openDesk Edu
~2 min readArchive notice
openDesk Edu 🎓
An open-source extension of openDesk Community Edition that adds educational services to the sovereign workplace stack — designed specifically for universities and educational institutions.
What's Added
openDesk Edu integrates learning management systems, video conferencing, and collaboration tools into the existing openDesk ecosystem:
Learning Management
- ILIAS - Full-featured LMS with SAML SSO for courses, assessments, and forums
- Moodle - Plugin-rich platform with assignments, workshops, and gradebook
Video & Collaboration
- BigBlueButton - Built-in video conferencing with recording, whiteboard, and breakout rooms
- Etherpad - Real-time collaborative document editing
- BookStack - Wiki for course materials and documentation
Additional Tools
- Planka - Kanban boards for student projects
- Zammad - Helpdesk system with multi-channel support
- LimeSurvey - Survey platform for course evaluations
- Draw.io - Diagramming and flowchart creation
- Excalidraw - Hand-drawn style whiteboarding
Key Features
- 🔐 Single Sign-On - Keycloak-based SSO (SAML 2.0 + OIDC) for all services
- 🖥️ Unified Portal - Access educational services alongside openDesk apps
- 📦 Modular Design - Choose between alternatives (SOGo vs OX App, BBB vs Jitsi, OpenCloud vs Nextcloud)
- 🚀 One-Command Deploy - Helmfile on Kubernetes with 20+ integrated services
- 💾 Integrated Backups - Automated data protection via k8up operator
Tech Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Orchestration | Kubernetes 1.28+ |
| Package Management | Helm + Helmfile |
| Authentication | Keycloak (SAML 2.0 + OIDC) |
| Backup | k8up (restic + Kubernetes operator) |
| Certificates | openDesk Certificates |
Quick Start
# One-command deployment
helmfile -e default apply
Prerequisites: Kubernetes 1.28+, Helm 3, helmfile
📖 Getting Started Guide | 📋 Requirements | 🏗️ Architecture