Educators’ perceptions of learning object brokerage

A learning object broker service aims to facilitate the easy purchasing and selling of learning objects, thus enabling the efficient creation of course content. Although the success of such a service ultimately depends on it being accepted by educators, no previous empirical work has systematically studied their opinions and perceptions. To explore this issue, a survey was conducted. 173 educators from a cross-section of subject areas in UK higher and further education institutions were interviewed. After being presented with a short description of an 'ideal' learning object broker service, approximately two thirds of the interviewees reported that they would consider using the service to support their teaching. However, the most striking finding of the survey was the limited current usage of e-learning resources and digital media. Although the use of video either recorded from the television or purchased was widespread, none of the interviewees used any kind of computer-based learning resource.