Table of contents:

Letter from the Executive Director
PEOI's Platform
A- Why PEOI's Platform is needed
B- Outline of major components of PEOI's platform
C- Course development system
C.1 Programs of study
C.2 Course files structure
C.3 Create a course
C.4 Set up project
C.5 Write course contents
C.6 Control of course development completion
D- Student profile
E- Volunteer profile
E.1 New course authors
E.2 IT course development team
E.3 ESL course development team
E.4 Arabic translation team
E.5 Bahasa Indonesia translation team
E.6 Chinese translation team
E.7 French translation team
E.8 German translation team
E.9 Russian translation team
E.10 Spanish translation team
F- Board of directors
G- Financial statements

Letter from the Executive Director

Now that PEOI has been operating for almost five years, its existence is pretty much established. The fact that, although the lack of funding has hampered progress, PEOI has not just existed but made gigantic strides with no funding, its existence is assured for years to come. PEOI has and continues to flourish with the outpour of goodwill from hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers to whom we are much grateful. This annual report proposes to look in detail at how PEOI plans to fulfill its mission of delivering free university education. After all, there are thousands of other educational web sites. What makes PEOI's offering competitive? What assures that the contribution of all these volunteers will not be wasted if PEOI can compete? The answer to these questions lies in the quality of PEOI's course delivery. To understand that, one must look at how PEOI's courses are developed. So, this annual report will be mostly devoted to a description of its course development system.

Our volunteers are repeatedly telling us that their reason for joining PEOI was their view of the importance of making free education available, which is precisely PEOI's mission. So, let us pause for a minute to ask why making university education not just available on the Internet, but available at no charge is worth all these efforts. A century ago, the introduction of universal secondary education transformed most societies on earth. Making secondary education freely available to all brought profound economic, social, demographic and political improvements for all peoples and their countries. Today, no entry to almost any profession is possible without a college diploma. A college education today is as essential as a high school diploma was one hundred years ago. Isn't time to level the playing field?

Yet, only a small proportion (just 25%) of the population in the richest and most advanced countries (such as the United States) receives the university credentials it needs, in spite of an apparent abundance of scholarships and government programs. Even in countries where tuition is supposed to be free (such as Germany or France), the shortage of resources produces hardly better results. The reasons for not attending college are many and varied; but they basically are tied to a misperception of the trade off between future opportunities that are difficult to measure and today's pressing foregone income and tangible and perceived costs. Even with scholarships, students face plenty of expenses and constraints that make it difficult to stay in college unless you are part of an elite minority that perceives going to college as what their families expect from them, and that can pay.

Having true free university courses on anyone's own home computer cuts across all the problems on both supply and demand side. It makes universal post secondary education a real possibility. PEOI is now delivering such education at a cost of $0.06 per student per course per year, or practically nil. The question is then, not whether such free university courses can be offered, but whether, once again, their quality is close to equivalent of traditional courses in class. It is therefore important to understand what is PEOI's model, so as to verify that this model can indeed deliver the level of training it promises. The issue is not just to make knowledge available, as many other web sites than PEOI are already doing this quite well, but to assure effective learning and control the knowledge acquired.

To see this as clearly as possible and to assess the challenge PEOI is facing in offering its teaching on the internet, one must look back at the wide spectrum of learning process in any traditional school context. It includes hearing lectures, taking notes, going over the concepts in a textbook, discussing in class, reading in journals and newspapers, writing assignments, practicing on end of chapter exercises, participating in simulations, enrolling in internships, preparing for exams, and taking all kinds of tests with essay type and/or multiple-choice questions. Online education can't duplicate this. Or can it?

PEOI believes that its model already provides on line the crucial parts of a traditional learning process in class. At the heart of PEOI's model is its educational platform. Pay attention in the description of PEOI's platform below, to the emphasis put on development of review questions, assignments, cases, exercises, examples, links, readings lists and especially the test questions data banks. To be able make studying on PEOI free, all procedures must not require an instructor. The central tool that make this possible is the use of multiple-choice and/or fill-in examinations. The test questions are randomly selected, and each questions is reconstructed so that no test ever looks the same. Student answers are immediately graded, and produce an assessment of knowledge. Although people do not like multiple-choice questions because of their bluntness, PEOI believes that such tests are effective tools and reflect accurately students' level of knowledge. Experience with thousands of students has shown that assessment using multiple choice tests does not deviate significantly from grades obtained from other means of student evaluation such as written or oral examinations.

PEOI does not believe that it has found a perfect solution with the multiple-choice questions test. Advice given to student in the "Students" section and in the Foreword to each course is to take notes while reading chapters, go through review questions and exercise, complete all assignments. PEOI is fully prepared to explore other methods of learning to accommodate all learning styles. For instance, methods of evaluation of written assignments and giving students greater opportunities to interact with volunteer instructors and peers (other than chat-rooms and forums), are improvements which will be sought. PEOI stands ready to explore and to work with any individual or organization on new alternatives. But, as it is argued below, none of the currently existing platforms at any university (MIT and all the others), or even the commercial specifically on line educational platforms (such as University of Phoenix) is not only capable, but even intended to deliver universal education. Their goal is entirely different. It is to assist, support and protect traditional profit generating revenues streams from enrolment in their in-class or distance courses. Even on line courses at community colleges have constraints and requirements, such as purchases of textbook, CD, audio or video, or go to a library for them, which is not acceptable for student who can't pay for them and can't travel to any library.

It is clearly useful that most of PEOI's competition offers for their students to keep up to date on assignments, lecture notes or other courses requirements on line for traditional courses. But that is not what PEOI's model is about. It is not just delivering content, but learning in all its forms possible, including a thorough assessment of knowledge, and without the need to purchasing anything, and without any constraints or conditions. PEOI's platform must deliver everything, and deliver that for free. How that is done is the subject of the following paragraphs. The focus of this report will be on how PEOI's courses are created. Only a few remarks will be offered about the student platform which deserves an entire report of its own, and which will be written some other time. Today PEOI must create its courses.

PEOI is facing big challenges. There are internal challenges in improving its educational platform. And there are external challenges from an entrenched establishment of universities that represent an industry worth trillions of dollars, and that want to make its students, alumni, government agencies and the general public think that they are at the forefront of technology. Governments are more of a hindrance than a help with their complacent attitude, their belief that they do all they can, and their vested interest in financing part of educational establishment that really serves only a privileged minority. But, the bigger are the challenges, the greater the opportunities. Even if PEOI can achieve but a fraction of the universal post secondary education it wants, it will already have a chance of having a transforming effect on society. Thus, it is time for PEOI to call upon all people who share PEOI's belief in the importance of its mission to join in the effort, to mobilize the needed forces, to gather the resources and complete the work started to deliver complete university courses on line free of charge. Together we can do it.

