A new issue of EDUCAUSE Quarterly has just been released that focuses on "Anticipating the Future of Higher Education". The issue includes an article written by Patrick McAndrew, Eileen Scanlon and Doug Clow who all work with the OLnet team at The Open University that draws on a range of project work at the OU, including OpenLearn and OLnet. The lessons to take away are summarised as:

The top 10 articles (from the first year) on OLnet.org provide an indication of the areas covered:

When we stare at our televisions in the evening maybe we don't think of them as places were we could use Open Educational Resources (OERs). After all, this is a world where you have to be a big organisation to produce and transmit content, and for most people their involvement will be limited to passive consumption. Until now that is. Many changes are happening that mean people are taking control with their remotes. Opportunities are even emerging to experiment with shifting OERs from the laptop to the living room, and it is not as difficult to get involved as you might think.

We have been trialling Google Docs as a method of colaborating as a team on shared documents. I just thought I would record some frustrations that I have with the Spreadsheet version.

We were very sad to say goodbye to Engin Kursun, one of our OLnet fellows, who was with us from August 2009 to January 2010, but look forward to meeting up again at OER10 where he is presenting a paper with Tina Wilson and Patrick McAndrew.  Engin has returned to continue with his PhD studies at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey.

The OER conference in Stockholm (8&9 February 2010) addressed the scope for OER in Sweden. In many ways it could be ideal for adopting OER; there is a push towards distance learning that suits the geography and perhaps the personality and collaborative feel of the nation. The higher education system is strongly backed by the state and remains free of tuition fees at the moment – though that may not remain the case. Establishing OER in Sweden may help diversify the offering and further improve collaboration and flexibility.