https://techmoran.com/ceo-weekends-khan-academy-offers-free-coding-techniques/
I always assumed that Khan Academy (KA) was an Open Educational Resource (OER) since it is free to access, and I am not the only one to assume that. “Khan Academy is a large and popular open educational resource” (Kelly & Rutherford, 2017). However, after starting my research on KA for my assignment through our current course in the LRNT526 course, I had to question my assumption, and look deeper into KA and its licensing. I will be sharing my findings on this blog.
First, I needed to understand what the actual meaning of OER was. “Open Educational Resources are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them” (UNESCO, 2018).
After I understood the meaning of OER and realized that not every free online resource can be assumed to be an OER, I had to look into KA’s licensing and see if they matched with the explanation of an OER. “All Materials, and all trademarks, service marks, and trade names, contained on or available through the Website are owned by or licensed to Khan Academy, and Khan Academy reserves all rights therein and thereto not expressly granted by these Terms” (Khan Academy, 2014).
Even though KA gives the users free access, their materials are not an open source for all users to be able to adapt them. “Khan Academy videos are good examples of education resources that are indeed open access yet have specific limits as to revising, remixing, and so on” (Education Research Guide, 2018). After completing some readings and learning more about OERs and the terms of use of KA, I concluded that KA is not an OER, however, it is a great source to be used for education worldwide since it can be accessed for free by everyone.
References:
Education Research Guide. (2018). Retrieved from Iowa State University: http://instr.iastate.libguides.com/c.php?g=49482&p=4523737
Kelly, D., & Rutherford, T. (2017). Khan Academy as supplemental instruction: A controlled study of a computer-based mathematics intervention. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 18(4).
Khan Academy Terms of Service. (2014). Retrieved from Khan Acadamy: https://www.khanacademy.org/about/tos#7
UNESCO. (2018). What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)? | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. [online] Available at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/ [Accessed 11 May 2018].
May 11, 2018 at 1:11 pm
May, you make an important point. David Wiley, one of the key founders of the OER movement, puts forward a definition of “open” of educational content in terms of “5Rs”:
“The terms ‘open content’ and ‘open educational resources’ describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like ‘open source’) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:
Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)” (Wiley, n.d.)
Creative Commons licensing is a big part of the picture. Against these definitions and descriptions, Khan Academy’s materials may be “free” in the sense of cost to the user, but certainly not in terms of open as defined by UNESCO (2018) (which you quote) and Wiley, among many others. KA does make some reference to Creative Commons in their Terms of Service, section 7.2 (Khan Academy, 2014) but it would take a team of lawyers to figure out what they mean. For practical purposes I would not consider this “open.”
Khan Academy (2014) Terms of Service. https://www.khanacademy.org/about/tos
UNESCO (2018) What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)? http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/
Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “Open” in Open Content
and Open Educational Resources. This material was created by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.
May 12, 2018 at 6:42 pm
Hi May,
It’s interesting that Kelly and Rutherford (2017) would include Khan Academy as an OER. Their article was published in IRRODL, which does go through a review process (http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/about/editorialPolicies). They go on to erroneously cite Atkins, Brown, and Hammond (2007) as saying that OER includes educational resources offered to the general public. However, Akins, Brown, and Hammond do not state this anywhere and use the following definition of OER:
“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”
Perhaps Kelly and Rutherford misunderstood what public domain means.
May 17, 2018 at 10:15 pm
May, thanks for sharing your perspective on what makes for an OER. I hadn’t ever given it much thought, but you bring up several valid points. That little nugget of information will stay with me!
June 3, 2018 at 11:39 am
Thank you all! for your thoughtful comments 🙂