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The Open University
Open University first opened its doors to students in 1971 using television and radio to broadcast educational content. Now, OU employs a variety of instructional methods to engage the students such as face-to-face instruction, and online learning. The openness at OU is seen in its open admission, accessibility of learning materials, and flexible learning arrangements. Image source and Open Universities and Open Educational Practices -
Free Software Movement
The free software movement is a social movement with the core belief that software should be free to run, modify, learn from, and copy. Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU Project which included GNU/Linux and GNU Licensing. Although Stallman sees open source and free software as having different values, the concept behind open-source software came out of the free software movement. Image Source and Free software, free society -
World Wide Web
The creation of the world wide web was decades in the making. The internet would not be possible without technological advances like ARPANET in the late 1960s. The worldwide web originally was a way to access data online and consisted of websites and hyperlinks; however, this initial step into connecting peoples' networks helped catapult the WWW into what we know it as today, the internet. Image source and History of the Internet -
Bodington Project
The Bodington project was a Java-based open-source virtual learning environment started in 1995 by Dr. Aggie Booth and John Maber of Leeds University. By 1997, Bodington was implemented across several UK higher education intuitions. Bodington enabled users to upload and access stored resources. Bodington ran until 2012 and was phased out by other learning management systems like Sakai. Aggie Booth - Bodington Project and Image Source -
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Bodington Project
The Bodington project was important because it was a virtual learning environment ahead of its time. The organization and the accessibility it offered universities in the early 2000’s was a critical step toward offering asynchronous but connected learning. Although, Bodington is now defunct, it was phased out by 2012, the ideas and open-source code provided a jumping-off point for future learning management systems. -
Open Content
In 1998, David Wiley coined the term “open content”. He wanted to break from the free software movement that came “across as incredibly judgmental and holier-than-thou”. David saw an opportunity to use the benefits of the internet to improve education through peer collaboration and innovation using "open" educational materials. David Wiley - Reflections on 20 Years of Open Content and Image Source -
Wikipedia
Wikipedia started as a side project to Nupedia; however, it eventually outgrew its original purpose. Wikipedia’s trustworthiness had been called into question due to the lack of accountability for edits. In response, Wikipedia bolstered its editing process, but it’s not perfect. All content in Wikipedia falls under the Creative Commons license where people are free to share and adapt. Learning with Wikipedia and Image Source -
Connectivism
Connectivism was introduced in 2004 by George Siemens and advanced by Stephen Downes. This pedagogy explains how learning occurs in a networked environment. Learning is described as nonsequential, chaotic, emerging, and highly contextualized. Learning is seen as a “network structure” where nodes are connected together where the learner is actively participating in generating learning. Image and Overview of connectivism -
George Siemens Connectivism and Connected Knowledge
Some controversy surrounds about the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Some point to George Siemens’ 2008 Connectivism and Connected Knowledge course as the first. This course attracted several thousand students enrolled at UM and outside of the university. It was this course that influenced Dave Cornier and Bryan Alexander to coin the term massive open online course, MOOC. Connectivism and Connective Knowledge and Image Source -
Khan Academy
Sal Khan founded Khan Academy in 2009 with the intention of individualizing education. Khan Academy embeds YouTube videos into an organized platform that delivers auto-generated content questions to gauge student mastery. Khan Academy offers open educational resources licensed under CC BY NC SA 3.0. Salman Khan TED Talk 2011 and Image Source -
Sebastian Thrun Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Some controversy surrounds the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Some sources say Sebastian Thrun’s, 2011 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course was the first. There is no one correct way to determine the purpose of MOOCs as some are created based on a collaborative philosophy called cMOOCs and others are created for commercial purposes called xMOOCs. The brief & expansive history (and future) of the MOOC and Image Source -
Open Learning Analytics
Open Learning Analytics was introduced at the first Learning Analytics conference held in 2011. The initial goal of open learning analytics was to explore the intersection of open-source code and predictive modeling. Further research is needed in ethics, privacy, and security. The future of open learning will rely on the power of predictive modeling. Image source and Toward an Open Learning Ecosystem