OER as Community A corollary to the personal gain of enrichment is the way that OER can potentially be a focus for a community of students in different locations. The University of Nottingham, for instance, has overseas campuses in Malaysia and China, and some of the OER on their U-Now website14 has enabled students studying similar courses on both campuses to appreciate and understand what each is doing and how they might be better connected (Andy Beggan, personal communication, 2011). Similarly, distance learning students may want to make contact with other students studying similar things, and can do so through the many open forums on OpenLearn’s LearningSpace (and some also do so through a dedicated Open University area in Facebook15): Hi all I am in the last year of my open degree and for my sins I have decided to go back to my chemistry days. Is there anyone that has done the S104, S205 or the S346 course to give a bit of advice? (UKOU student)
OER as Public Product Most OER are produced by teachers but they can also be produced by students. In some subjects, like art and design, there is a tradition of students sharing the works or artefacts they develop for peer as well as teacher critique, as part of the “studio” or “atelier” approach to teaching and learning. Now those same works or artefacts (or at least pictures of them) can be shared with everybody who can access them. In areas such as fashion design and fine arts, such public viewing of a student’s work can be valuable for gaining external recognition and hopefully employment. The following is an example of someone studying a “start writing fiction” unit who is doing some of the in-text exercises in their OpenLearn Learning Journal16 and making the materials visible to all users: Rounded characters Visible to all OpenLearn users I slipped into the shop, squeezing past an old woman laden with bags, and quickly looked around for the manager. It wasn’t a big place, and the neighbourhood wasn’t one that had a crime problem — there was no security guard and the cameras over the door were dummies, just for show. I meandered through the aisles, looking like I was just browsing, keeping one eye out for the staff at the same time. I wandered down to the aisle where I knew I needed to be, checked that the staff were distracted by other customers, grabbed a bottle and hid it in my bag. I held my breath, waiting a few seconds before taking a second and then third bottle. Three was enough, I decided. I could always come back for more, I rationalised as I walked out slowly. I had to force myself not to hurry, and told myself that hurrying would only draw attention to me. Tags: start writing fiction character exercise
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