PEOI's Platform

PEOI's platform consists of three major parts for students, faculty and course development, and a few auxiliary parts for partner institutions, employers, donors and PEOI administration. In technical terms, each part includes access HTML pages, a set of SQL tables containing records and a few programs on the server that allow to perform various functions. In total there are 123 SQL data tables, 110 programs and over 50,000 HTML pages as of the end of 2004. While most of the parts are interconnected and use the same programs, each has its own registration and procedures that serve the purpose for which the part was created.

A- Why PEOI platform needed

It is necessary to ask why has PEOI chosen to develop its own platform, rather than use one of the commercially available or free ones. Among the commercial ones, the most notable are Blackboard and WebCT, and among the free ones, Moodle and Caronline. There are also a large number of individual universities, consortia and other organizations that have developed online education to which PEOI could have chosen to join rather build a web site and entire educational platform of its own.

The first reason why commercial platforms were not acceptable is that their use would be contrary to PEOI's concept which is to make its education forever free of charge. Even if the cost of using a commercial platform can be relatively small when amortized of a large number of years, and when compared to other costs such as content development and server cost, the notion of relying on a proprietary technology is unacceptably limiting PEOI's aspirations to strive to be at the forefront of online education development. As observed already, PEOI believes that online learning methodology is in its infancy.

The second basic reason why both commercial and free platforms were found inappropriate for PEOI is that they are conceived around the teacher who puts the material online. That person remains its owner and has therefore full control of what goes into his/her courses. This is contrary to PEOI's approach: PEOI's authors must agree to license their material for use by anyone at no charge and must accept to have others add and co-mingle materials on the same topic. This is done so that PEOI's courses can be forever expandable and updatable. A by-product of this strategy is that courses are developed by flexible and ever changing teams rather single authors. In the team, one can find authors assigned to different parts, reviewers, editors, proofreaders and coordinators or team leaders.

The third reason why the existing platforms were found inadequate is that none of the hundreds of online courses that have been created using these platforms can satisfy the learning mix that PEOI wants to have in its courses. All the platforms do have a variety of learning methods. It is quite conceivable that some day, some of the courses developed on both commercial and free platforms will effective offer the needed mix of reading, exercise and testing that PEOI wants. Most online (i.e. also called distance) courses are correspondence courses with some functions moved onto the Internet, but requiring traditional textbook reading and assignment writing. Although, it is possible that some of the online courses offered today are entirely online, this writer has not seen any, and does not know of anyone that has. The reason why courses developed on the existing platforms are mostly an assemblage of lecture notes, class assignments, test corrections, reading lists and other class related administrative materials, is that the course thus developed are supporting a teacher's course. These courses are never intended to be stand-alone courses.

The fourth reason is that none of the platforms has any control of the completion of a course obviously because each course is entirely the creation of its professor. That is not the case for PEOI's courses. No student can enroll in a PEOI course that is not complete. To be complete, a course must have all the various learning opportunities and especially the questions data bank without which student assessment is not possible.

Essentially, the existing platforms are useful tools to complement existing traditional education produced by one teacher and intended for one course in class or distance. PEOI wants to go beyond the one course, one teacher, one semester constraints.

B- Outline of the major components of PEOI's platform

a)- Students

The student platform is naturally intended for learning and control of knowledge. The student platform is located in the "Programs", "Courses" and "Students" sections on PEOI. There, one finds the following procedures:
- information about programs of studies
- information about courses
- student registration
- enrollment in courses
- access to course content which can be from 30 to 600 pages of text in HTML
- test taking
- course evaluation
- class discussion in forum
- personal grade book
- review of own course evaluation
- list of students
- statistics on students, grades and course evaluations
Anyone can have access to courses and tests without registration, but by registering as student allows grades to be recorded and a certificate of course completion to be awarded if the student completes all the requirements of a course. As mentioned earlier, this part of PEOI's platform is most important, and deserves to be studied in detail some other time.

b)- Faculty

The faculty platform is conceived to assist students in learning and verification of knowledge. The procedures specifically intended for faculty members are located in the "Faculty" section. These are
- registration as faculty member
- enrollment of student in faculty member's course
- grade book of students enrolled with faculty with ability to enter grades
- review of student course evaluations
- conduct of class discussion with students in forum
Faculty members are automatically considered as authors and have direct access to the course development platform.

c)- Course development

The course development platform combines the "Authors", "Support" and "Projects" sections on PEOI. Three types of registrants can be active in this environment: authors (who are also automatically faculty members), staff and board members. The difference between staff and faculty is that members registered as faculty must be prepared to act as instructor and interact with students, whereas staff members are not expected to do so.The course development environment is discussed below.

d)- Partner institutions

The "Partner institutions" section accommodates those institutions who wish to inform PEOI's students of their offering. As of end of 2004, about two dozen partner institutions are registered with PEOI.

e)- Employers

The "Employer" section is intended to give an opportunity for potential employers of PEOI's students to post their help wanted listings and for students to post their CV's that potential employers can view. So far, no employer is registered with PEOI, and PEOI has not actively approached employers for the simple reason that it is believed that PEOI offering is not yet attracting students in large enough numbers and with desirable credentials that can be of sufficient interest to potential employers.

f)- Support

The "Support" section contains a registration procedure for donors. The purpose of the donors' registration is to give donors access to most information and processes on PEOI. No donor has yet registered.

g)- PEOI's administration

The "About us" section contains all the information about strategies, activities, history, financial information of PEOI. It is the section where board members register. Registered board members have access to all the information and procedures that faculty, authors, translators and staff have.

C- Course development System

PEOI's course development system is intended to create PEOI's courses with all their learning functions, evaluation of knowledge and links without or minimum intervention of a webmaster. In other words, any registered PEOI member,can perform all the steps necessary to create a complete course with online procedures and without having to be logged in to PEOI's server.

Although, as just indicated, one author can create an entire course, the course development system is intended to allow any number of individuals to participate in the writing of a course. Most courses are under the supervision of a coordinator. Because of the large number and variety of pages that must be created in a completed course, it is essential to have control over the entire course page construction. This is the reason why a coordinator is always a key person.

Four different (but not entirely separate) processes can be distinguished in PEOI's course development system: create course, set up course project, writing pages and control over project. It is as if several parallel worlds existed within PEOI's course development system. First, there are the HTML pages of the course themselves (which could be placed on the server) . Second, the procedures that give access to those HTML pages, which are described in Write course content pages below. Third, are data banks that keep track of the location, status and progress made in all the HTML pages. Fourth, is a planning and control mechanism that allows to know what still remains undone, who is doing what, when to assign work to members and verify that work is completed. Finally, a fifth level records work done by members and interacts with them.

