Learning Objects

I decided to look into learning objects, since H806 is, according to Weller, the first OU course to be developed purely in this form. Now, in 2001/2 I wrote some learning objects for the OU, admittedly for its corporate division (COROUS) & that's where I first encountered the term. So I wondered if the meaning was perhaps subtly different from the one I'd been carrying around with me.

Use and Abuse of Re-usable Learning Objects

This paper gives a useful overview of the confusion surrounding learning objects, arguing that it's inappropriate to define them so broadly that everything in the world becomes a learning object, yet equally unhelpful to narrow the definition down to a particular length or method of study, since this works against the principles of interoperability & re-usability.
The definition offered here:

A Learning Object is an independent and self-standing unit of learning content that is predisposed to reuse in multiple instructional contexts

seems a reasonable compromise between the general & the specific.

Learning Objects and Standards

This resource page from the e-Learning Centre offers a range of material on latest developments in the world of learning objects. I may need to spend some time on SCORM...