Open content for open development

Patrick McAndrew and Tony Hirst

The Open University

Coverage• A little bit about OpenLearn• Reworking content• Examples of what is possible• Options for the future

Open Content Initiative: OpenLearn• $9.9m two year programme

– supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

• Strands– Academic– Technical: Production– Technical: Tools– Research and Evaluation

Two spaces: LearningSpace• LearningSpace

– Quality assures units of learning– Strong link to original course– Reliable environment– Enough tools to support learning– Main site for learners

LearningSpace

Two spaces: LabSpace• LabSpace

– All content from LearningSpace– Access to download and upload– Extra material in a less refined form– Extra tools for learner and educators– Evolve experimentally

LabSpace

ResearchZone

Experimental spaceCommunity links

Download/upload

OUXML file

Metadata

Instructions

+ Resources

Schema

Compendium: knowledge paths

Evolving LabSpace

• Improve LabSpace– Distinction between spaces– LabSpace tools across to LearningSpace– Improve description of LabSpace match to facilities.– Sandbox area for experimentation.– Offer custom areas for group work.– New formats: Moodle, zip, Daisy, IMS CP, SCORM,

Mobile, IMS LD. • Reach out to the world

– RSS feeds for the content– Expose appropriate web services.– Explore external tools working with LabSpace

Experiments from outside• Tony Hirst: http://ouseful.info• Operating outside the OpenLearn team to:

– Improve navigation– Syndicate content to blogs, feed readers, etc.– Chunk the content– Use OpenLearn to test emergent tools– …

Reworking OpenLearn via RSS

http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/openlearnplayground/navigatedemo.php

Extra navigation

Extra navigation

http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/openlearndaily/

Daily feeds

Daily feeds

Feedback"I finished the "keeping it safe" web feed you set up. It was

brilliant content, really clear and straightforward. Using the web feed was fantastic, it allowed me to find time for the course that I otherwise wouldn't. I like reading a feed rather than email, as it keeps the material from getting lost in my myriad of work emails. Psychologically it's much more appealing to get a bit of content each day, rather than receive a 40page pdf document."

Plans to support external reuse• The use of stable URLs.• Separation of content from additional information• Adoption of syndication: access & format. • Extend to web services: REST or SOAP.

(http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/luisa/)

External reuse alongside onsite access

Dr Patrick McAndrewOpen Content InitiativeThe Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 6AAwww.open.ac.uk/openlearn