Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


New OER Exchange Opens with 680,000 Free Learning Objects

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/24/13

Educational technology company Pearson has launched its OpenClass Exchange for instructors. Out of the gate, the new open education resource (OER) catalog will include links to 680,000 instructional and learning items. Pearson also said it has updated its learning environment, OpenClass. The announcements came during ISTE 2013, the annual conference for the International Society for Technology in Education.

OpenClass Exchange lets instructors search and get to digital content culled from e-textbooks, course resources, videos, and other educational content that's free and open. They can also create and add content to the exchange. For example, the catalog will include pointers to videos from YouTube EDU, Khan Academy, and TED-Ed as well as materials from Washington State's Open Course Library, and other sources.

Pearson promised to continue adding content to the Exchange with updates taking place on an ongoing basis.

"The introduction of the OpenClass Exchange provides educators with the 21st century resources, assets, and best practices they need to keep students engaged, coupled with the social connectivity tools students have come to expect," said Matthew Leavy, president and CEO of Pearson eCollege and Pearson Higher Education Learning Technologies.

Pearson has also added new social features to OpenClass that will help users exploit content from the exchange. For example, the online service now has an upgraded function that lets users perform preset and keyword searches, refine search results with "accordion navigation," and select from featured items through a carousel banner or a "popular content" listing.

The update to OpenClass also lets students and teachers create a network of peers using a "follow" function. Users will be able to set up groupings based on interests, projects, and other designations. The service has also added a notification feature to notify users about OpenClass activity pertinent to them, such as an assignment being returned or a response is posted to a thread they're part of.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • silhouette of business person facing wall of data

    Why AI Strategy Belongs in the President's Office

    Institutions that are succeeding with AI share one thing in common, and it is not a better committee, a larger budget, or a more sophisticated technology stack. It is a president who never handed off the steering wheel.

  • Jason Palm

    AI, Identity, and Speed: Cybersecurity Priorities for Higher Ed

    Fortinet Security Operations Specialist Jason Palm explains how AI is raising new security challenges for higher education, requiring stronger governance, identity protection, threat detection, automation, and incident readiness.

  • Neon blue security locks with a single red highlight

    AI Shifts Cybersecurity Focus from Finding Flaws to Fixing Them

    For decades, one of cybersecurity's most difficult challenges has been finding vulnerabilities before attackers do. A growing number of security professionals now say artificial intelligence is changing that equation, shifting the focus from discovering flaws to fixing them quickly enough to prevent exploitation.

  • Man types on laptop in data center

    Point-in-Time Restore Now Generally Available for Windows 11

    Microsoft has made point-in-time restore generally available for Windows 11, giving users and IT administrators a built-in way to roll back PCs after bad updates, driver problems, app corruption, or other issues.