Edpak Standard v1.0

An open standard for packaging educational courses

Overview

Edpak is a ZIP-based open standard for packaging educational courses and learning materials. It provides a consistent, portable format for distributing course content across different platforms and learning management systems.

Specification

Required Structure (Core v1.0)

Manifest Schema

The manifest.json file must be valid JSON and contain the following fields:

Module Object Schema

Each module object in the modules array must contain:

Example Manifest

{
  "title": "Introduction to Python Programming",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "author": "Jane Doe",
  "description": "A comprehensive introduction to Python programming for beginners",
  "language": "en",
  "modules": [
    {
      "id": "module-1",
      "title": "Getting Started with Python",
      "content": "modules/01-getting-started.html",
      "order": 1
    },
    {
      "id": "module-2",
      "title": "Variables and Data Types",
      "content": "modules/02-variables.html",
      "order": 2
    }
  ]
}

Content Files

Content files referenced in the manifest can be in various formats:

• HTML (.html)
• Markdown (.md)
• PDF (.pdf)
• Video files (.mp4, .webm)
• Other educational content formats

Directory Structure

The core standard only requires a valid manifest.json, but the reference implementation follows this layout:

course.edpak (ZIP file)
├── manifest.json                # REQUIRED
├── README.txt                   # OPTIONAL human-readable summary
├── images/                      # Image assets (e.g., JPEG, PNG)
│   └── <FileName>
├── videos/                      # Video assets
│   └── <FileName>
└── files/                       # Other asset types
    └── <FileName>

All paths referenced in modules[*].content and in any embedded HTML must resolve to files that exist in the archive.

Extension Fields for Richer Course Data

Edpak v1.0 keeps the core manifest intentionally small. Implementations may add additional top-level fields to manifest.json to preserve richer course structures. The reference implementation uses the following optional extensions:

lessons (optional)

An array describing lesson-level structure within modules.

files (optional)

An array describing binary assets included in the package.

missingFiles (optional)

An array of human-readable strings describing any files that were referenced in the source system but could not be resolved or downloaded into the package.

x_source_platform (optional)

An object carrying source-system metadata, for example:

• courseId
• courseStatus
• exportedBy
• exportedDate
• moduleCount, lessonCount, fileCount

x_source_author (optional)

An object documenting how the author field was derived, for example:

• value: the effective author string
• from: a short description such as "ExportedBy"

x_spec_notes (optional)

An array of strings capturing free-form notes about how the package maps richer platform concepts into the current Edpak core schema. For example, a producer might note that multiple-choice quizzes are represented as lessons plus HTML content, since v1.0 has no dedicated quiz model.

All of these extension fields are OPTIONAL. Consumers that only understand the core Edpak v1.0 fields can safely ignore them, while more advanced tools can use them to reconstruct a richer course model.

Verification Tool

A Python verification tool is provided to check if an edpak file is compliant with this standard.

Installation

pip install edpak-validator

Usage

# From command line
edpak-verify course.edpak

# From Python
from edpak_validator import verify_edpak

is_valid, errors = verify_edpak('course.edpak')
if is_valid:
    print("Valid edpak file!")
else:
    print("Invalid:", errors)

Compliance Requirements