At the center of these various levels of the system are coordinators who are responsible for planning the work and looking after its completion. Their role is apparent in the Special Guidelines that are present in numerous procedures. Two examples of such guidelines are present below for the "Edit text" and "Edit questions" procedures.

C.1- Programs of study

All courses are developed to be part of programs of study. While PEOI does not now offer degrees, the programs of study are defined and structured specifically to seek accreditation and prepare students for professions.

Each program of study is headed by a dean or a head of program. This person may - but need not - be the coordinator of course development project. The dean or head of program is primarily an academic responsibility and the focus of the work is on the curriculum offered in its totality and the content of individual courses, whereas, the coordinator does not have to be an expert in the subject matter, but a good leader and motivator for its team members.

The programs of study are located in the "Programs" section on PEOI. That section is currently not accessible by students or the general public because it has only recently been voted upon by PEOI's Board of Directors, and writing of the programs has only started.

C.2- Course files structure

There are five types of course files for PEOI courses. (We are talking about files pertaining only to courses and which are other than all operating and administrative files which, for instance, contain faculty and student records for different courses.)

The five types are
1- text course material files which include chapters, chapter sections and subsections, bibliographies, appendixes, review questions, assignments and comments
2- content files that identify and link all other files
3- cases
4- lists of courses, chapters, tables or terms, and indexes
5- questions files

Each type is described further, and methods of accessing the files are explained below. The first three groups are html files, and the last two are mostly text files. Review courses may contain less than one hundred files. Professional courses have more than one thousand files. The minimum number of files a course under construction would have is as few as three (one chapter file, one content file and one questions or assignments file).

In addition, course material files may contain images, sound or video clips, or other supporting material, all of which are highly desirable. Efforts are made to keep the size of all files small enough so that they load quickly. This also allows users to find and access wanted information rapidly. In turn, that explains the presence of a large number of files, and the need to keep track of file contents with the contents files.
With a few exceptions, most files are smaller than 24 KB and shorter than 10 pages (including all html tags and scripts, but excluding images, sound or video clips). Consequently, chapters of professional courses are split into sections and sub-sections. Files containing tables with data can be especially large as a result of html required lay-out. Insertion of images, graphs, tables, audio and video clips is strongly recommended to bring the material to life and retain reader's attention. They obviously need a lot of space. However, they are not physically present in text files, and are accessed as attachments. Anyone familiar with html must know that an image format should preferably be PGN or GIF, and that graphs and tables can be imported (by copy and paste) directly from a spreadsheet. However, such work is best left to PEOI staff

To make tests as useful as possible for learning (as well as for assessment), questions files have a special structure that is intended to accommodate a variety of types of questions, with graphs or tables as supporting material wherever appropriate, and links for immediate access to explanations whenever a question is not answered correctly in a quiz.

For that purpose, each question contains a number of parameters, in addition to the text of the question itself. Some of the parameters can be modified by authors. Modifiable parameters are
- type: it dictates how the question will appear on the screen and how the student will answer it; the types are
0- multiple choice
1- true/false
2- fill-in
3- calculation
4- graph
5- essay
- graph: this is a file name or name(s) of the image(s), graph(s), table(s), audio or video clip(s) on which the question is based (if more than one, they are separated by commas "," without space after commas)
- reference: this is the chapter, section or subsection file name which appears in a separate window in the upper left corner of the screen when a student has not answered a question correctly
- answer: this is one letter in multiple choice questions or one word or sentence for calculation or fill-in questions (if more than one correct answer is possible, they must be separated by commas "," without blank space after commas)
- anchor: this is a name or number corresponding to a location html tag in the course text material where the concept is explained, and it is used to move the text of the chapter or section to where the concept is located to the top of the explanation box discussed in reference above; (without an anchor the explanation window shows the very top of the chapter or section which may not be very helpful to the student)
- concept: this is the title of the concept on which the question is based; it appears on the bottom of the screen after a question has been answered by a student
In addition to the modifiable parameters, the Edit questions PEOI procedure generates a few non-modifiable parameters for each question. These include the date the question is last changed and the registered code name of the faculty entering the changes to the question. As previously mentioned the changes do not take effect until next day.

It is clear that modifying or entering parameters can be challenging for anyone. Assistance of PEOI staff is recommended. It is expected that entering parameters should not be an important part of the tasks of authors. Writing the text of questions ought to be. This requires no knowledge of html at all. Only the following few guidelines should be followed.

For multiple choice questions, each possible answer must be preceded by a capital letter (A, B, C, D, E or F) followed by a dash "-" and a space, the type box must contain 0, and the answer box must contain the capital letter corresponding to the correct answer. True or false questions are processed as multiple choice questions, but for consistency sake it is recommended that they start with True/false and the possible answers be:
A- true
B- false
C- no valid answer
True or false questions must have 1 in the type box and the letter corresponding to the correct answer in the answer box.

Fill-in questions can be written with a missing word marked by underlined spaces "_" (with a suggestion of using as many spaces as there are letters in the missing correct word or words), or it can be written in the form of a question without any actual space to fill. In both cases the student will have to type in his/her answer in a separate box. For fill-in questions, the author should enter 2 in the type box and the correct answer or answers which, as mentioned above, should be separated by commas with no space after the commas (the answer itself can nevertheless contain spaces). (Note that the test procedure will count answers as correct whether written in singular or plural, with or without currency sign, but not with articles preceding them.)

Calculation questions are processed as either multiple choice (with A-, B-, C- or D- answers) or fill-in depending on how they are written. If they are written as multiple choice, the answer box must contain the capital letter corresponding to the correct answer. If they are written as fill-in, the answer must be a numerical value of the correct answer. Note that if the answer is a number that exceeds 1,000 it should be written without commas (e.g. $2,432,611 should be written as 2432611). Currency signs (such as $) are acceptable, but generally not necessary. The type box must contain 3.

Graph questions can give the choice of up to four graphs or images to be offered as possible answers. Following the text of the question, the possible answers contain nothing but the capital letters followed by a dash "-" (i.e. A-, B-, C- or D-). As for multiple choice and true or false questions, the answer box must have the capital letter of the correct answer. The graph box must contain the name of the graph or image files separated by a commas with no space after the commas. The type box must have the digit 4. (Note that multiple choice, true or false and fill-in questions may be based on a graph, image, audio, video or portion of text which appears in a window in the upper left corner of the screen when a question is asked, but in this case these questions are not graph questions.)

Essay questions contain text only and nothing in the answer box. The type is 5. These questions are not answered by students in a quiz. They can be present for review purpose.

