These tools have been developed through the

OLnet and OULDI projects at the Open University.

OULDI
Tools for 
The OULDI project was initially funded through
strategic development from the Open University and
subsequently secured additional funding from the
JISC through the new Curriculum Design
programme. The project is interested in providing
sharing and 
support for the entire design process; from
gathering initial ideas, through consolidating,
producing and using designs, to sharing, reuse and
community engagement. These are complex and
You can access the tools from connecting 
challenging processes that involve a range of the following places:
stakeholders with different interests; issues and
representations are different depending on whether
design occurs at the level of individual activity, www.cohere.open.ac.uk
course or curriculum. Our vision is of a learning
design methodology and suite of practical tools and www.compendium.open.ac.uk
resources that bridge between good pedagogic
www.compendiumld.open.ac.uk
practice and effective use of new technologies.
www.cloudworks.ac.uk
OLnet

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is

supporting the development of the Open Learning More information about the
Network – OLnet. The project aims to bring tools and projects can be found
researchers and educators together in an intelligent
social network to share knowledge on the at: www.olnet.org and
development of Open Educational Resources (OER).
OLnet is a partnership project between The Open www.ouldi.open.ac.uk
University and Carnegie Mellon University. OLnet is
developing the tool Cohere as a research and
prototype infrastructure to aggregate the
community's collective experiences of designing and
using OER, and to track debate around the OER
movement. OLnet is also supporting the
maintenance of Compendium and Compendium LD
and the OLnet team are active users of Cloudworks.
 Compendium is a concept mapping software tool which provides a flexible visual interface for managing
the connections between information and ideas. Features include:
• Drag and drop documents and websites onto a map
• Complete freedom to arrange icons
• Keyword tagging
• Map and label the connections between concepts to illustrate links
• Create 'Dialogue Maps' to display links to everyone’s ideas in group projects
• Create 'Argument Maps' to work collaboratively, editing each other's writing
• Share learning pathways
• Organise large amounts of information
• Place resources in sequence to develop a learning path
• Publish maps

Cohere is a Web tool to enhance CompendiumLD

collaborative learning, sense-making and is a software tool
critical thinking. With Cohere, researchers adapted from
and practitioners in Open Education can Compendium for
make their thinking visible and sharable designing learning
with online communities; they can collab- activities using a
oratively annotate the Web, leverage lists Cloudworks.ac.uk is a place for people interested
flexible visual
of annotations into meaningful knowledge in sharing, finding and discussing educational ideas
interface. It is being
maps and engage in structured online and experiences. You don’t have to be an
developed as a tool
discussions. experienced educator or social networker to use
to support
the site. You can use it for asking a question,
lecturers, teachers
discussing a problem, sharing an idea or experience,
and others involved
collecting related resources together, showcasing
in education to help
your work, finding inspiration...
them articulate
their ideas and map
out the design or
learning sequence.