For nearly two decades Cetis has provided strategic, technical and pedagogical advice on open educational technology, standards and software to funding bodies, standards agencies, government, institutions and commercial partners.

Open Standards

We believe that by adopting open standards organisations can become more efficient and more flexible to the specific needs of learners and teachers. Cetis plays an instrumental role in the development of a wide range of educational technology standards, for assessment, content description and aggregation, eBooks, e-portfolios,  infrastructure and connecting systems.

We have an international reputation and  proven track record of representing the interests of the UK education sector on a wide range of standards bodies including BSI, IMS, CEN, ISO, W3C. We make sure that the specifications developed by these agencies meet the needs of universities and colleges in the UK.

Our comprehensive set of capabilities includes in-depth experience of both developing and supporting open standards for data, particularly for those pertinent to educational technology. We offer services based on our experience of:

  • implementing interoperable systems using open standards
  • running developer-centric testing, hack-day and code bash events
  • developing specifications and current best practices
  • working in both formal and informal specification and standards development groups
  • producing explanatory briefings and guides for interoperability and standards.
  • evaluation of fitness for purpose of existing standards against defined requirements.

Open Education

Open education can expand access to education, widen participation, create new opportunities for the next generation of teachers and learners and prepare them to become fully engaged digital citizens. In addition, open education can promote knowledge transfer while at the same time enhancing quality and sustainability, supporting social inclusion, and creating a culture of inter-institutional collaboration and sharing.

While open education is primarily about changing culture and practice, education technology can be a key enabler.

Scottish Open Education Declaration

Cetis has a long history of helping people and organisations work across boundaries to share educational resources and develop common understandings of how technology can enhance learning. We have supported the release of Open Educational Resources (OERs) through our technical input to the UKOER programme, reflections on which lead to the book Into the wild – Technology for open educational resources, and have continued to support the technology behind OER since then. We also have a strong understanding of the practical legal, strategic and policy issues behind Open Education at all levels from personal to international. Indeed one of our founding partners, Lorna Campbell, was co-editor of the Scottish Open Education Declaration that we quote above.

We offer a commitment to fostering and contributing to open approaches to the creation and dissemination of learning, and expertise in the management and dissemination of Open Educational Resources.

Open Source

We work very closely with OSS Watch.