In the text area of any of the questions, in addition to the text of the questions itself, short explanations can be entered by an author below the question itself and the possible answers, if any. If the explanations are to appear only after student's answer, the first character on the first line of the explanation (i.e. below the text and answers) should be a close square bracket "]". Then, the explanation will appear in a special window at the bottom of a student's screen just below the title of the concept only after the student answers the question. Such explanation can be most appropriate for giving the solution to a calculation question. If, on the contrary, the explanation are necessary to understand the question itself (such as in the case of definitions of variables in an equation, for instance), then the explanation need not have the bracket. Note that in that second case, the explanation will appear to the student in the box together with the question and its lay out is not html but exactly as written.

To assist in writing questions and especially in entering the correct anchor, a list of anchors is shown and the entire text of the chapter, section or subsection appears below the question editing box. The anchor is highlighted in the text with bold and underlined fonts.

C.3- Create a course

The process of creating a course does not start with the writing of the course content but with entering all the necessary information about the course in PEOI's course data bank. This is done in the "Propose Course" procedure for which the guidelines are presented below. Some of the information is used to create and control the course files structure. Another portion of the information is intended for students in their selection of courses in which to enroll.

The person who is most likely to propose courses is the dean of the program of study in which the course will be included. The dean may also appoint an author for the course, or authors can choose to participate on the development of a course by choosing tasks in the "Select tasks" procedure which is discussed later. In either case, the names of all authors must be listed in the Foreword of the course and present in the copyright claim on the page to which they contributed.

Propose courseThe purpose of this procedure is to enter a new course into PEOI's course data bank, or to edit the entries made for an existing course. For instance, as the work on a course progresses, its status needs to be changed, and that is the procedure to use to do that. To propose an entirely new course click on the "New course" button. To access a course that already exists, you must first list it by- changing "Language" to the language in which the course will be or has been written, - changing the status of the course you want to create or retrieve, and/or - changing the field of studies.For an existing course click on the line number (in yellow) to bring up its entries.The settings for the selected course appear in a form which allows to change most of them. The first set of 11 settings is crucial as they will be used for the creation of the course file structure. The nine settings in the bottom part of the form are less critical, as they are mostly intended as information for students and the general public. Here is the meaning of each of the entry: 1- Language: it is the language in which the course is written. 2- Discipline: it is the field or program of studies to which the course belongs. This is a required setting. If no alternative seems to match the proposed course, please contact the webmaster with a suggestion for a new discipline to be added to the list. You may also enter the new discipline using the Edit procedures procedure in the "Projects" section, but it is wise to check with the webmaster in all such cases. 3- Title: it is the full official title of the course. 4- Code: this a short title for the course that is used for listing the course in its program of studies and as the name of the access page to the course. This code is compose of three elements a) the two letter designation of the discipline (e.g. AC for accounting), a three digit number reflective of the level of the course (100 fundamental, 200 and 300 intermediate, 400 and above advanced courses) and should not be identical to any previously used number for courses in the discipline, and a two letter designation of the language (e.g. EN for English). 5- Directory: it is the name that will be given to the directory or folder in which all the files of the course will be located. It is advisable to use a name that is short and made of only small letters with no blank space or special characters. Keep in mind that the names used in PEOI's server which runs on Linux, are much more specific than the Windows world where it does not matter if a name is in upper or lower cases and has special characters. 6- chapter file name: this is the name that all the files of the course will bear with the addition of chapter number and section letter and/or number. It is strongly advised once again to keep the name short, in lower case letter only without any blank space or special character. It is perfectly acceptable to use the same chapter file name as the one used for directory. 7- question file name: this is the name of that will be given to all test questions files with addition of a chapter number and section letter. The same advice applies to this name. Since these files are located in a separate folder called Questions and there can never be confusion between chapter files and questions files, it is perfectly acceptable - and has been the practice for naming questions file for all the courses so far - to use the same name for the questions files as for chapter file, but change the first character to an upper case letter. 8- Status: this determines whether students or faculty have access to the course. The following meaning is assigned to the alternatives: - Completed: all files of the course are ready for student use. - Proofreading: editing and proofreading of the course is ongoing. - Translation: a completed course is being translated. - Text ready: the text of all files of the course has been written and awaits editing. - Under construction: text for the course files is being entered. - Files set up: the course files structure has been created. - Author assigned: the name(s) of one or several authors has(ve) been recorded for the course. - Listed: all the settings of the proposed course have been entered and approved. - Proposed: the course name and code have been entered, and the course appears as part of the program of studies. - 9- Date completed: this is the date the course is first made available for student enrolment. 10- Level: the level of the course indicates the format of content and method of learning for which it is intended. The alternatives are: professional, fundamental, research, vocational, study guide, handouts, lectures, lesson plan, outline, links. Generally, only professional and fundamental courses are available for student enrolment. Courses initially proposed are set as fundamental. The difference between fundamental and professional is very significant for the course files structure. Fundamental courses will have only one HTML page per chapter (no matter how long the page may be), whereas professional courses have their chapters broken down with pages for each section of a chapter. Generally, professional courses are expected to be at a much higher level of detail and intensity of knowledge, and with data banks of exercise, assignments and questions much larger than fundamental courses. 11- Chapters: the number of chapters is absolutely critical and must be accurate because the course files structure will be created based on that number. It is not just the number of files that is affected, but the links between the various files. 12- Date started: it is usually the date the course is first proposed. 13- Length of course: it is the number of weeks of normal classroom teaching for such course. For fundamental courses it can be from 4 to 13 weeks. For professional courses it is usually 13 to 26 weeks. 14- Starting date of course: it is the date the course will next be first offered, if such a date exists. This is important for courses that require synchronous interaction with instructor and/or peers. When courses are first proposed, the starting date is set to "Anytime". 15- Ending date of course: same as for the previous entry. 16- Prerequisites: this is the course(s) that a student must have completed before attempting to enroll the the proposed course. Professional courses will usually have prerequisites, and fundamental courses often not. 17- Enrolment fee: self explanatory; at present no PEOI course has an enrolment fee. 18- Surcharge: this an additional fee required in special circumstances; no PEOI course has one. 19- Proposed: this is the name of the individual who first proposed the course. This is likely to be a head of department or dean. The name entered automatically is the one of the person who is logged in when the procedure is opened. That name can be changed by selecting from the menus for faculty, staff and board member. 20- Author: this is the name of the individual who will be writing the course if it is known. The name entered automatically is the one of the person who is logged in when the procedure is opened. That name can be changed by selecting from the menus for faculty, staff and board member. Once all the entries have been completed, click on the "Save" button. The course will not appear in listings until its settings have been verified by the webmaster and cleared. As mentioned above, the setting for directory, file names and number of chapters are especially critical and need to be accurate. For all the other entries, it is always possible to make changes later.

The following are the guidelines for using the "Set up files" procedure.

