of Open Education
What have we learned about open education from the standard definition?
Open education is education unbound by institutions, geographical locations, fixed education fees, and in the modern era, even solid educational resources.
Open education is understood to remove all barriers of opportunity and societal norms. The maximum potential of this form of education can be reaped through online education.
There are several portals of online education today, but how did online education and related platforms come to take the center-seat in world education today?
History of Online Education
Technological era:
The development of mass media facilitation technologies like the radio and the television in the late '40s and '50s brought a gradual shift to distance learning and paved new ways for open education.
This was further topped by the establishment of the Open University of Britain in 1969 and the introduction of media as a source for education at the University of Wisconsin in 1986.
Internet-introduction Era:
Post the introduction of the internet and the internet boom, the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) project was launched in 2002. MIT's entire videotaped course catalog was put online, free of cost and open to all public.
Many institutes and universities followed suit after MIT; the OpenStax College at Rice University introduced 21 open textbooks for the highest enrolled courses. Similarly, the Open Textbook Network and Open Textbook Library at the University of Minnesota have made available hundreds of valuable textbooks in various subjects to students and learners, free of cost.
Modern Era:
Today, open education, also synonymous with distance education, is widespread; it is available to people in every nation with an internet connection. There are welfare initiatives, NGOs, and organizations that bridge the gap between the underprivileged and education.
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms like EdX, Coursera, Khan Academy, and Udacity have emerged as the hubs for open education and distance learning. They facilitate access to rare and informative full-term courses like 3D printing, machine learning, foreign language education, biotechnological sciences, and more to aspiring students.
YouTube is also a popular outlet for learning and open education. Expert educators in lecturers, industrialists, reformers, economists, and activists share extensive knowledge from their domains by curating interactive videos, with an open-to-access for every individual.
Mobile video-conference software applications like ZOOM, Google Meet, Skype, and other mainstream platforms have opened a new world to distance learning and portable virtual education.
Traditionally such courses could be accessed only within institutional walls and by paying hefty amounts as tuition fees.
Conclusion
History has changed time and time again, it is not always for the better, sometimes it becomes worse. But when it comes to education and the availability of education for all, history has been kind.
We have come from times when there was quality education available only to the elites, to quality education and affordable knowledge, available to all humankind.