In this blog I will describe the relationship between open education and my chosen topic “The Origin of Money”.

Open education refers to pedagogical approaches that promote openness, collaboration, and sharing of educational resources and knowledge. In open education, educators have access to freely available, publicly licensed educational resources on the Web. Moreover, educators can create their own educational resources for learners to study and watch through some educational platforms according to the needs of their courses. And learners usually need to be more autonomous and active in open education. This is because open education encourages students to acquire knowledge through co-creation of learning content and participation in discussions and sharing of learning content. The benefits of open teaching for people are that it increases their access to education and reduces the cost for learners. People will not be affected by money, time, and location as factors that prevent them from learning. Moreover, open education enhances collaboration and sharing among educators. This allows educators to choose educational methods that are more suitable for the learners.

Let’s take my chosen topic “The Origin of Money” as an example. In normal real-world education, it is difficult for an educator to create a PowerPoint presentation and then explain it to the learners in the classroom. However, in open education, the educator can choose more educational tools and methods. For example, educators can show students a video or animation about the “origin of money” or let learners read some related materials. Educators can use software such as “EDpuzzle” to teach this topic. In the EDpuzzle you can put videos from YouTube or TED that are related to the topic. Also, the EDpuzzle software can be used to add questions and topics to the video. The video not only teaches the learner about the topic, but the educator can also assess the learner’s answers to the questions. Moreover, the educator can put some interesting topics on the forum for the learners to discuss according to their level of discussion on the topics. In this way, learners can not only learn, but also deepen their impression of the knowledge points. And it makes the topic more interactive and interesting.

5 Rs of OER: retain, redistribute, remix, reuse, reise