by Stefania Trabucchi and Eden Huthmacher

Mark your calendars to join us virtually on June 9th, 2022 between 10 AM and 11 AM (EST) in Gather to learn about Raccoon Gang’s K-12 use of the Open edX platform in Ukraine! You can register to this FREE event here.

During the Open edX Conference 2022 in Lisbon, Eden Huthmacher from tCRIL and Stefania Trabucchi from Abstract-Technology, interviewed Sergiy Movchan, CEO of Raccoon Gang, an Open edX Partner from Ukraine. The Raccoon Gang team is doing an incredible job technically supporting secondary schools in Ukraine, through the implementation of the Open edX platform for distance learning, and the help of other financial supporters and education strategists.

Sergiy Movchan presented the project “All-Ukrainian Online School – E-SCHOOL.net.ua” (Всеукраїнська школа онлайн), during the plenary at the Open edX Conference 2022. On December 11th, 2021, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, along with Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development and the Ministry of Digital Transformation, launched a COVID19-response platform for distance and blended learning called “All-Ukrainian Online School – E-SCHOOL.net.ua”, which is powered by the Open edX platform. 

The customized Open edX platform is designed for students in grades 5-11. Anyone can use the “All-Ukrainian School Online”, which contains video tutorials, abstracts, formative & summative assessments, virtual teacher offices (which can remotely communicate with students), as well as a mobile app.

With the start of the Russian invasion to Ukraine this project lives its second life.

As in many regions, there is still a lack of quality communication and access to the Internet. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine partnered on Monday, March 14th to launch a broadcast on Ukrainian television lessons for grades 5-11.

Why is the ALL-UKRAINIAN SCHOOLS ONLINE project so important for all K-12 school children in Ukraine now?

The urgency of creating a national education platform is due, not only to the challenges associated with the spread of COVID-19, but also due to the strategic need to ensure sustainability and quality of learning, as well as equal access to knowledge for all students in Ukraine, during the war, regardless of location and available resources. 

Sergiy Movchan said that 3.5 million users registered to the customized Open edX platform, between its launch and the end of March 2022 (300,000 unique users in March alone), who have been positively impacted through the availability of digital education vis a vis the Open edX platform, despite the war. Raccoon Gang’s and Sergiy’s position are so compelling because the Open edX platform offers an optimal time-to-market strategy. 

Open edX software is easy and fast to use for medium to large scale implementations. If a decision has to be made between robust and cost-efficient systems versus insecure and “difficult to adapt” solutions, then the Open edX platform is definitely the best solution. In summary, Sergiy’s  message is as follows:  Open edX software is open source, learner centric, innovative, scalable, and provides a flexible digital solution, which proves to teach us a lot about sustainability, decisions, and about the future of online learning.

We are looking forward to many new impulses from this success story! So, do not miss your chance to learn more about the ALL-UKRAINIAN SCHOOLS ONLINE project, powered by the Open edX platform, during our upcoming virtual event on June 9th!

The platform: https://lms.e-school.net.ua/

The official government website for the project: https://mon.gov.ua/ua/tag/vseukrayinska-shkola-onlajn

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