EkStep Foundation – Sunbird and DIKSHA

About:

EkStep Foundation is a non-profit organisation focused on improving learning outcomes for children across India through digital education initiatives. The organisation supports a massive ecosystem of learners, educators, and institutions across rural and urban regions.

Sunbird is an open-source digital learning infrastructure platform developed to enable scalable, accessible, and modular education systems. The platform has been recognised as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, an international initiative that promotes open-source technologies for achieving global sustainable development goals.

Overview:

Sunbird is a microservices-based Learning Management System (LMS) designed as a collection of modular digital building blocks. These building blocks allow governments, organisations, and educational institutions to build customised digital learning platforms at scale.

The platform supports the entire lifecycle of digital learning—from content creation and curation to distribution, assessment, and certification.

Sunbird powers several large-scale educational ecosystems including DIKSHA, a national platform managed by the NCERT under the Ministry of Education (India).

GoodWorkLabs has collaborated closely with EkStep Foundation since 2015, contributing to multiple aspects of the platform including backend module development, mobile SDK creation, and user experience design.

Our Challenges:

Building one of the largest open-source digital learning infrastructures required solving several complex challenges:

• Designing a highly scalable microservices architecture capable of supporting millions of learners.
• Enabling offline-first capabilities for students in rural areas with limited internet connectivity.
• Supporting the entire content lifecycle including creation, validation, distribution, and consumption.
• Creating reusable mobile SDK platforms that could be integrated into multiple education applications.
• Maintaining a role-based hierarchy for administrators, teachers, and students across large-scale deployments.
• Ensuring seamless integration of analytics, telemetry, and AI-powered learning tools.

Our Approach:

GoodWorkLabs worked closely with the EkStep Foundation to build and scale Sunbird’s digital infrastructure through multiple technical and design contributions.

Backend Platform Development -

The team contributed to backend module development within the Sunbird microservices architecture. This ensured the platform could scale efficiently while supporting millions of users and digital learning resources.

Mobile SDK Platforms -

Dedicated mobile SDK platforms were built to enable rapid development of learning applications based on Sunbird infrastructure. These SDKs allowed multiple applications to reuse core platform capabilities efficiently.

UX/UI Design and Storyboarding -

The team contributed to designing intuitive user journeys and user interfaces to ensure that learners, educators, and administrators could interact with the platform easily.

Supporting National Education Platforms -

Sunbird infrastructure powers large-scale educational applications such as DIKSHA, which has achieved tens of millions of downloads and serves millions of students across India.

Key Features:

• Modular Building Blocks Architecture for scalable digital learning platforms
• Digital content creation including audio, video, and ebooks
• Content validation and curation workflows
• Content distribution and consumption systems
• Digital resource and content hubs
• Offline-first learning capabilities for low-connectivity regions
• Telemetry and analytics for monitoring learning engagement
• AI-powered tools such as Sunbird Anuvaad
• Certification and assessment systems
• Role-based user hierarchy for platform management

Our Achievements:

• Contributed to the development of one of the world’s largest open-source digital learning infrastructures.
• Supported platforms serving 180+ million learners across India.
• Helped power national-scale education initiatives including DIKSHA.
• Built reusable mobile SDK platforms enabling multiple learning applications.
• Recognised as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance.
• Enabled scalable digital education access for millions of students in rural India.

Technologies Used:

• Microservices Architecture – Scalable backend platform infrastructure
• Mobile SDK Development – Reusable components for learning applications
• Open Source Technologies – Modular platform development
• AI Tools (Sunbird Anuvaad) – AI-powered translation and learning tools
• Telemetry & Analytics Systems – Monitoring platform usage and engagement