List chapters and set up course files structureThe purpose of this procedure is to enter the titles of chapters and sections for a new course and to create the course files structure based on the settings recorded for the course in the Propose course procedure. This means that this procedure can only be used for a course which settings have been entered and verified.It is necessary to list the desired course first to access it. This is done by- changing "Language" to the language in which the course will be or has been written, - changing the status of the course you want to retrieve, and/or - changing the field of studies.Once the course is listed, click on the line number (in yellow) to bring up its entries.The setting for the selected course will appear at the top of a form so that if any of the settings are incorrect, it(they) can be changed before creating the course files structure. The form contains two lists of entries, each with exactly the number of chapters originally set for the course. Enter in the list on the left the full title of each chapter. Enter in the list on the right, an abbreviated title for each chapter using an underline character "_" between words to merge these abbreviations into one word each. Whereas the full title of the chapter will go into the HTML page of that chapter, the abbreviations will appear in the list of course content on the left of the screen when the chapters are displayed. Once the chapter names and abbreviations are entered, click on the "Save" button (all the way to the right). This will create a file containing the needed information for creating the course file structure. This file can be retrieve later by clicking on "from temp file". After checking the list of chapters and making any final changes if necessary, the course file structure is created by clicking on the button "Set up files". This will create four folders for a fundamental course: - one course folder in the selected language folder, and in that folder three folders each for - "questions" which will contain all the test questions files, - "Resources" which will contain all images, audio and video, - "temp" which will contain all temporary files, and six folders for a professional course by adding in the course folder - "ch" which will have all the chapter and section files - "contents" which will have all the contents files The following files will be placed in the course folder of a fundamental course: - a chapter list, - an access page with the code name used for the course - a title page for the course - one contents page with links to all the chapter pages - an access page to test questions - a foreword file - four pages for each chapter with the following purpose - one chapter text page - one review questions text page - one assignment text page - one readings text page with all the chapter pages linked to each other and to the foreword page. In a professional course, all the chapter and section pages are placed in the ch folder, and all the contents pages are placed in the contents folder. As for fundamental courses, all the chapter and section courses are linked to each other, and the contents pages are linked to them. While setting up the files, the newly created folders and files are reported on the screen. From now on, the screen showing the lists of chapter titles and abbreviations will also show two additional schedules: one for the the work status of all the chapter text files and one for the test questions files. The color coding for these schedules is explained in the Edit text procedure.Once the course files have been created, they are accessible in all the procedures dealing with them such as Edit text, Edit questions and Create questions. Thereafter, when a course is accessed, the list of chapter names and abbreviations are constructed from the existing files (i.e. not from the temporary file). It is always possible to modify the file structure or add a new chapter. When this is done, a new temporary chapter list is created. When the button "Set up files" is clicked for a course that already has its files, the new files will be placed in the temporary folder instead of the permanent folder. These files can then be moved to the permanent course folder by clicking on "Move to permanent". Once this is done, there will be two chapter list files: one in the permanent folder and one in the temporary folder, and each can be accessed with their respective buttons. Naturally, care must be exercised when changing an existing file structure, as files that already contain text are likely to be overwritten in the process. Assistance from the webmaster is recommended in these situations. When appendixes are to be created, contact the webmaster.

C.4 Set up project

This is the central planning and control mechanism in PEOI's course development system. The "Projects" section contains all the procedures designed for creating and dealing with projects. This section is not accessible to the general public because only registered faculty, staff or board members can use these procedures. These procedures deal indeed with sensitive information, and there would be a serious security risk if any outsider could have access to this information.

The central procedure is "Set up project", which defines the activity to be performed, the location of the material to be handled, the qualifications of members, and various other parameters such as when the project is to be started and completed, and the duration of the project, if any. At present there close to one hundred ongoing projects at PEOI. Almost all PEOI activity is in fact planned and listed in projects. There are about a dozen and a half different types of projects, of which developing a new course is just one. If a new project does not fit into the existing classification of projects, a new project type can be created with the "Edit project names" procedure which also assigns a set of parameters to the new project type.

The major purpose of the "Set up project" procedure is to define and create tasks for the newly created project. For a new course to be written or translated, the procedure will produce one task for each page, with the possibility of more than one task for per page in the case of course content that requires considerable audio, graphic or statistical work. In addition, tasks for proofreading, peer review and editing are also created for each new course. The member who set up the project tasks can also create additional tasks beyond those set up automatically. Advanced courses can have projects with well over one hundred tasks.

There are at present approximately 30 different types of tasks, and more types can be created in the "Edit procedures" procedure. Each task defined by the project to which it belongs, the language of work, the material to be handled, the location of that material, the estimated duration of the work, the qualifications required, and the starting and ending date if any. Some task are classified as ongoing and have no ending date.

Prior to the installation of the projects and tasks mechanism, it was impossible to know what any member was doing and the stage of completion of this work.

C.5 Writing course content pages

Developing course content is performed with a set of procedures located in the "Authors" section on PEOI but not all are visible to the general public. They are, in particular, "Edit text", "Edit cases", "Edit questions", "Create questions", "Upload images" and "Upload audio". The purpose and functioning of these procedures is fully described in the procedure guidelines appearing below.

One aspect that these guidelines do not touch upon is the contractual basis of all members' work contribution at PEOI. This is specified in the "Educational Material Universal Common License" (EMUCL) which appears in the access page of the "Edit text" procedure. Each member that chooses to contribute to PEOI's course development must agree to the EMUCL by click on the "Agree" button. The EMUCL essentially provides that the member grants PEOI a license to use the material contributed for non-commercial purposes as long as proper recognition of the contributing member, and in turn, the member guarantees that the material contributed is original.

