The ongoing digitization of Education is enabling, some fundamental changes, including the emergence of personalization, improved information and analysis of educational performance and new didactic methods. Learning materials are also changing; digitized learning material and the widespread use of the internet are making the sharing of knowledge and insight so accessible that new approaches to developing learning materials are emerging. An example of this is the increasing use of Open learning material and/or; Open Educational Resources (OER); these not only create new opportunities, but their use places new demands on any learning platform.
The growing use of Open learning materials is also a confirmation of Summar.io’s open platform strategy. In addition to supporting the import and enhancement of open learning materials, Summar.io also allows the subsequent export and sharing of such improved materials.
Sharing to improve learning materials
The Learning Resource Exchange/LRE is an important resource internationally – helping educators find sharable OER across a wide range of countries and providers. Summar.io supports the import, export and enrichment of a wide range of educational material types and is committed to support all major international standards as they emerge and are adopted. In the Netherlands there are two major sources of OER: Wikiwijs – a repository of open materials and VO-Content: where secondary schools can access and share peer-reviewed materials and learning paths.
Improving learning materials through usage and feedback
In addition to the many sources of OER, the emergence of e.g. peer-reviewed and other quality assurance approaches as well as recommended learning paths is creating new opportunities for progress. Summar.io supports the use of VO-Content’s endorsed OER (“Stercollectie”) and allows:
– The provision of learning material on a personalized basis;
– Use of nonlinear learning paths
– Selection and delivery of learning material to meet specific learning objectives.
Through the application of these, the OER is enriched with information that enhances the learning material itself and increases its utility by adding information (so-called metadata). Summar.io was designed and is built based on the Open Source philosophy of Luminis – its technology partner.
