Reusable Learning Objects for Medical Education: Evolving a Multi-institutional Collaboration

textabstractIn early 2002 a number of UK HE institutions founded a collaborative project to produce a bank of high quality e-learning resources to support and enhance teaching in the traditionally difficult area of statistics, epidemiology and research skills. Creation of these resources is very costly; typically amounting to more than one institution can afford to fund. Yet many of these resources are generic and can be used, re-used and shared between institutions. So the collaboration was proposed to produce and share these resources in a cost-effective manner. Reusable learning objects offer a number of educational advantages compared with more traditional course-based approaches. Because they are stand-alone resources that encompass a single “chunk” of learning, they can be used in many different ways and across disciplines. Entire courses may not be appropriate for re-use in different institutions (the “not invented here” syndrome) but individual learning objects can be selected and re-used as components of a much wider course. Resources may be presented in different formats within customisable virtual learning environments to suit individual learning styles and address disability issues and technological constraints. Material can be kept up to date more readily: it’s much easier to update a single resource than an entire course. Web-based materials can be indexed and stored in a fully searchable database and can thus be retrieved and downloaded directly to the user’s desktop. This paper outlines the approaches adopted during the first phase of the collaboration to develop e-learning resources to support teaching and enhance learning. Some of the problems faced by the collaborators in the early stages are described along with the decisions and strategies for effective progress