Abstract:

This paper outlines the work of three publicly funded projects at a UK university that have created open educational resources (OERS) and an open access repository to locate and download these resources. The paper discusses the nature of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and outlines a model for developing these in a format that maximises re-use. The OERs were created in the form of re-usable learning objects (RLOs) by the E-Evolve project funded by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Open access to the materials and their constituent parts is being developed by the EVOLUTION project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Further development of OERs has been carried out by the JISC funded TELSTAR project. There is much debate surrounding the definition and granularity (see Wiley, 2009)of re-usable learning objects which can be a mystery to academic staff not familiar with the concept. The OERs offered by the projects have been designed in a format aimed at being familiar to academics in order to facilitate the re-use and re-purposing of these objects. As a result all the materials were developed by practicing academics without any specialist IT knowledge. The re-useable OERs have been developed at two levels; learning activities and re-usable resources. The learning activities are packaged learning content with a series of tasks using resources and materials. Each activity follows a specific pedagogy and provides learning outcomes for the activity. The re-usable materials are unpackaged raw materials such as worksheets and mini-lectures to be used in different combinations. The paper progresses by outlining the model for developing learning objects and designing for re-usability that is accessible for non-technical academic staff. The paper will also address re-use in different contexts including different subject disciplines and non-UK institutions. It concludes by discussing the use of the model to develop materials in other contexts and outlines the plans to maintain the OERs.

Wiley, D. A. (2000). Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy. In D. A. Wiley (Ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning Objects: Online Version. Retrieved March 1st, 2010, from the World Wide Web: http://reusability.org/read/chapters/wiley.doc

Keywords:

OER, Open Educational Resources, Re-Usable Learning Objects