Open Source Education Online

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Online education is more and more on the minds of the public with a lot of higher education during the difficult economic period. Accompanying the growth of online for-profit universities, serving these students, is the Open Source Education Movement. This movement, led by Mit OpenCourswareware and Khan Academy, seeks to revolutionize education by offering free content to anyone with an internet connection. Bill Gates stated in an interview that he believes that, within five years, the best education will come from the web. Coming from a man who has made billions of investing in innovation, such predictions wear huge amount of weight.

There is a huge demand for online education equipment, not just for those enrolled in online courses, but for anyone to try to learn. The next generation of new first-year students should think difficult to remember one hour before Google and YouTube. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first reaction of many young students face a difficult problem or “Google”. Interesting enough, with the plethora of online education equipment, it’s probably the best strategy. A quick search for Google calculations is a little more than what could be found in a traditional library. Complete texts, video conferences, practice problems with solutions, Internet forums linking thousands of useful experts, computer programs and more than growing content during the day Take a trip to the library only idiot unless you plan to ‘Use a library computer to access the Internet. .

So where is the Open Source Education Movement take us? Despite the enthusiasm of many, I do not expect the destruction of the higher education system on the higher price (bubble?) At any time soon. Although it would be an interesting case study to submit a few times with a list of YouTube videos monitored as education identification information. The Open Source Education Movement will, however, have an effect in the industry that produces additional education documents. There is a whole part of “Learning Quick Calculation!” Style education books that could disappear from the shelves of your local store (if your local book store has already disappeared). How are they competing with interactive online materials, video conferences and discussion forums for these topics? Frankly, I do not see how they can.

More interesting than the impact of the company of the Open Source Education Movement is psychology behind it. What drives people to produce their own YouTube videos resolving computing problems? Or spend their evening in a forum devoted to organic chemistry, helping students understand the concepts? Economists and psychologists have come together to find what motivates people to contribute to open source projects and have found three main motivators. The challenge, mastery and contribution are the driving force of all open source projects. These three elements are clearly important in the case of the Open Source Education Movement and we can add in the “joy of teaching” as an additional motivator. It is for these reasons that I agree with Mr. Gates that not only the best education will soon be available on the web, but it will also be free.