New kinds of learning objects

Abstract

This article describes two aspects of thinking about learning objects, their desired “standalone” nature and certain best-practice recommendations regarding their production. The article disputes that a learning object can ever truly be “standalone” and argues that the best way to get them produced is by the lone academic herself rather than the traditional managed production teams. To support this it cites the example of open-source software production and online collaborative enterprises such as Wikipedia which achieve their aims without any traditional management layer, but rather function on a volunteer basis. The author concludes with a case study where he attempted to put these methods into practice in producing materials for a Master’s multimedia course.