Online educational content is all of the educational resources displayed on the internet. It is an electronically supported learning that relies on the internet for teacher/student interaction and the distribution of class materials. (Indiaeducation, n.d.) 

Openly licensed educational content reserve specific rights and relax others making it easier for educators and course designers to use the resources. (OER Africa, n.d.). Its teaching, learning or research resources that free to access and allows reuse under an intellectual property license.

 

Khan Academy is a good example of OER. Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created by Salman Khan with the goal of creating a set of online tools that help educate students. (Wikipedia) Users can get learning materials and practice exercises in math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. All of the resources are free to users. What is more, it also has YouTube channel which provides videos. The videos display a recording of drawings on an electronic blackboard, which similar to the style of a teach giving a lecture. The narrator describes each drawing and how they relate to the material being taught. (Wikipedia)

 

Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/

The OER checklist evaluates OER in relevance, accuracy, production quality, accessibility and interactivity. Khan Academy allows users to choose different courses in different learning levels and areas. Students in different programs are easy to find related courses. So it meets the relevance requirement. For accuracy, I have not seen any content errors or omissions. User are free to write comments on each section, which can also avoid error. In every section, there are understandable text and videos which explain the topic clearly. The website and its content are provided mainly in English but also available in other 28 languages. And there are documentation and transcript below each video which makes it much more accessible. Also, users can ask questions and discussions under each topic. Challenges or quizzes give learners the opportunities to check if they have understood each topic. In terms of licensing, users can reuse the materials with non-commercial use. Therefore, Khan Academy meets the requirements of OER guide.

 

In my program, I need to learn programming. In the lecture, it is not easy to follow with the instructor. Because I may get stuck in one step, but the instructor has to keep going. While in Khan Academy, there are text and video introductions. I can control my own progress. Also, there are challenges and quizzes at the end of every chapter which is good for me to practice. Not only Khan Academy, but there are also many other OER. They offer free education. Students don’t need to purchase expensive textbooks or other learning materials. And we can use it at anytime, anywhere. I believe OER will become more and more common in the education area. 

 

 

References:

Indiaeducation. (n.d.).What is online education. Retrieved from: https://www.indiaeducation.net/online-education/articles/what-is-online-education.html

OER Africa. (2020). What is Open Licensing?. Retrieved from: https://www.oerafrica.org/book/what-open-licensing