Education is quickly becoming a contentious issue within the United States. For one, globalization has created a much more robust competitive dynamic with other foreign firms and entities around the world. These countries, including India and China are now dominating many of the STEM related fields that many pundits predict are critical for economic growth. Likewise, America appears to be struggling with large variances between K though 12 education. On a per capita basis, the United States spends the most on education relative to any of the other developed countries in the world. However, the returns from these investments have not materialize as America falls far behind its developed peers as it relates to scoring on STEM related fields. This is particularly concerning considering the high degree of reliance the jobs of the future will have on STEM related disciplines. Without proper education, America could potentially lose its market leading position in many of the disciplines of the future (Caswell, 2008).

To counteract these alarming trends, organizations throughout America have looked to adopt innovative new techniques to better educate society. One such innovation is Open Education Resources which are designed to quickly and efficiently use, adapt and share information. OERs are unique in that they attempt to provide access to best education materials irrespective of socio-economic status or connections. Through proper use of OERs the best resources can seamlessly and easily be transferred between those who need the information. This ultimately will help improve education outcomes as the best instruction techniques and materials are used in a freely available manner.

1. What did you like about each OER, and why?

The two Open Education Resources that I reviewed are Academic Earth and Coursera. Immediately, the breadth and depth of education options becomes clearly apparent when reviewing both product offerings. Each offers course in high demand, high paying careers such as accounting, finance,...

The courses on Academic Earth are separated in the small, digestible sizes which allows consumers to learn at their own pace, for free. Both programs also heavily vet their materials to ensure the latest and most up to date information is being leveraged by consumers utilizing their product. This is a critical component as it helps to eliminate obsolescence or the use of antiquated information within the course curriculum (Clinton, 2019).

In addition, both Open Education Resources provide certificates, LinkedIn Badges and other forms of recognition that encourage individuals to fully complete their respective course work. This is particularly important, as these forms of acknowledgement allows students who have successful...

…best features are the search function, course description and certification process. The website is very simple and not fully of flowery language or jargon. The worst design function relates to the online degree and certification options. Much like the Academic Earth product offering, Coursera often redirects clients to other university websites where information may not be consistent. Here, if often appears that updates made on university websites and courses often are not reflected on the Coursera website. This, from a design perspective can cause a misalignment of information that can confuse consumers looking to pursue an online degree or certificate.

6. What were some of the more interesting, unexpected, or novel features, activities, or components that you noticed?

The Coursera website is very simple and intuitive which makes much more accessible to consumers. The website is very inviting and allows consumers to better shop for topics and programs they wouldnt have otherwise looked for. For example, the website provides a Browse Popular Topics section which leverages a variety of different disciplines ranging from Python to Blockchain. This feature allows for a much more robust user experience that allows consumers to better engage with the website overall. This consumer captivity is a large benefit to the website as it allows customers to establish habits of continually…