Abstract :
Open educational resources (OER) raise many similar issues for education to those that
have surrounded Learning Objects (LO). However the greater use and availability of
digital technologies and open licensing seems to be enabling OER to have wider acceptance
into individual and institutional teaching practice.While the need for appropriate
design in teaching and learning on the part of educators, which was the primary driver
of developments in LO, remains, the very openness of OER is changing the relationships
between educators, learners and content (resources) and is becoming a primary agent of
change. Experience in OpenLearn, a major initiative to provide OER from The Open
University, indicates that some of these changes can be planned for while others will
emerge as releasing content openly imposes evolutionary pressures that accelerate
change and work around barriers. Development can then be driven by learner expectations
of the technology and needs for informal life-long learning that in turn impact on
how content is being designed and openly presented. It is argued that this represents a
shift from a teacher-centric, systematic model of change in teaching practices as embodied
in earlier ideas about LO to a learner-centric, systemic model of change as embodied
in OER.
