Open Learning Network

Hello everyone,

After a six-month leave to work on my PhD thesis, I am back at OLnet this week. It's very interesting to come back to the project 6 months down the road, and have a fresh look at things. I still need to be updated on what's going on in terms of new projects and research, but I have already found out some really cool stuff going on in terms of the OLnet fellowships. For example, today I met Engin Kursun, a visiting fellow from Turkey who is working on his PhD. He is interested in investigating about and contributing to the OpenCourseWare movement in Turkey, and for doing so he is gathering ideas and research data from various opencourseware initiatives. He arrived at the UK in August this year and has another 5 months to stay here with us as an OLnet fellow. It will be very nice to hear from Engin with some preliminary findings of his study when he is further ahead with the study and able to disclosure some information. One of the things he is looking at is the lecturers' perspectives on freely publishing their course materials in the Internet for public use. He is specifically interested in perceived barriers and enablers for lecturers to share course materials online and their perceived value of OERs. It will be great to learn more about these things, as lecturers are key-players in the use and re-use of open educational resources, I'd suggest. I am looking forward to see what else OLnet is up to!