Stephen Downes

Are learning objects making a comeback? We saw Cengage basically lay claim to the term last week with its announcement of a platform called Learning Objects. In this paper we read of a project evaluating learning objects using the Learning Object Review Instrument (LORI), another blast from the past. But the interesting part of the paper isn't the evaluation process. It's the effort to assemble learning activities from reusable learning resources in an entirely peer-to-peer environment. "The result is, for the first time, a self-contained end-to-end, P2P eLearning system with no reliance of any sort on client-server eLearning systems. This research on quality assurance has successfully contributed in achieving the overall goal." Alas, not the first. P2P learning object networks are yet another Canadian invention ahead of is time.