Stephen Downes

Andy Lane offers his reflections on 20 years of the Open University's OpenLearn project, from its beginnings as a Hewlett-funded initiative influenced by things like Creative Commons and MIT OpenCourseWare through to its current status as a fixture of the university. What stands out to me is how much OpenLearn depended on continued funding and support from the University, and how other initiatives with less consistent and stable support were not able to achieve the same success. That said, what also emerges is the long-term impact sharing learning resources has had on the wider community. I would also like to see him expand on his comment that "the report on OER policies I linked to earlier proposed that the MOOC movement severely hindered the OER movement."