This unique book outlines approaches to sharing and reusing resources for sustainable e-learning.

Every day, learners use and reuse open, digital resources for learning. Reusing Open Resources offers a vision of the potential of these open, online resources to support learning. The book follows on from Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to E-learning. At that time focus was on the creation, release and reuse of digital learning resources modeled on educational materials. Since then the open release of resources and data has become mainstream, rather than specialist, changing societal expectations around resource reuse. Social and professional learning networks are now routine places for the exchange of online knowledge resources that are shared, manipulated and reused in new ways, opening opportunities for new models of business, research and learning. The goal of this book is to extend the debate of how open, online resources might support learning across diverse contexts. Twenty-four distinguished experts from nine countries distributed across Europe and North America contribute empirical evidence and ideas. Collectively they provide a vision of the potential of open, online resources to support learning across everyday contexts of education, work and life.

Every day, learners use and reuse open, digital resources for learning. Reusing Open Resources offers a vision of the potential of these open, online resources to support learning. The book follows on from Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to E-learning. At that time focus was on the creation, release and reuse of digital learning resources modeled on educational materials. Since then the open release of resources and data has become mainstream, rather than specialist, changing societal expectations around resource reuse. Social and professional learning networks are now routine places for the exchange of online knowledge resources that are shared, manipulated and reused in new ways, opening opportunities for new models of business, research and learning. The goal of this book is to extend the debate of how open, online resources might support learning across diverse contexts. Twenty-four distinguished experts from nine countries distributed across Europe and North America contribute empirical evidence and ideas. Collectively they provide a vision of the potential of open, online resources to support learning across everyday contexts of education, work and life.

A valuable source of information, insight, and fresh ideas about a crucial aspect of the growing sustainable design movement Mounting resource shortages worldwide coupled with skyrocketing extraction costs for new materials have made the prospect of materials reuse and recycling an issue of paramount importance. A fundamental goal of the sustainable design movement is to derive utmost use from construction materials and components, including energy, water, materials, building components, whole structures, and even entire infrastructures. Written by an expert with many years of experience in both industry and academe, this book explores a wide range of sustainable design strategies which designers around the globe are using to create efficient and aesthetically pleasing buildings from waste streams and discarded items. Emphasizing performance issues, design considerations and process constraints, it describes numerous fully realized projects, and explores theoretical applications still on the drawing board. There is a growing awareness worldwide of the need for cyclical systems of materials reuse. Pioneering efforts at “closed-loop” design date as far back as 1960s, but only recently have architects and designers begun to focus on the opportunities which discarded materials can provide for creating high performance structures. A source of insight and fresh ideas for architects, engineers, and designers, Resource Salvation: Reviews the theory and practice of building material and waste reuse and describes best practices in that area worldwide Describes projects that use closed-loop thinking to influence and inspire the design of components, interiors, whole buildings, or urban landscapes Illustrates how using discarded materials and focusing on closed loops can lead to new concepts in architecture, building science, and urban design Demonstrates how designers have developed aesthetically compelling solutions to the demands of rigorous performance standards Resource Salvation is a source of information and inspiration for architects, civil engineers, green building professionals, building materials suppliers, landscape designers, urban designers, and government policymakers. It is certain to become required reading in university courses in sustainable architecture, as well as materials engineering and environmental engineering curricula with a sustainable design component.

This research set out to examine developments in reuse and repurposing of online digital resources within higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) over a period (2003-2010), when the emphasis of educational resource reuse and repurposing activity shifted from reusable learning objects (RLO) to open educational resources (OER). It aims to contribute to understanding of this transition, and locates this shift within a broader picture of UK HE activity within the UK, and a wider understanding of reuse of learning resources in digital, online form. The research presents a review and critical examination of the environment in which reuse practice occurred. It does this through macroenvironmental, mesoenvironmental and microenvironmental level reviews. The microenvionmental review is presented through research analysis of five case examples from UK HE and a sixth example from HE in Ireland. The mesoenvironmental review examines the significant changes in resource facilitation and practice during the research period. This thesis is particularly concerned with identifying and understanding how reuse of digital online learning resources was facilitated in practice, and whether reuse occurred, or occurred in the form(s) anticipated. The thesis identifies and examines themes and factors which appeared to have influenced, or had potential to influence, reuse in each case. Cross-case comparison offers a synthesis of the research observations. Finally, a structured approach to classifying factors is suggested based on this research. This leads to generalisable recommendations of how to facilitate digital online resource reuse in the future.

"This book provides a useful reference to the latest advancements in the area of educational technology and e-learning"--Provided by publisher.

The purpose of this research and development study was to design, develop, evaluate and revise reusable online learning resources based on the principles of learning objects that would support instructional design students' learning and performance in the context of ATC in Saudi Arabia. Using a research and development model (Borg and Gall, 1989), Instructional Design reusable online learning resources (ID-RORs) were iteratively and collaboratively developed and revised based on feedback gathered through formative evaluation. Between each round of qualitative formative evaluation, the ID-RORs were revised based on analysis of the data. Seven main research and development phases were carried out: research and information collecting, a needs assessment, prototype development, expert evaluations, redesign, target user evaluations and redesign. The formative evaluation of ID-RORs consisted of three phases. The first evaluation group was comprised of four experts. The purpose of this evaluation was to conduct a needs assessment. The second phase, which used feedback from two experts and two instructional design teachers, was the expert evaluation. The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the validity of the ID-RORs. The third phase, based on feedback from 11 students, was the user evaluation. The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the practicality of the ID-RORs. The overall results of the needs assessment evaluation showed that the ID-RORs prototype met an important need at ATC. The overall result of the expert evaluation showed that the ID-RORs prototype were valid for the context of ATC. Finally, the result of target user evaluation showed that the ID-RORs as revised with expert and user input were practical for the intended target users. Based on the results of this R & D study, it was concluded that the answer to the research question is yes, it is possible to develop the ID-RORs to meet the specifications of the needs assessment. The characteristics of ID-RORs are very similar to the characteristics of successful (valid and practical) reusable online resources. The final version of the ID-RORs were found to be needed, valid and practical, in the context of ATC.