OpenLearn (2006-2009)

OpenLearn was the first research project on open educational resources in Europe. This means I was officially one of the first researchers in the field. My role in the project was research fellow on open educational resources (OER). The project was developed by the Open University UK, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Apart from our goal to research and understand the uses and potential of OER, OpenLearn was an online platform in which open learners could access high quality course content, produced by the Open University UK. There were also open and free communication tools such as Flashmeeting for videoconferences, and a mind-mapping tool to help students organise their learning. The final report of the first phase of OpenLearn, discussing its conceptualisation and implementation, is still very relevant nowadays for anyone interested in platform development for open learning.