Programs

All programs of the Open Institute are strategically implemented to ensure that the benefits of technology for social and economic advance are usable in Cambodian society.

Khmer Software Initiative, http://www.khmeros.info
This program is the key fundamental and supporting program to all other programs of the Open Institute. This program open doors to computer program localization and development in Cambodia with the vision that language will not be a barrier to access technology, development and learning. The mission of the program is to ensure that local language echnology is available to as many people as possible, and that it is used for cultural, educational and economic growth.

Open Schools Program, http://osp.open.org.kh
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Open Institute jointly implement the Open Schools program with a belief that effective use of ICT can improve the quality of education. The program is committed to ensure the development of all the necessary tools required to improve the quality of education through the use of ICT, including the necessary plans, computer programs in Khmer language, curricula, distance learning methodology, training materials, and technology for sustainability. The Program will also ensure that teachers receive the necessary training and support. A Master Plan and Action Plan of ICT in Education will be one of the key important results of the program.

Women's Empowerment for Social Change,
http://women.open.org.kh

This program aims at improving social and gender equality through advocacy and the promotion of information sharing and communication. This program also creates stronger synergy among the women's organizations and women activists through the open space for sharing and discussing women issues on the Women's Web Portal. Women's Empowerment for Social Change is designed to help women exercise their rights in a balanced way and can build competence to become self-sufficient, with improved women's participation in social, economic and political life, the program also provides capacity building, forum discussions on key women's issues and research on women and ICT.
Open Learning (E-Learning) Program, http://elearning.open.org.kh
This joint program between the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Open Institute aims at building e-learning know-how for staff of higher educational institutions and adult education training centers. We develop a complete resources for e-learning that include high quality e-learning development and management content, reusable technology for e-learning, e-learning training and research on e-learning development progress.

Lexicography
Starting as a project to create electronic tools to support the use of Khmer language (a spell-checker and an electronic dictionary), the project has digitalized all the existing lexicographic resources for Khmer (old dictionaries, etc.), most of them almost lost after the Khmer Rouge genocide. Also, as the reference dictionary for the Khmer language only defines 17.000 of the almost 50.000 current words (without entering
into specific fields), advancement on Khmer Lexicography must go through the writing of definitions for many of these words that still do not have them. This is a long process, but the project has started it, hoping that in a few years, with this and other efforts, it will be possible to write a dictionary of the Khmer language with all 50.000 definitions.
The River of Knowledge
The low qualifications of teachers is one of the strongest barriers to the development of education in Cambodia. The Cambodian Education system was restarted from zero in 1980, after the end of the Khmer Rouge genocide (in which 80% of the teachers were killed), and lived in war until 1993. After the system was restarted, those who knew how to write became teachers. New teachers come out of teacher training centers every year, but their background preparation is low, and they are not able to turn the theoretical classes that they received into practice that their students can profit from. This project uses video, a technology that can be used all over the country, to show teachers how other teachers around the country teach correctly, as examples that they can follow and copy, seeing the practice by themselves, instead of having to image what it should be like, and learning how education can be used to give the students critical thinking and problem solving skills that will help them face life.
Mirror Publication, http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com
The Mirror - an overview of the Khmer language press in English
of all different political orientations, has translations of one daily
article and 10 to 15 headlines from Monday to Saturday, and a weekly
reflective editorial on Sundays, encouraging discussion about society,
culture, and politics, also encouraging communication by posting
Comments.