The Athabasca University edusource Project: Building An Accessible Learning Object Repository

摘要

Athabasca University - Canada's Open University (AU) made the commitment to put all ofits courses online as part of its Strategic University Plan. In pursuit of this goal, AUparticipated in the eduSource project, a pan-Canadian effort to build the infrastructure foran interoperable network of learning object repositories. AU acted as a leader in theeduSource work package, responsible for the metadata and standards for learning objects.In addition, the team of professionals, academics, librarians and other researchers workedto create an accessible repository of learning objects across university departments andsubjects. Most critically, the team worked beyond the development of a learning objectrepository and considered the adaptation of content and related applications, pedagogicalapproaches and the use of learning objects by instructional designers, faculty and thelearners themselves. This paper describes one institution's approach to learning objectrepository development, from a technical and pedagogical perspective, along with some ofthe lessons learned during the process.