Write, edit or translate text To use the Edit text procedure, you must first go through the following three steps.First, change "Language of work" to the language in which you will be writing if it is not the one shown. Second, click on "Course" for the course you will be working on. This will open the text section of the first chapter of the course selected. Third, choose the chapter and the type of section (text, assignments, questions, or other), then click on "Section". The screen is divided in several parts:- the upper part identifies the material selected and allows to move to another selection;- right below it, is the TEXTAREA where the raw HTML page of the material selected is shown, and that is where all the writing, editing or translating work is to be performed; when the procedure is used for translation, there may be a shaded box with the original text to the right of the TEXTAREA; just below the TEXTAREA several buttons are presented to perform different steps;- below the yellow shaded area, a box presents the same material as in the TEXTAREA, but in the way that it appears to students in their browsers, except that the links do not function;- a schedule shows the ID numbers of those who worked on the different sections of the course; a color scheme is used in the schedule to indicate who performed work and what type of work it is: - the number of the member is shown in a yellow button if he/she is registered as faculty, orange button if he/she is registered as staff, and purple button if it a board member; - white background if there is no page of that type of section in this courses; - light yellow background if the page exists; - pink background if the volunteer has chosen this page as a task, but has not yet worked on it; - grey background if the volunteer has added or corrected material in the page; - blue background if the volunteer has clicked on the button to "Notify works completed"; - black background if work on this page is completed and the page has been moved to the permanent folder; (note that records may not be up-to-date for all the work done, especially for materials which were not inserted using one of PEOI's procedure, and it may take some time for all the work to be properly shown in the schedule); - at the very bottom of the screen, these explanations are offered;- in between these parts, various small messages may appear to indicate the actual name of the file retrieved or the name of the person who last worked on the material selected. As previously indicated, all the work to be performed is in the TEXTAREA. It is advisable not to erase, change or damage the HTML tags, unless you are already accustomed to writing HTML pages. It is possible to copy and paste any portion of the material in the TEXTAREA. But the material pasted must be in text format with line breaks. Pasting material copied directly from a word processor is likely to result in a corrupted file and an error message. In most word processors a choice is given for the format in which the file is to be saved, and you must choose a plain text format with line breaks. It is advisable to paste only one short paragraph at a time in between the <P> and </P> tags, and save each time.Naturally, if you know how to use an HTML editor, you can configure the layout of the material as you see fit. But, keep in mind that some HTML editors insert overhead that can be substantial, even several times the size of the actual text present there. This overhead must be removed. If you are using a Microsoft editor, please download a free utility from Microsoft called HTML filter 2.0. This filter is extremely simple to use, and saves a lot of space and time. Once you have finished writing all the material in the section you are working on, click on the button "Notify work completed". Please do that only when you are indeed sure that all the work has been completed.

Special Guidelines for Coordinators in Write, edit or translate text For coordinators, an additional menu appears. It contains the names of all the members in his/her group. The menu allows the coordinator to change the volunteer whose data appears in this procedure. At the top of the screen, the volunteer's name will appear after yours showing that you opened the procedure and work in the procedure on behalf of the chosen group member. Coordinators can see several additional pieces of information about the page such as the names of volunteers who recently worked on the page. Most importantly, coordinators can perform several important steps: - edit the pages and save it in their own name or on behalf of a group member (note that saving a page on behalf of a group member may be necessary if the work had not been previously recorded and attributed to the group member who performed it); - move the page to the permanent folder, which also deletes the temporary file; - delete the temporary file without moving the page to the permanent folder. When a coordinator is notified that the work on a page has been completed, he/she should use this procedure to - add the name(s) of the group member(s) who should be included as translator(s) or co-author(s) in the copyright attribution; - use the "Move to permanent folder" feature. Once the "Move to permanent folder" step is taken, the work on the page is considered completed, and the task will be reflected as such by appearing with a black background. However, it is always possible to override the completed task setting and assign the task anew for instance for expansion or editing of the page. Moreover, the Edit text procedure has access to all the pages of all the courses on PEOI, and work can be performed irrespective of any task assignment. As can be apparent from the above, the schedule of work should be a major tool for coordinators to keep track of the progress made in every course. The goal is to have all the sections of every chapter appearing in black.

Write, edit or translate questions These questions are test questions which are retrieved randomly when a student takes a test. They differ significantly from the practice questions in their format (although, naturally, they cover the same material and may even contain identical wording). Whereas practice question are plain HTML pages, test questions files are text files with very rigid parameters. The reason for the rigid structure is that each multiple-choice question is restructured each time it is used. Also, for fill-in type questions and for calculation questions, this permits more than one possible answer whenever that is necessary. Finally, there are graphic questions that are also rearranged so that no test looks the same as another, and no student will almost never take an identical test twice. Because of the rigid structure of the questions file, care must be used to keep lines in the multiple-choice questions in the order and format they first appear. Especially, it is of utmost importance to have a line break at the end of each line. The full screen of the Edit questions procedure is divided in several parts:- the upper part identifies the material selected and allows to move to another selection; buttons are present in this part to show the corresponding question in English (if the text is a translation of an English question) or to show the entire questions file instead of the text of the chapter; this part also offers the possibility to change the question type, graph, answer, anchor and concept, which in most cases you should NOT change;- right below it, is the TEXTAREA where appears the plain text of the question selected, and that is where all the writing, editing or translating work is to be performed; just below the TEXTAREA several buttons are presented to perform different steps;- below the yellow shaded area, a box presents the text of the chapter to which the questions pertain, with the anchors appearing in red and a highlight on the anchor for the question shown; note that the text appears as it will for students in their browsers, except that the images are missing and the links do not function;- a schedule shows the ID numbers of those who worked on the different questions files for that course;a color scheme is used in the schedule to indicate who performed work and what type of work it is: - the number of the volunteer is shown in a yellow button if he/she is registered as faculty, orange button if he/she is registered as staff, and purple button if it a board member; - white background if there is no page of that type of section in this courses; - light yellow background if the page exists; - pink background if the volunteer has chosen this page as a task, but has not yet worked on it; - grey background if the volunteer has added or corrected material in the page; - blue background if the volunteer has clicked on the button to "Notify works completed"; - black background if work on this page is completed and the page has been moved to the permanent folder; (note that records may not be up-to-date for all the work done, especially for materials which were not inserted using one pf PEOI's procedure, and it may take some time for all the work to be properly shown in the schedule); - at the very bottom of the screen, these explanations are provided;- in between these parts, various small messages may appear to indicate the actual name of the file saved or retrieved, the name of the person to whom the corresponding task is assigned or who last worked on the material selected, and a list of anchors not matching in the text (if any). To use the Edit questions procedure, there are several steps to follow. First, change Language of work to the language in which you will be writing if it is not the one shown. Second, click on course for the course you will be working on. This will open the first question of the first chapter of the course selected. Third, click on Chapter for the chapter wanted.Fourth, write, edit or translate the text in the TEXTAREA keeping in mind the recommendations indicated above; verify that the answer shown in the answer box is correct and that the anchor and concept match.Fifth, save the question,Sixth, after all questions have are done, click on "Notify work completed".As previously indicated, all the work to be performed is in the TEXTAREA. It is advisable not to erase or damage the structure of the question. It is possible to copy and paste any portion of the question in the TEXTAREA. But the material pasted must be in text format with line breaks. Pasting material copied directly from a word processor in another format than plain text is likely to result in a corrupted file and an error message. Warning: Please note that the procedure is believed to contain at least one bug. Some users have reported that a portion or the entire file can be deleted occasionally. This has occurred when a totally empty question appears on the screen, and the user clicks on "Save". Normally, no empty question should ever appear. If it does appear, please, report that to the webmaster immediately indicating with as much detail as possible what steps you took that led to the appearance of an empty question. In any case, please do not save a file in such situation.

