Who Doesn't Like Free?

Submitted by:  Janet Wortman

There are many organizations getting behind the development of free, open source learning objects which can be used in both traditional and online classes.  Many of us don’t have the time to develop new, high quality, interactive digital content for our courses.  Why not take advantage of what is already available?

Here is a partial list of some of the best open source resources currently available:

HippoCampus     http://www.hippocampus.org/

From the Hippo Campus web site:

HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.

HippoCampus was designed as part of Open Education Resources (OER), a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. HippoCampus content has been developed by some of the finest colleges and universities in the world and contributed to the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), another MITE project. NROC makes editorial and engineering investment in the content to prepare it for distribution by HippoCampus. Both HippoCampus and NROC are supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

HippoCampus provides free learning objects in the following disciplines:

Arithmetic	Physics
Algebra and Geometry	Earth Science
Calculus	Economics
Statistics	History and Government
Biology	Psychology
Chemistry	Religion

Connexions     http://cnx.org/

Connexions is another great open source for web based videos and lessons, PDFs and ereader content that was established by Rice University and is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

From the Connexions web site:

Connexions is a dynamic digital educational ecosystem consisting of an educational content repository and a content management system optimized for the delivery of educational content. Connexions is one of the most popular open education sites in the world. Its more than 17,000 learning objects or modules in its repository and over 1000 collections (textbooks, journal articles, etc.) are used by over 2 million people per month. Its content services the educational needs of learners of all ages, in nearly every discipline, from math and science to history and English to psychology and sociology. Connexions delivers content for free over the Internet for schools, educators, students, and parents to access 24/7/365. Materials are easily downloadable to almost any mobile device for use anywhere, anytime. Schools can also order low cost hard copy sets of the materials (textbooks).

Here you will find content in the following disciplines: 

Arts	Math
Business	Science and Technology
Humanities	Social Sciences

Khan Academy     www.khanacademi.org

Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization that has created over 2,600 web based videos and 253 practice lessons in the following disciplines:

 

Algebra	Economics
American Civics	Developmental Math
Arithmetic	Geometry
Art History	Healthcare and Medicine
Biology	History
Calculus	Organic Chemistry
Chemistry	Physics
Computer Science	Statistics
Cosmology and Astronomy	Trigonometry

I hope that you can find the time to review the resources available on these three sites to see if there is anything you would like to use in your class.  If you do and would like assistance in incorporating the content please let us know, we are always available to help!