EDexchange, a project of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) Common Data Services (CDS) Task Force of over 30 institutions and vendors, aims to create a secure network for the exchange of transcripts between US educational institutions. The open source, web service based software EDexchange creates has the potential to be utilized to setup secure networks to exchange education data regionally and locally in many countries.

OSI Approved LicenseEDexchange

Currently, educational data in standard formats is exchanged in the United States and Canada via a mail box method on the SPEEDE Server as a public service.  No service level agreements exist and a mechanism to transfer sensitive data involving a third party is no longer acceptable in an age of high risk data security.

As the technological landscape has evolved significantly over the years, web services standards are now available to enable automated directory lookup and efficient machine-to-machine communication in a highly secure transmission environment.  The Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) Common Data Services (CDS) Task Force looks to maximize the use of this new technology to meet the emerging needs of schools, institutions, states and other service provider organizations to exchange student records, accounts and educational data.

The CDS Task Force, composed of over 30 institutions and vendors, have developed a specification for a network (EDexchange) composed of open source web services clients.  By providing an open source foundation for the network, rapid adoption, standardization, and security via peer review is enabled.  In addition, the open source EDexchange software may be utilized to setup secure networks to exchange education data regionally and locally in many countries.

A web services data exchange network based on open source client software does not currently exist. Higher Education will greatly benefit through the security, speed, and ubiquitous access afforded by the establishment of such a system.

EDexchange provides the open source building blocks necessary to create and maintain a web services network for the secure exchange of education data.

Project Partners

  • Postsecondary Electronic Standards Counsel
  • California Community Colleges
  • California School Information Systems
  • Parchment
  • Credentials
  • ScripSafe
  • ConnectEdu
  • National Student Clearinghouse
  • BC Campus
  • University of Phoenix
  • Xap Corporation

The EdExchange Incubation record and further information is available