Online Repositories of Learning Designs: Pipedreams and Possibilities

Around the globe both country-specific and international organizations have been exploring the potential of sharing digital resources for education, including learning designs. Repositories are created and used for a variety of reasons ranging from efficiency to innovation and even financial gain. While some commercial repositories have met with success in certain countries, few -if any- open access repositories have achieved sufficient critical mass to fully realize their goals. While research literature exists that can help specify characteristics of effective open access learning design repositories, we severely lack sufficient insight into how to design and launch for sustainable repository use that is consistent with the initiative’s goals. This paper presents observations and critical reflections with the aim of stimulating research that can help bring the repository vision to life in ways not yet achieved.