Building open bridges: collaborative remixing and reuse of open educational resources across organisations

In this paper we analyse the remixing and reuse of online learning materials offered as Open Educational Resources (OER). We explore the practices that developed as a set of course materials were released as OER from the UK, remixed for a US context by a cross-organisational, cross-cultural team, and then reused in a broad range of educational settings. We analyse the approaches taken during these remixing and reuse activities as novel forms of creative collaboration. As a basis for comparison, we explore similarities and differences with other Open practices. We identify how openness provoked novel inter-organisational collaboration and forms of ownership; define forms of open practice that need support, and present issues that should be considered in devising and supporting open projects in education and beyond