Contents 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................5

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................7

1.1

Background ....................................................................................................................7

1.2

Report Objectives...........................................................................................................7

1.3 Scope of the Report........................................................................................................7

1.4 What do we mean when we say `Repository'?................................................................8

1.5 Why the trend towards repositories? ..............................................................................9

1.5.1 The need for learning repositories............................................................................9

1.5.1 `Silos' of high quality resources ..............................................................................10

1.5.2 Inaccessible Resources .........................................................................................10

1.5.3 Contributing Resources..........................................................................................10

1.5.4 The Google effect ..................................................................................................10

1.5.5 Supporting a community ........................................................................................11

1.6 User Expectations of a Repository System...................................................................11

1.6.1 Main Requirements ................................................................................................11

1.6.2 Additional Requirements ........................................................................................15

1.6.3 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................17

2. E LEARNING REPOSITORY INITIATIVES................................................................................18

2.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................18

2.2 The JORUM Initiative ...................................................................................................18

2.3 International Repository Initiatives ................................................................................19

2.3.1 CAREO (Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Materials).............................20

2.3.2 Wisconsin Online Resource Center........................................................................22

2.3.3 BELLE (Broadband Enabled Lifelong Learning Environment)................................24

2.3.4 POOL (The Portal for Online Objects in Learning) .................................................26

2.3.5 CLOE (The Co operative Learning Object Exchange) ...........................................28

2.3.6 MERLOT ................................................................................................................30

2.3.7 Maricopa Learning Exchange.................................................................................32

2.3.8 GEM (Gateway to Educational Materials) ..............................................................33

2.3.9 Connexions ............................................................................................................35

2.3.10 EducaNext ...........................................................................................................37

2.3.11 LoLa.....................................................................................................................39

2.3.12 The Learning Matrix .............................................................................................41

2.3.13 MIT OpenCourseWare .........................................................................................43

2.3.14 DLearn .................................................................................................................45

2.3.15 EdNA Online ........................................................................................................47

2.3.16 AEShareNet .........................................................................................................49

2.3.17 LionShare.............................................................................................................51

2.3.18 ARIADNE (European Knowledge Pool System)...................................................53

2.3.19 BCcampus ...........................................................................................................55

2.4 Trends within Repositories ...........................................................................................57

2.4.1 Metadata Catalogues not Objects ..........................................................................57

2.4.2 Federated Searches...............................................................................................57

2.4.3 Creative Commons Licence ...................................................................................57

2.4.4 Quality Assurance of Content.................................................................................57

2.4.5 Open Source..........................................................................................................58

2.4.6 Peer to Peer ..........................................................................................................58

2.4.7 Community Support ...............................................................................................58

2.4.8 Contribution Schemes............................................................................................59

2.5 Reflections on JORUM .................................................................................................59

2.6 Recommendations........................................................................................................60

2.6.1 Investigate Further .................................................................................................60

2.6.2 Repositories to Watch ............................................................................................60

2.6.3 Practical Implementations ......................................................................................60

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