The Best Use of Infinity: Open Educational Resources and the Politics of Knowledge

A case study commissioned by the HEA Subject Centre for Art Design and Media.

As learning spaces go cyberspace is pretty big. Whether we want to pursue this concept of the internet as a physical space the idea of the geography of infinity is an interesting one to consider when discussing how best to use it. The idea of the ‘commons’ a physical space for the benefit of all is related to this.

This study will concern itself with the phenomenon of what have generally become known as ‘Open Educational Resources’ (OER) and originally as ‘OpenCourseWare’ (OCW). Essentially this is the practice of putting educational resources – lectures tests podcasts seminar notes ideas and reading lists and so on on-line for free.