Title: Open educational resources: inquiring into author use and reuse

Authors: Lisa Petrides, Lilly Nguyen, Cynthia Jimes, Anastasia Karaglani

Addresses: Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 323 Harvard Ave, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, USA. ' 3712 Evans St. #6, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA. ' Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 323 Harvard Ave, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, USA. ' Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 323 Harvard Ave, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, USA

Abstract: For teachers and learners, the proliferation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in combination with advances in information technologies has meant centralised access to materials and the possibility of creating, using, and reusing OER globally, collaboratively, and across multiple disciplines. Through an examination of a community of author users of the OER portal Connexions, this article explores individual and group authorship, OER use and reuse and the factors contributing to and hindering these practices. As such, the paper sheds light on how OER can be sustained and continuously improved, with an emphasis on the use and reuse of dynamic, relevant, and high quality materials over time.

Keywords: OER; open educational resources; author use; author reuse; peer production; collaboration; content creation; CNX; connexions; sustainability; mixed method study; log file analysis; interviews.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTEL.2008.020233

International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 2008 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.98 - 117

Published online: 09 Sep 2008 *

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