3.2 OpenLearn Create

This section explores what The Open University offers in terms of a platform.

If your course needs to be open and available perpetually you might want to consider OpenLearn Create [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] which offers the following features for course creators and learners:

• free hosting of an open course or resource
• the facility for assessment activities
• open badges which can be automatically issued by the platform based on activity completion
• the facility for learners to download their activity record while they are working through the course
• a free Statement of Participation for successful completion of a course
• a course forum for enrolled users of your course (though a forum needs to be moderated)
• optional activity tools such as questionnaires, quizzes, glossaries, peer assessment (for tutor/moderator supported courses only which have a start and end date), wikis and blogs.
• video and image uploads
• the system can generate alternative format versions of your course materials (such as PDF, XML, Word, ebook versions of your course) for learners to download if the materials have been uploaded using structured content tools (it is currently only possible for Open University staff to set this up). It also supports you uploading alternative formats or supplementary material to help users who have difficulty accessing certain resource formats (such as transcripts for video or audio files)
• a licence choosing tool to enable you to decide which open licence to use for your course.

OpenLearn Create is a Moodle-based platform and supports XML structured content uploads. Anything created using the Moodle-only functionality will not generate alternative formats of your course materials – these have to be uploaded manually to the platform.

Guidance for using OpenLearn Create can be found in the Get started section of the website.

A direct authoring tool for creating and rendering a course using structured content functionality will be available on the platform soon.