Open Content, Generative Tools & Reusability
The open availability of high-quality educational resources promises to improve the effectiveness of learning and teaching. A considerable amount of international attention has been directed towards developing standards to enable the sharing and reuse of learning objects. This approach has been characterised by a concern with technical issues of packaging and metadata. However, the RLO-CETL approach is that high quality design and development is crucial, and takes precedence over issues of metadata and software packaging; the primary emphasis is that good pedagogical design is at the heart of effective learning objects. Using this approach the RLO-CETL has developed over 200 multimedia learning objects covering a wide range of subject areas. These learning objects are openly available from the RLO-CETL website and searchable repository. This emphasis on high-quality design leads naturally to the idea of Generative Learning Objects (GLOs). In this approach it is high-quality designs, accessed through freely available authoring tools, that provide the basis for reuse and repurposing. GLO tools allow tutors to build rich, new learning objects based on proven designs. Crucially, any objects so created can be easily modified and repurposed by local tutors to meet their needs (including adaptation to different international contexts). There is considerable scope for research and development both at the GLO layer, and the higher order layers of learning design into which GLOs may be incorporated to create rich comprehensive learning environments. This work operates within the wider context of the challenge of creating 'open educational resources' where high-quality educational resources may be exchanged, combined and reused on an international scale.
