OERs UK OU and CDE annual conference - social learners October 30, 2010

Last Wednesday I attended the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) annual conference
The theme was Research in Distance Education: Impact on Practice.

Of particular relevance to readers of the OER (Open Education Resource) list  was a keynote about the UK Open University and research on how people use its Open Learn OERs.

Two distinct patterns of use have been noted:

• One type of user (I think they were called "volunteer" learners, or "voluntary learners") used the OU Open Learn site primarily to connect with the content.
• The other type (called "social users" ) used it primary to connect with other users with similar interests.

I found this a very useful distinction (and appreciated now having a label to describe myself - I'm definitely a social learner). Readers of this list concerned with managing communities of learners may like to delve deeper into this research.

Pamela McLean
http://www.dadamac.net/about/pam