Where did open content come from?
Open educational content has been around for more than a decade, but it is quickly becoming a very popular and attractive option for anyone who wants to take a class without paying a small fortune. Open content is available for educators, students, or anyone who simply wants to learn more about a certain topic. Content available ranges from quick how-to guides all the way to college-level courses.
One of the first well-known open content initiatives, MIT's "OpenCourseWare," was initially funded by the William and Flora Hewlett and Andrew W. Mellon foundations in 2001. The OpenCourseWare project sought to provide free access to MIT's course materials and to create an "efficient, standard-based model" from which other universities could base their own open content offerings (David, 2003). While MIT is still known for being one of the leading universities to offer open content, many other universities have indeed copied the OpenCourseWare format by offering their own open educational content.By 2008, open content sources has grown so dramatically that Stephen Downes and George Siemens were able to coin the term "massively open online courses" (MOOCs). The MOOC is a course that anyone from anywhere can take, free of charge. Courses can be offered to thousands of individuals at a time. These courses are meant to be standalone courses that can be mixed with any other course for a personalized educational experience. Again, the thing that sets these open content courses apart from typical online learning is the fact that this content is offered free of charge to anyone. Participants looking to receive credits from the offering institution are, however, required to pay a fee (The New Media Consortium, 2013).
Many open content today is made possible by Creative Commons. This non-profit organization provides free copyright licenses to anyone seeking to make their creative works available for public use, but with "some rights reserved." Their mission is to support legal sharing of creative works. This sharing is made available with the idea that the content can be used, edited, or modified to meet the need of the user (Creative Commons, n.d.).
