Proto-OKN Theme 3: An Education Gateway for the Proto-OKN

This Prototype-Open Knowledge Network (OKN) project seeks to ensuring the growth of a community of learning and practice centered on the OKN and its use in solving critical, real-world problems. This Proto-OKN Education Gateway, EduGate, effort will provide a comprehensive education platform that would also facilitate close collaborations and convergence among current OKN projects, as well as future entrants to the network.As the entry-point to the Proto-OKN environment and community, EduGate can have widespread impact and can contribute directly to the overall success of the Proto-OKN effort. While some of the OKN projects will be deploying newer technologies, including distributed ledgers, blockchain technology, and large language models (LLMs), many of the underlying technologies and standards that power OKN are well-established and have been around for some time. There is a plethora of extant educational material, tutorials, reference texts, and technical papers describing the state of the art of these technologies. The Education Gateway will bring together and link these different materials via the OKN Curriculum Knowledge Graph (CurrKG), which will be purpose-built for educating learners of all backgrounds. The Education Gateway provides a unified, foundational learning platform, with customized pathways for users and other stakeholder from various sectors including government, industry, non-profit and other sectors. The project encompasses four major initiatives: (1) Community Development, Outreach, and Engagement (2) Industry Connection, Outreach, and Engagement (3) Education and Support activities among the cohort of OKN projects, and (4) Development of an OKN Curriculum Knowledge Graph (CurrKG) to assist with navigation through these materials. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.