Special Guidelines for Coordinators in Write, edit or translate text For coordinators, an additional menu appears. It contains the names of all the members in his/her group. The menu allow the coordinator to change the volunteer whose data appears in this procedure. At the top of the screen, the volunteer's name will appear after yours showing that you opened the procedure and work in the procedure on behalf of the chosen group member. Coordinators can see several additional pieces of information about the page such as the names of volunteers who last worked on the page. Most importantly, coordinators can perform several important steps: - edit questions and save them on behalf of a group member (note that saving a page on behalf of a group member may be necessary if the work had not been previously recorded and attributed to the group member who performed it) or in their own name; - move the questions file to the permanent folder, which also deletes the temporary file; - delete the temporary file without moving the questions file. When a coordinator is notified that the work on a questions file has been completed, he/she should use the "Move to permanent folder" feature. Once the "Move to permanent folder" step is taken, the work on the questions file is considered completed, and the task will be reflected as such by appearing with a black background in the schedule of work. In addition, it is recommended that the name of the group member who worked on these questions be entered in the Foreword as one of the contributors to the course. It is always possible to override the completed task setting and assign the task anew, for instance, for expansion or editing purposes. Moreover, the Edit questions procedure has access to all the test questions of all the courses on PEOI, and work can be performed irrespective of any task assignment. As can be apparent from the above, the schedule of work should be a major tool for coordinators to keep track of the progress made in every course. The goal is to have all the sections of every chapter appearing in black.

Pay attention in the guidelines below to the importance of anchors and links in the course files structure of PEOI's courses. The purpose is naturally to provide an immediate explanation to students who fail to answer questions correctly in all tests.

Anchors in chapter and links in questions file This procedure allows several operations: - inserting anchors into the text of chapter pages, - placing into a review (or practice) questions file 1- one link for each anchors in the chapter text pages, 2- one question number that corresponds to the chapter anchor (and only to that anchor), 3- one anchor for that question in the questions file, to which a link can be created in the text of the chapter or any other page, 4- the sentence or sentences immediately following the anchor in the chapter text, which is intended to help write the question, and which appears in the TEXTAREA, but which is hidden when in that page is viewed by a student, - writing the review questions - adding new anchors to a chapter text which already has anchors - inserting new links and questions corresponding to new anchors in the proper location in sequence of questions in the questions file (but, the number of that question will be the highest number in the questions file, and the question numbers will appear to be out of sequence; that is why it is important to work on a chapter text that is not expect to be subject to additions) - creating test questions using the questions written in the review (or practice) questions file Setting up anchors in chapter text file and links in questions file: There are five steps to this process. First, change language, course and chapter to display the text of the chapter for which the questions will be written.Second, copy the proposed marker (as shown, or changed if needed), and paste the marker in front of each concept (i.e. not at the end of a line) of the chapter text in the TEXTAREA; then click on button " Save change(s)." Third, when the file comes back the markers will appear in blue in the text at the bottom of the screen; you may paste more markers in the TEXTAREA and click on "Save change(s)" again, or, if no more markers are needed, click on button " Insert anchors." Note that you can always put in additional markers later, and go through the process again, but that may create complications noted below.Fourth, when the chapter text file comes back with new anchors appearing in red in the text at the bottom of the screen, you may verify that they have been correctly placed, and make changes if needed. Then, click on button "Set up questions file." Note that the procedure handles fundamental courses, those with one HTML page per chapter, differently from advanced courses, those in which chapters are subdivided into several sections. For advanced courses, the questions from all the sections in the chapters are placed into just one single practice questions file.Fifth and last step, when the questions file is shown with all the new links in the TEXTAREA, inspect it, and if defective, return to previous step; if OK, click on button "Save questions file".As indicated above, once the questions file is created, you can write the questions themselves into it with this procedure by clicking on "Write questions" (or you can use the Edit text procedure"). After all the practice questions are written, a test questions file can be created by clicking on "Create test questions". Writing review questions:You can write questions into a review questions file by clicking on "Write practice questions", if the review questions file appears on the screen. This will place the review questions file in the TEXTAREA and the text of the chapter in a box below with all the anchors shown in red. This is intended to make it easier to recognize why each anchor was placed, and what question was planned for the concept involved. It is possible to write any number of questions for a given anchor or concept: just copy and paste the lines (which can be anywhere from three to seven) of the question involved. It is recommended to add a second digit or character to the question number (such as 1.1 or 1b for the second question 1). As noted above, advance courses have the questions of all the sections of a chapter mixed together in the practice questions file, and to make the proper section to appear it must be selected when clicking on the button "Write practice questions." When you have finished writing all the review questions, do not forget to click on the button "Notify work completed". If you are not satisfied with the review questions file you can delete it by clicking on the "Remove" button and start over again with the chapter text file (see step four below). Be careful with the Remove button because clicking on it will delete ALL the questions you might have written. However, the new questions file will have new question numbers that will not be out of sequence as a result of questions added to an existing review questions file. The anchors in the underlying chapter text are affected by the deletion of a questions file. Creating a test questions file:A test questions file can be created by clicking on "Create test questions" if a review questions file has already been written, and if the file appears on the screen. One multiple-choice question, one true/false question and one fill-in type question are then created for every practice question. Note that creating test questions from a review questions file which has not been fully written and carefully edited, will result in considerable extra work. It is strongly recommended to go through this process only after you are sure the review questions file is completely finished.

Upload image procedure The Upload image procedure is used to place graphic images in the Resources folder of the course where it will used. For the image to appear in pages of the course the appropriate HTML tags must be placed in the page, which can be performed with the Edit text procedure. As indicate there, the tag must be of the form: <IMG SRC=\"xxxx.xxx\"> where xxxx.xxx is the name you give to the image when you upload it with this procedure. One of the purposes of this procedure is to create and maintain a record of the images available in a course, who uploaded it, who is it copyrighted to, the date it was first uploaded and its size. This information is used to show the list of images available when writing text, questions or assignments in the Edit text procedure, or questions in the Edit questions procedure. To use the Upload image procedure, you must first go through the following three steps.First, change "Language of work" to the language in which you will be writing if it is not the one shown. Second, click on "Course" for the course you will be working on. Third, click on "Chapter" for the chapter in which the image will be used. The complete upload image screen is divided in several parts:- the upper part gives the details of the image to upload or as recorded in SQL tables; below the information are buttons of what to do with the information (save, remove or upload); - below the detail information, a box presents the image itself;- the middle part identifies the material selected and allows to move to another selection;- at the very bottom of the screen, a schedule shows summary information for all the images pertaining to the course;- in between these parts, various small messages may appear to indicate the actual name of the file retrieved or the name of the person who last worked on the material selected.

