Episode 20: High-Quality Learning Materials for All!

by | Mar 6, 2020 | Ed+Tech Futures Video

Welcome to Education and Technology Futures, a videocast that highlights interesting trends and connections in the worlds of education, technology, and culture.

In this episode, Rob announces TEL Learning and joins other OER providers declaring that everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, should have free access to high-quality learning materials.

Full Transcript

Full Transcript

Since the late ‘90s, back when the Internet for education was just beginning to pick up steam, institutions and faculty have recognized that digital technologies offered the means to reduce the costs of learning materials for students and to share university education and resources with learners around the globe.

Projects like MERLOT at the Cal State System and the OpenCourseware initiative at MIT and other Ivy League universities created a broader awareness of the possibilities in the U.S. and served as a foundation for the important work of organizations like OpenStax, Khan Academy, Lumen Learning, and CK12 — organizations that produce free, openly licensed learning materials that anyone can use for personal learning or in courses taught at schools and universities.

These Open Educational Resources, or OER, have disrupted the business models of traditional educational publishers, made college education more affordable for many students, and created valuable resource centers for personal, lifelong learning.

Most important, over the last two decades, OER providers have made a clear and resounding declaration that everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, should have free access to high-quality learning materials.

As the leader of an organization committed to affordable learning, I’m particularly happy to announce that TEL is adding its highly engineered course content to this important OER movement. With TEL Learning, we’re providing free, openly licensed access to all of our course materials. This includes scaffolded content for 16 general education courses, available online and with downloadable PDFs. There is no login or information required to access these materials, and they may be shared and reused freely under a Creative Commons license.

Equitable access to college-level learning is a major issue in our society. It is also both a personal mission for me and the core of our work at TEL.

I/we believe that cost should never be a barrier for anyone who wants to continue their education and to keep moving forward in their personal and professional lives.

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Episode 1: 5 BIG Problems to Solve in Education
Episode 2: A Decade of Education Revolution or Evolution?
Episode 3: A Moonshot Worth Making
Episode 4: Higher Education as a Content Channel

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