African Storybook vs OpenLearn

African Storybook develops and publishes picture storybooks in African languages to support children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination. Its stories and tools are intended for children aged two to ten, including early childhood and the first three years of primary school. The free Reader app lets parents and children access books offline. With the free Maker app, people can create storybooks offline on a phone or tablet, then publish them to the website once connected. Website tools also support creating, translating and adapting picture books, and readers can download titles for offline reading or print them. Stories may be read, copied, adapted and translated without payment or permission, subject to attribution and any non-commercial restriction attached to a particular story. Creating, adapting or translating requires registration; users must be at least 18 or have parent or guardian permission. The site distinguishes ASb-approved stories from those made on the website or in the Maker app that have not been checked. It also offers video and written guidance on using and developing picture storybooks. The initiative is free, with Android, iOS and web access.

OpenLearn is a free web learning platform delivered by The Open University. It offers courses, articles, quizzes, interactive games, videos and audio across many subjects, with short courses described as taking 1 to 24 hours. The listed Free courses plan includes nearly 1,000 courses at free. After completion, learners can download a free Statement of Participation, and some courses award a digital badge. OpenLearn courses do not carry formal credit toward a qualification. A free account enables enrolment, progress tracking and activity-record downloads; general content is available without an account, though users must be at least 13 to create one. Materials can be shared through other learning systems in IMS Common Cartridge, HTML and Moodle formats. OpenLearn says its software tools are open source and its main learning environments use Moodle and Drupal. The site reports partial WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, with issues in some legacy images and interactive activities. It was founded in 2006 and is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.