Online Course Marketplace

Part of the worlds-biggest-software-project initiative.

An AI-native, open-source course marketplace that pairs creator economics with intelligent discovery, pricing, and credentialing.

This project is a candidate platform for course creation, student management, payments, and certificates, designed for independent instructors, training companies, universities, and corporate L&D teams. It addresses the persistent gap between closed marketplaces with weak creator economics (Udemy's 37% revenue share) and creator-SaaS tools with no organic learner discovery (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi).

Why Online Course Marketplace?

Incumbent open marketplaces such as Udemy pay instructors only 37% on organic sales, eroding creator earnings as catalogues grow.
Creator-SaaS platforms (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi) offer better economics but no built-in marketplace discovery — every creator must self-acquire traffic.
Subscription marketplaces like Skillshare dilute creator royalty pools as the catalogue expands, making earnings increasingly unpredictable.
Existing AI features (Kajabi AI, LearnWorlds AI course creator) are bolted onto closed SaaS; an open-source AI-native alternative does not yet exist at scale.
Open-source LMS platforms (Open edX AGPL-3.0, Moodle GPL-3.0) have no native monetisation or marketplace layer, leaving operators to assemble payment, discovery, and credentialing themselves.

Key Features

Course Authoring & Delivery

Curriculum builder supporting video, text, PDF, quizzes, and coding exercises
Adaptive-bitrate video hosting with progress tracking and bookmarks
SCORM 1.2 / 2004 and xAPI import for packaged enterprise content
Mobile-responsive learner interface with offline access patterns

Marketplace, Payments & Creator Economics

Integrated checkout with one-time purchases, subscriptions, coupons, upsells, and order bumps
Affiliate and referral tracking with automated commission management
Instructor dashboard covering revenue analytics, enrollment data, and learner progress
PCI-compliant payment processing via Stripe and PayPal with multi-currency support

Discovery, Community & Credentials

Category browse, search, and personalised recommendations
Per-course discussion forums and Q&A, plus learner profiles and cohort support
Completion certificates with verifiable credential links
LTI 1.3 integration for embedding courses in corporate LMS environments

Compliance & Standards

GDPR / CCPA consent management and right-to-erasure workflow
WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance for course player and platform UI
DMCA takedown workflow for user-generated content
Optional FERPA-aligned configuration for accredited institutional deployments

AI-Native Advantage

AI is positioned as a core layer rather than a feature add-on: automated course quality scoring with actionable instructor improvement suggestions, dynamic pricing optimised against demand signals and promotional history, and AI-generated course scaffolding (outlines, quiz questions, lesson descriptions) from a learning-objective prompt. Personalised cross-catalogue learning pathways sequence courses from multiple instructors based on individual goals and prior knowledge, and adaptive final assessments support competency-mapped credentials that go beyond simple completion badges.

Tech Stack & Deployment

The project targets self-hosted, cloud, and hybrid deployment, with open standards as first-class citizens: SCORM 1.2 / 2004, xAPI, IMS LTI 1.3, IMS Common Cartridge, and IMS QTI 3.0 for content portability and interoperability. Payment scope is delegated to Stripe / PayPal to minimise PCI DSS surface, and SAML 2.0 / OAuth2 SSO supports institutional and enterprise rollouts. SDK and REST API surface follow the patterns established by Open edX and Moodle.

Market Context

Worldwide online education revenue is projected at $203.81B in 2025, growing at 8.2% CAGR to $279.30B by 2029 (Statista); a broader estimate reaches $880.17B by 2033 at 11.6% CAGR. Incumbent pricing spans free open-source (Moodle, Open edX) through creator SaaS at $33–$399/month (Podia, Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi) up to $15K–$25K Coursera degree programmes. Primary buyers are independent instructors, training companies, universities and bootcamps, corporate L&D teams, and entrepreneurs running cohort-based learning products.

Project Status

This project is in the research and specification phase.
Contributions, feedback, and domain expertise are welcome.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from developers, domain experts, and potential users. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Important: All contributions must be your own original work or clearly attributed open-source material with a compatible licence. Copyright infringement and licence violations will not be tolerated and will result in immediate removal of the offending contribution. If you are unsure whether a piece of code, text, or other material is safe to contribute, open an issue and ask before submitting.

Licence

Licence to be determined. See discussion for context.