Education Resources thanks to the advanced search
engine that uses metadata
• mobilize your resources created with the Open-Sankoré software and make them available to
the community
• evaluate the Digital Educational Resources available on the web.
• create theme groups sharing common interests

6. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
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• consult resources directly online in various formats
Administrators have their own features:
• resource metadata management such as educational levels, thematics, subjects, and everything
filtered by country, as they have different educational systems
• group management with the possibility to communicate with them
 resource rating system in order to improve the data quality
A real success
Here is a list of the key success factors of the project:
• the effectiveness of its implementation respecting the timeline and budget
• graphical chart adaptation
• an easy research engine, adapted to the users
• publication integration from the Open-Sankore software (including a simplified publication process)
• an encouraging initiative for future projects (in education or training)

7. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
7
Observed results
• Some statistics http://planete.sankore.org/:
• 117 Open resources created with the Open-Sankoré software
• 5 136 Numerical Educational Resources
• 300 views / day during the work week
• 200 views / day during the week-end
• return rate: 40%
• average time spent on the website: 4 min
• 2 400 users