misterbastean / open_edu

Open EDU API

The Open EDU API is a proof of concept API to demonstrate how the educational community could benefit from an open-source repository of open educational resources, as well as community-designed curriculum.

Brief History

The educational industry is currently in a position reminiscent of the computer science industry in the late 80's, with curriculum and resources being dominated by enormous corporations (e.g. Pearson, McGraw-Hill, etc.), much like the CS industry was dominated by Unix/Windows/Macintosh prior to the open-source software movement.

This API is a companion to a paper I am currently writing, highlighting the similarities between these two situations and suggesting that the educational community would greatly benefit from an "educational Linux." This API is the proof of concept that educators could benefit from adopting many open-source software development practices when creating curriculum.

API Documentation

Note: most of these routes are not yet implemented, as this is a work in progress. However, this is the tentative final design.

Routes

Resources

Resources are single files (e.g. documents, images, presentations, etc.). They are the most basic building blocks of curriculum, and are designed to be incorporated into Units (see below).

Route	Method	Description	Implemented?	Auth Required?
/resources	GET	Get all resources	N	N
/resources	POST	Create a new single resource	Y	Y
/resources/:id	GET	Get a specific resource	N	N
/resources/:id	PUT	Update a specific resource	N	Y
/resources:id	DELETE	Delete a specific resource	N	Y
/resources/query	GET	Get resources that match a query	N	N

Units

Units are collections of resources designed to provide structure to curriculum. Generally speaking, a unit will contain multiple resources (e.g. lesson plans, handouts, tests, rubrics, etc.) as well as additional information to help the teacher implement, such as directions, grade level(s), suggested time frame, etc.

Route	Method	Description	Implemented?	Auth Required?
/units	GET	Get all units	N	N
/units	POST	Create a new single unit	N	Y
/units/:id	GET	Get a specific unit	N	N
/units/:id	PUT	Update a specific unit	N	Y
/units/:id	DELETE	Delete a specific unit	N	Y
/units/query	GET	Get resources that match a query	N	N

Users

Users are exactly what you think they are.

Route	Method	Description	Implemented?	Auth Required?
/users	GET	Get all usernames	N	Y (Admin)
/users	POST	Create new user	N	N
/users/:username	GET	Get specific user	N	N
/users/:username	PUT	Update specific user	N	Y
/users/:username	DELETE	Delete specific user	N	Y
/users/:username/followers	GET	Lists the users who are following :username	N	N
/users/:username/following/:username2	GET	Check if :username is already following :username2	N	N
/users/:username/following/:username2	PUT	Adds :username2 to the list of users followed by :username	N	Y
/users/:username/following/:username2	DELETE	Removes :username2 from the list of users followed by :username	N	Y

Comments

Comments are exactly what you think they are: text strings associated with a specific user and a specific Resource or Unit.

Route	Method	Description	Implemented?	Auth Required?
/comments	POST	Create a new comment	N	Y
/comments/:id	GET	Get specific comment	N	N
/comments/:id	PUT	Update a specific comment	N	Y
/comments/:id	DELETE	Delete a specific comment	N	Y
/comments/query	GET	Get all comments that match a query	N	N

Request Attributes

Resource

When a request is made to /requests, expect each item to return JSON that follows this format:

{
  "_id": {"$oid": "String"},
  "owner": "User",
  "dateCreated": "Date",
  "title": "String",
  "description": "String",
  "linkUrl": "String",
  "grades": ["String"],
  "subject": "String",
  "standards": ["String"],
  "stars": ["String"],
  "comments": ["Comment"],     // Will update when Comments are implemented
  "pendingMerges": ["Merge"],  // Will update when Merges are implemented
  "acceptedMerges": ["Merge"], // Will update when Merges are implemented
  "rejectedMerges": [{         // Will update when Merges are implemented
    "_id": {"$oid": "String"},
    "merge": "String",
    "message": "String"
  }],
  "lastUpdated": "Date",
  "timesDownloaded": "Number",
  "__v": "Number"
}

For example:

{
  "_id":{"$oid":"5e70e557a47475260b865eed"},
  "owner":"josh",
  "dateCreated":{"$date":{"$numberLong":"1584457047886"}},
  "title":"Macbeth Study Guide",
  "description":"This is a study guide to help students with Macbeth",
  "linkUrl":"/uploads/resources/Macbeth_Study_Guide.docx",
  "grades":["9","10","11","12"],
  "subject":"ELA",
  "standards":["CCSS.ELA.1.2","CCSS.ELA.3.4"],
  "stars":["user1","user2"],
  "comments":["This is awesome!","Great job!"],
  "pendingMerges":["merge_12345","merge_09876"],
  "acceptedMerges":["merge_11111"],
  "rejectedMerges":[
    {"_id":{"$oid":"5e70e557a47475260b865eee"},
    "merge":"merge_00000",
    "message":"Please fix the typos"}
  ],
  "lastUpdated":{"$date":{"$numberLong":"1577874030000"}},
  "timesDownloaded":{"$numberInt":"15"},
  "__v":{"$numberInt":"0"}
}