OLnet: Open Learning network

Starting from early 2009 The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is supporting The Open University to work with Carnegie MellonUniversity to develop OLnet.

The aim of OLnet is to tackle gathering evidence and methods about how we can research and understand ways to learn in a more open world, particularly linked to Open Educational Resources (OER) but also looking at other influences. We want to gather evidence together but also spot the ideas that people see emerging from the opportunities.

Olnet will set up an infrastructure, support sub projects, support capacity building through fellowships, research the methods needed to help understand OER, research the designs that work and evaluate how OER can used and reused.

We see links with existing work at The Open University (OpenLearn, Cloudworks, Compendium, Cohere, FM Flashmeetings) and with Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative and work there to support those who want to reuse open resources and learn from the experience.

Early issues include which platform or platform to use - and how to relate OLnet and Cloudworks to help each activity.