Upload audio procedure The Upload audio procedure is used to place audio clips in the Resources folder of the course where it will used. For the audio clip to be present in pages of the intended course the appropriate HTML tags must be placed in the desired page. This can be performed with the Edit text procedure. As indicated there, the tag must be of the form: <A HREF=\"xxxx.yyy\">, where xxxx is the name you give to the audio and yyy is the file format when you upload it with this procedure. Currently, the file formats that can be uploaded are .wav and .mp3. Another purpose of this procedure is to create and maintain a record of all audio clips available in a course, who uploaded each, who is the copyright holder (if any, if no one place "no"), the date the audio clip was first uploaded, the chapter for which it is intended and its size. This information is used to show the list of audio clips available when writing text, review questions or assignments with the Edit text procedure, or test questions with the Edit questions procedure. To use the Upload audio clip procedure, you must first go through the following three steps.First, change "Language of work" to the language in which you will be writing if it is not the one shown. Second, click on "Course" for the course you will be working on. Third, click on "Chapter" for the chapter in which the audio clip will be used.Fourth, click on "Upload new audio". This will bring up a form with most of the entries filled out except copyright which is the name of the copyright holder if any, or no, and the source file which you type in or use "Browser" to find it on your computer.Fifth, click on "Upload now". A dialogue box will open giving you the opportunity to verify that the entries are correct, if not click on "Cancel". The uploading uses a PHP on the server, which places the audio file in the designated folder and records the information about the audio file in audio records.Sixth, once the audio file in uploaded a form opens on the screen showing all the details pertaining to the audio file, and gives you the opportunity to change them as needed or remove it entirely. Below the form, a link appears to the audio file to allow verification of how the saved audio file on the server will be retrieved by students. The details of any other audio file in the roster which appears below, can be brought up by clicking on the line number in yellow.The complete upload audio clip screen is divided in several parts:- the upper part gives the details of the audio clip to upload (that is, as recorded in SQL tables); below the information are buttons for what to do with the information (save, remove or upload); - the middle part identifies the material selected and allows to move to another selection;- at the very bottom of the screen, a schedule shows summary information for all the audio clips pertaining to the course;- in between these parts, various small messages may appear to indicate the actual name of the file retrieved or the name of the person who last worked on the material selected.

C6- Control over completion of course development and member work

The control mechanism over completion of all projects is present in information all members see whenever they log in. Their "My account" screen has six parts: "My registration", "My profile", "My work", "Select my tasks", "My group" and "My discussions". The "My work" screen shows the tasks the member is assigned, the work that has been completed on them, other work performed and the dates and times he/she has logged in on PEOI. The "Select my tasks" screen shows all the projects for which the member is qualified. There can be any number of projects, and since each project has a large number of tasks, the list can be quite long. Not all tasks are naturally of interest to any single member. The member can select any project in the menu, and see all the tasks for that project.

The purpose of showing all the tasks is to allow each registered member to see the stage of completion of every project. The same color scheme described in guidelines above is used in this schedule: each task bears a color
- light green means the task is not yet assigned or handled by anyone,
- pink means the task is assigned, the name of the person should appear in the "Assigned" column, as well as a date in the "deadline" column for that line,
- grey means that the someone has started working on the task, and a name of a person should appear in the "Work" column for that line,
- blue means that work is completed, the coordinator and webmaster have been notified, and the name of the member should appear in the "Work" column for that line,
- black means that the completed work has been verified, approved and moved to the
permanent location of that material, the name of the member also appears in the "Work" column.

Note that only the name of the last person who worked on the task appears. There may be more than one person completing the task, and their names will be present in the detail of the task and on the copyright claim on the page itself. The deadline date is only indicative and can be changed at will by the member him/herself or the coordinator for that project. Tasks for which missed deadlines are not changed are put back in the unassigned task group. The deadline allows to keep all concerned informed of task availability and completion stage.

F- Board of Directors

Currently, PEOI board of directors consists of the following 25 members:
1- MANNAVA RAMANA BABU from Indai, Employment Officer at India Dept of Labour, board member since March 2005
2- Kenneth Barden from USA living in Republic of Palau, attorney, board member since July 2003
3- Rinku Bhattacharya, DBA, from India living in Valhala, NY, USA, Hunter College Adjunct Professor-Accounting and Management, board member since July 2004
4- Mihai Caramihai from Bucharest, Romania, Ph.D., executive director Biotechnology Research of Education Ministry, board member since March 2004
5- Ndeye Diagne,Ph.D. Physics, from Silver Springs, MD, USA, Math Dept Chair, Washington Techonlogy High School, board member since March 2005
6- Johannes Glas from Zurich, Switzerland, project manager SAP, board member since March 2004
7- Cauvery Sachdeva Handa from India living in Bartlett, TN, USA, graphic and web designer, board member since July 2004
8- Jeanne M. Henry from Terre Haute, MI, USA, clinical consultant and psychological counsellor, board member since March 2003
9- carol Hosay from San Francisco, CA, USA, Kaiser Foundation training consultant, board member since July 2004
10- Vivek Jamwal from Singapore, IT supevisor National Computer Systems, board member since March 2005
11- anohar john from Trivandrum, India, non-profit management specialist, board member since July 2004
12- John Lambert from St. Rose, LA, USA, Southeastern Louisiana University lecturer, board member since November 2004 (Note: resigned April 2005)
13- Carol Law from Brampton, Ontario, Members Services Manager, Parr + Associates Management Services, board member since November 2004
14- Poi Kee Frederick Low from Singapore, Programme Coordinator, TRANS Family Service Centre, board member since July 2003
15- Nizam Sulaiman Saad Mryan from Jordan, Head of Health & Safety for Government of Dubai, board member since March 2005
16- Michael Palmer from Ireland, Premier Conferencing Operations Director , board member since March 2005
17- John Petroff from Conesville, NY, USA, retired professor of finance and economics, board member since March 2001
18- Guilherme Rodrigues from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Motivo&Acao Research Institute marketing research specialist , board member since July 2004
19- Romina Sengara from New York, NY, IT Business Consultant, board member since November 2002
20- Peter Short from Western Australia now working in Fiji, Program Manager, Fiji Education Sector Program, board member since November 2004
21- Stacy Speidel from Rochester, NY, USA recruitment and IT specialist, A+ Consulting, board member since November 2003
22- Nazim Syed from Dammam Saudi Arabia, Budget-Rent-a-car Account Manager, board member since November 2004
23- Maree Weir from Sydney, Australia, training and ESL, Australian Defence Organization, board member since November 2003
24- Peter Wells from UK living in Bucharest, Romania, UNESCO Program Manager, board member since July 2004
25- Abidin Yildirim from Turkey, Instructor (Computer and Electronics) UAB, AL, USA, board member since March 2004

G- Financial Statements