John Swope

Welcome! My name is John Swope, and I'm a digital education specialist based in New Hampshire. Most of my work is with the Open EdX^® platform and EdX.org courses. You can view my business website Curricu.me to view samples of my work or my LinkedIn for publications that I've written or am sharing.

My interest in open online education is driven by what I see as a common sense future for what education should be. When I was attending school at New York University it was at the height of the concern around the ballooning cost of college. And I was also one of the many who didn't use much of my chosen degree once I left university. But I have always found ways to keep on learning. The future of education is available and it is life-long, and open courses will play a part in that future.

After spending a few years in technology consulting for pharmaceuticals, I have spent over 10 years working with universities, government, private businesses and individuals on their online learning projects. Over that time, I've run my own Open EdX platforms and supported clients x-blocks, integrations and customizations. I've trained organizations large and small on the system and templates for rapid course development in Open EdX^®. And I've built hundreds of courses across all versions of Open EdX. I love finding ways to leverage the Open EdX^® platform and the greater online learning landscape to solve new challenges in every course I work with. I love designing courses that tell a coherent story, with an aesthetic that feels modern and engaging. I'm a nerd, so I love digging deep into the data that comes out of these courses. Mostly, I love the clients that I get to work with and trying to exceed whatever they originally thought was possible with their online courses.