Learning Objects and Open Courses10/22/04
Learning Object Repositories are a thing of the past as seen through the cyber glasses.
Teaching and Developing Online -
http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/vschools/archives/2004_10.html
October 7, 2004 - Learning Object Repositories are a thing of the past as seen through the cyber glasses.
October 14, 2004 - Repository should be a thing of the past (continued) .. link fixed 2008.8.25
My 2 cents...
I have tried working with learning objects for a number of years both in industry and in higher education. I love the idea but as a practical matter, learning objects don't solve the problem. I'm a busy instructor with no time and no budget and a course to teach. Going to MERLOT is like going to a car dealer and being presented with boxes of parts - steering wheels, seats, headlights...
The car companies know I want a fully functional car and maybe some choices but not too many. If I'm in a hurry, not too fussy or I plan to make my own modifications, I just pick something from the dealer's stock... well, you get the idea. So I am more convinced that "whole courses" as open content are the way to go. Say I need a lower division English Lit course that includes contemporary authors - no problem if a repository search brings up 3 or 30 even. This I can deal with. I have 12 lessons based on a theme with a sample syllabus, lecture notes, assignment descriptions, quizzes, discussion topics, maybe even an instructor's guide. I'm good to go.
I know this sounds like the textbook model of today but it works better. The course publisher has gone to considerable effort to make the course content available. Word gets around. Other folks review it and critique it. If the material is good, it will adopted and improved. The cost of publishing open content courses on the web is modest. Academic institutions and non-profits are already getting involved. If I adopt an open source course, I can use it "as is" or modify it to make it my own. If the content is published as HTML, personalizing the material is easy. This sure beats assembling all those little bits.
2008.8.20 update - I still think whole courses are more useful than smaller resources. Locating suitable objects of any size or format is STILL the major issue. Repository or not, doesn't seem to matter.
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