How Atlas works
A free, open university built from the best of the open web - and honest about how it’s made.
How to use Atlas in four steps
- Find a course. Use the search box on the home page, or tap your level or a subject. Courses marked ★ have full lessons written on the page.
- Press the big “Start” button. Every course page has one. It drops you into the right lesson automatically.
- Work through the lesson. Watch the embedded video, read the lesson, flip the key-term cards, write your answers in the practice boxes, then take the quiz. Press “Mark complete & continue” and the next lesson opens by itself.
- Come back anytime. Your progress saves on this device. The My Courses page (top menu) takes you straight back to where you left off.
That is the whole system. No accounts, no payments, nothing to install.
Every subject, every level, free forever
Atlas Open Academy organizes the world’s free educational resources into real, structured courses - from a preschooler’s first letters to a postdoctoral researcher’s grant proposal. There is no tuition, no login, and no advertising. If a topic is taught at a large public school system or a large state university, our goal is to have a full, self-paced course for it here.
What’s actually on a course page
- Written lessons - full teaching text, key terms, worked examples, and common misconceptions, read right on the page.
- Embedded video - a specific, hand-checked educational video is embedded in each lesson, matched to that exact topic (from CrashCourse, Khan Academy, and other free educational channels).
- Real photos and diagrams - accurate, freely-licensed images and explorable diagrams, stored with the site so they work offline.
- Interactive practice - quizzes with instant feedback, flip-card key terms, writing spaces that check your answer, and progress that saves in your browser.
- Cited readings - each lesson ends with the real sources it draws on, plus links to open textbooks like OpenStax if you want to go further.
Courses marked ★ Full course have complete authored lessons, quizzes, and a graded final exam. Course length varies, from a few focused lessons to a full semester, and every course is deepened over time.
How lessons are built and kept accurate
Every lesson is written as a full, self-paced class and checked for accuracy:
- Cited sources - each lesson ends with the real, authoritative sources it draws on (open textbooks, university and government references, primary works), so you can verify it and read further.
- Hand-verified video - the video embedded in a lesson is checked to match that exact topic and to be free to watch.
- Self-hosted, free images - diagrams and photos are openly licensed and stored with the site, so they load fast, work offline, and never break.
- Ongoing deepening - courses are expanded and refreshed in waves toward full class-length depth.
Attribution & licenses
Atlas links to and embeds openly-licensed and free-to-view materials, credited to their creators. It does not claim ownership of third-party content, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by these organizations. Sources include:
Videos are embedded via each platform’s standard player and remain the property of their creators. If you are a rights-holder and want an embed removed, that’s always honored.