OpenLearn
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OpenLearn (www.open.edu/openlearn) is an educational website. It is the UK's Open University's home of all free, open learning. The original project was part-funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.[1]
OpenLearn is a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC).[2]
History
Established in 2006 the website started as a two-year experiment to understand how we can operate in a more open manner and what benefits it brings for learners, educators and The Open University (OU). Since then OpenLearn has become an integrated part of The Open University attracting more than 6 million unique visitors each year. Free learning resources are core to the OU's social mission, but it is also aware that the return on investment in this area is a very important by-product in terms of reputation building, brand recognition, new market opportunities, technology innovation, partnership formation and, most significantly triggering new student registrations. The OU has aligned the systems used for core student provision (Moodle) with those for public provision of open educational resources. Therefore, as the OU invests and develops student systems, the public systems also benefit (and vice versa).
The OU aims to ensure this mutual benefit approach is also applied to work in developing and delivering systems to support others in free learning.
OpenLearn also aggregates videos and audio made available via other Open University channels, such as iTunes U, YouTube and AudioBoom. Over 900 free courses are delivered via the platform and are also shared freely on Amazon for Kindle.
Since 2014, it has also been republishing The Open University's courses from FutureLearn, providing a space where learners unwilling or unable to commit to FutureLearn's weekly learning model can follow courses to their own timetable.
Fundamentals of the program
Open Education materials make three contributions. They make new knowledge available to all (not just the few who can pay for it). They allow users to download, modify, translate and adapt to their culture to the material to enhance its usefulness. They provide the opportunity for people to work together to co-modify, co-produce, test and co-produce again, retesting derivative material which generates a cycle of rapid continuous improvement. Using technology Open Educational Resources aim to remove access barriers to knowledge and educational opportunities around the world.
Through the Moodle-based virtual learning environment, learners are offered over 900 structured media-rich courses, supported by a number of learning and communication tools in the Free Courses area.
The OpenLearn website also provides a standalone experience for the learner, but is also one that can be taken apart and remixed to take on a new form. The Web 2.0 approach to an open and collaborative LearningSpace primarily for learners, is complemented by OpenLearnCreate (formerly Labspace and OpenLearn Works), an area for experimentation, where educational practitioners are encouraged to download, amend and adapt both current and archived course materials. Published under an Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial Creative Commons license, the Open University media-rich materials can be reused in alternative educational settings, repurposed for a local context, translated and built upon to form a larger open repository of derivative educational materials.
Alternative formats
All OpenLearn courses are available in multiple formats for download and use offline, such as Word, ePub and PDF. OpenLearn enables viral content not just through its licensing model, but also through a commitment to open technologies. The use of an open source virtual learning environment, along with the ability for people to download and upload materials in various formats (from an RSS to a print to an IMS Common Cartridge) encourages replication of the content and enables interoperability with other provider’s content management systems. Innovators have already re-published OpenLearn materials in new environments by implementing a variety of freely available technologies. The materials have been replicated in offline desktop libraries to provide access for remote communities around the world. RSS feeds enable the content to be easily embedded in web based widgets and RSS readers, allowing the engagement with the content to happen away from OpenLearn.
OpenLearn Create
By the end of the first phase of funding (30 April 2008), OpenLearn hosted more than five thousand hours of core OU materials and additional user generated content in the LabSpace area of the site. In 2012, the LabSpace area was overhauled to give a better user experience and a tighter focus on collaboration with partners. The area was rebranded OpenLearn Works.[3]In 2017, this was further redesigned and rebranded as OpenLearn Create.
References
- ^ "Our story - How OpenLearn started" - Open University
- ^ Open Education Consortium Members
- ^ "OpenLearnWorks". OpenLearn Works. The Open University. Retrieved 12 May 2015.