Internal responses to informal learning data: testing a rapid commissioning approach

There are several unique aspects to researching the behaviour and motivations of informal learners. Examining informal learning data can allow researchers to respond more quickly, and at a greater scale, than to data gathered through formal institutional research processes. Studies undertaken in 2013 (Law, Perryman and Law, 2013; Perryman, Law and Law, 2013; and Law, Perryman and Law, 2014), in collaboration with The Open University’s OER Research Hub (http://www.oerresearchhub.org) provided a set of recommendations for The Open University (OU) around informal learning. These primarily drove the OU’s commissioning approach to scope new content for informal learning channels during 2014 and to improve the usability of OpenLearn -- the key platform on which free resources are delivered by the OU (www.open.edu/openlearn). This paper reports on the impact of research undertaken in 2013 and 2014 into informal learning on the OpenLearn platform and shows how simple research models in the open can bring about change in a short period of time