pumpkin

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It feels slightly wrong to be reviewing the project’s activities during the last month when I’m sitting in sun-drenched Palm Springs, California, but hey, no rest for the wicked!

October was scarily busy from the word go. Barbara Means and Linda Shear from SRI International, who were asked by the Hewlett Foundation to evaluate the work of the OER Research Hub, spent time with us in Milton Keynes: two productive, enjoyable but intense days that helped us push our thinking together about what might come next for the hub. SRI’s visit preceded TJ Bliss’ call to the OU on his ‘Listening Tour’ of Hewlett grantees, and so it was that he listened while we talked and when he talked, we listened, learning from each other. It’s days like this that make it all worth it.

Back on the road, Rob was invited to participate in a Creative Commons workshop in Porto, to help plan the next steps of the OER Policy for Europe Project. Martin and Beck headed up to Edinburg for the official launch of OEP Scotland, and closer to home they co-presented on open access books in one of the events planned by the OU Library during Open Access Week. Martin took ‘The Battle for Open’ to the University of Texas, Arlington and finally, Beck had time to catch up with fellows Jane Park and Billy Meinke at MozFest in London.

Kudos to Leigh-Anne Perryman and Patrina Law who were finalists for the Best Research Paper Award at the 8th EDEN Research Workshop with ‘Internal Responses to Informal Learning Data: Testing a Rapid Commissioning Approach’ –how research has informed the development of open badges at the Open University; and also to Alannah Fitzgerald, who went one step further: her FLAX Project won the LinkedUp Vici Challenge for the use of open data in education.

The first facilitated presentation of our School of Open course on Open Research came to a close after four weeks of interesting discussions in the forums, crazy Google hangouts and a bit of blogging on the side. If you took part and have a few minutes to spare, please give us your feedback and help us make the course better!

Stay tuned for news coming to you live from the iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium in Palm Springs, California; and OpenCon and OpenEd in Washington DC.

As I said, no rest for the wicked.