Two stories that met
Open education and online learning have separate origins. Open education draws on older traditions of public libraries, distance study and the idea that knowledge should be widely shared. Online learning grew out of computing and networks. They became closely connected because the internet made sharing cheap, and open licenses made sharing legal. This article follows the connection, with dates where they are well established.
Early networks and the web
Computer networks were used for educational purposes in universities from the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in limited ways. Email and discussion forums spread through the 1980s. The World Wide Web, developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and opened to public use in the early 1990s, made it easy to publish pages that anyone with a connection could read. By the mid-1990s, universities and individuals were placing notes, syllabi and tutorials online.
At this stage “online” mostly meant putting pages up. Little attention was given to permissions, so it was often unclear what others could legally reuse.
Permissions catch up with publishing
The late 1990s brought the legal side. In 1998, David Wiley introduced the term “open content” and an early license for educational material, borrowing ideas from open-source software. In 2001, Creative Commons was founded, and in December 2002 it released its first licenses. These gave educators a simple way to say what others may do with their work online.
Also in 2001, a major US university announced it would publish materials from its courses for free, with publication starting in 2002. This drew wide attention to the idea that course materials could be shared openly via the web. A UNESCO forum in 2002 adopted the term “open educational resources”.
Collaboration and social web
From the early 2000s, tools that allowed people to contribute, not just read, spread. Wikipedia launched in 2001, and blogs, wikis and video sharing grew through the decade. These showed that large-scale collaborative creation online was possible and gave teachers new ways to publish and discuss.
Open courses
In 2008 the term MOOC was coined for an open online course that used distributed discussion across the web. In 2011 and 2012, free online university courses drew very large numbers of registrations, and several large providers launched in 2012. These courses made the internet’s reach visible to the public. Completion rates were typically low, and the term “open” in this context often meant open to enroll and not necessarily openly licensed.
Learning platforms and the classroom
In parallel, schools and universities adopted learning management systems to run courses online. These tend to be institution-controlled, and content inside them may be closed. Over time, open content has been loaded into them, and standards for exchanging content between systems have developed. This is a less visible but important link between open education and everyday online learning.
Mobile and broader access
Smartphones, spreading widely through the 2010s, made online access possible for many who had no computer. This changed how and where people study, although data costs, screen size and shared devices still limit use. Mobile-friendly and low-bandwidth design became more relevant.
Remote teaching in 2020
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed many schools and campuses in 2020, a very large number of teachers and students moved to remote learning almost overnight. Demand rose for shareable digital resources, and open materials were widely used. The period also made unequal access to devices and connectivity highly visible, and showed that online learning without preparation, support and suitable conditions often works poorly. Experiences differed greatly between places.
What the internet changed
- Cost of distribution. Copying and delivering materials became nearly free.
- Reach. A resource could be available to anyone with a connection.
- Speed of updating. Materials could be corrected and revised quickly.
- Collaboration. People in different places could build things together.
What it did not change
- Need for motivation, feedback and support.
- Unequal access to connectivity, devices and time.
- Question of recognition for learning.
- Cost of creating and maintaining good materials.
- Quality problems. More content has not meant better content.
The relationship today
Today the two ideas are so intertwined that many people use “open” and “online” almost interchangeably, which can cause confusion. An online course can be closed, and open resources can be printed and used offline. Keeping the terms distinct helps when evaluating a particular offer: ask whether it is online, whether it is free, and whether it is openly licensed. These are three separate questions.
Looking ahead carefully
The link between open education and the internet will continue, shaped by developments such as artificial intelligence tools, changing platforms and policy decisions. Predictions are uncertain. What can be said is that the history so far shows legal, social and technical changes advancing together, with progress often slower and more uneven than early enthusiasm suggested.