The Users’ Experience Patrick McAndrew, Research & Evaluation Director OpenLearn, The Open University 29 th November 2007

Users: Learners and Educators

Formal education - Sticks and carrots Qualifications Progression Peer approval Assignment deadlines Examinations Tutors who call

Qualifications

Progression

Peer approval

Assignment deadlines

Examinations

Tutors who call

Open education - What sticks and carrots? Qualifications Progression Peer approval Assignment deadlines Examinations Tutors who call X ?

Qualifications

Progression

Peer approval

Assignment deadlines

Examinations

Tutors who call

Reasons for study (data from initial study of OpenLearn registered users March 2007)

Courses users want

What users like http:// tagcrowds.com (Thanks to Gill Clough for pointer!) “ I like the idea of learning for pleasure as opposed to learning to achieve targets.” “ Free learning that you can dip into at your leisure.” “ Ability to try OU course units before registering for the course.” “ To upgrade skills … and to meet the requirements for the jobs”

How users see OpenLearn

OpenLearn as formal learning Results 1 - 10 of about 11,800 from openlearn.open.ac.uk for work

OpenLearn informal learning “ I live in New Zealand and wonder if there are many kiwis registered. If so it would be nice to know. :-)” “ I would like to meet any student that are on similar courses as me. :-)” Results 1 - 10 of about 214 from openlearn.open.ac.uk for fun. It is just for fun. Your answers are not assessed, so don't worry about getting things wrong.

“ I live in New Zealand and wonder if there are many kiwis registered. If so it would be nice to know. :-)”

Context and community matter

Anne’s story

Producer view

Content in XML

Lessons .zip Formats Time Access Collaboration

Things are happening…

Reaching out

Looking to the future: disaggregation