ABSTRACT

The learning objects literature is a collection of journal articles, book chapters, white papers, and blog entries that as a whole recognize few seminal works, share few common definitions of terms, and rarely reference or build upon one another. Learning objects research generally falls into one of two categories. The traditional approach to using learning objects focuses on enabling the just-in-time automated assembly of carefully structured learning objects to create personalized educational experiences. The permissive approach to using learning objects focuses on making the reuse and localization of all resources, regardless of their structure, as effective and efficient as possible. The field is subject to a large number of criticisms. Nascent work in open educational resources points to the likely future of the field.