Open Education

Open education is an opportunity for people to receive education without restrictions. It is a philosophy on how people should produce, share and build on knowledge. The theory is that everyone should have access to high quality education, through resources and experience. According to the United States government, educational opportunities should be available to all learners, stating on their educational technology page, “Creating an open education ecosystem involves making learning materials, data, and educational opportunities available without restrictions imposed by copyright laws, access barriers, or exclusive proprietary systems that lack interoperability and limit the free exchange of information.”

Khan Academy is one source of open education. Their mission is to provide a free, world class education to anyone, anywhere. Founded by Sal Khan, an English educator, in 2005 to help his cousins, Khan Academy provides online materials to cover subjects ranging from math and finance to history and art. In addition to programming or coding resources. Sal has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and science. Sal holds three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.

Coursera, founded in 2012, by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller is an online learning platform that offers massive open online courses (MOOC), specializations, and degrees.

Their mission statement indicates that they empower learners to advance their careers, further their studies, improve their communities, and change the world through the world’s best learning, experiences. Courses on Coursera are taught by top instructors from top universities around the world.