The Open Syllabus Project (OSP) provides the first “big data” look at the primary activity of higher education: teaching. It collects and analyzes millions of university syllabi to generate novel academic and public applications of the expertise embedded in these teaching choices. This data has a wide range of uses in scholarly metrics, educational research, and the sociology of knowledge. It supports the work of teachers, publishers, and librarians, and opens up new ways of connecting academic expertise to wider publics at a time when those connections are being attacked. The OSP also helps answer vital questions about how universities prepare students to develop as thoughtful citizens. The project is supported by the Sloan Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Arcadia Fund, Templeton Foundation, and Digital Science.

In November 2019, the OSP became an independent nonprofit after five years of incubation from The American Assembly.