When you develop learning materials, it is generally considered good practice to ask yourself two key questions before starting: 1) What are the learning objectives? and 2) Who are the learners? However, the second part of this practice (considering the audience) can become oddly compromised when you try to transform existing learning materials into open educational resources (OERs) for public access on the Web. Taking a set of materials that has worked perfectly well within a given context, and for a known group of learners, and trying to make them ‘open’ and transferable, can lead authors to take out many of the elements that seem to tie the materials to that specific context and audience.
In a workshop on ‘Designing for Openness’ led by the OTTER project team today, one participant applied this approach to some materials she had developed for her students which she wanted to transform into an OER. She was disappointed with the outcome: she commented that she felt there was ‘something missing’ from her revised materials. The removal of all contextual elements resulted in the new materials feeling rather lacklustre and sanitised. However, the alternative approach – simply leaving the materials as they were and not making any adjustments for the potential new target audience on the Web – seemed somehow careless and inconsiderate.
A possible solution might be to produce a description of how the materials were designed to be used, and who the original target audience was, rather than trying to edit out every contextual reference in the materials themselves. In other words, to give users more information about the original context of use, rather than less. Users can then make informed decisions as to how to adapt the materials to suit their particular contexts and learners.
For more on the Designing for Openness workshop, see Gareth’s blog.
Gabi Witthaus, 4 September 2010