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Another influence
When I wrote recently about influences on the open educational resources movement, I discussed educational technology from the perspective of the learning object concept only. Since then, I’ve felt the need to circle back and say that the whole concept of distance learning has a strong influence on the OER movement as well. Many people have come into the field with an interest and background in distance learning, and others from the perspective of sharing materials from classroom based courses.
Most OCWs are examples of open sharing of classroom-based materials, where no assumption is made that the materials by themselves are sufficient to support independent learning. Other projects, such as CMU’s Open Learning Initiative are specifically designed to support independent online learning. Understanding the perspective of particular project on this issue can also be helpful in understanding how the resources can best be used.
