What is a Learning Object?
Evolution of Educational Resources
For centuries, the main educational resources were written texts on tablets, manuscripts, or books. Now, educational resources are readily available in various types, whether physical or digital.
The Emergence of Learning Objects
In the early 2000s, the concept of learning objects emerged. Learning objects (LO) are defined as any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education, or training [1]. Essentially, it could be any object that helps learners achieve one or more learning goals.
This broad definition is necessary because education is changing tremendously due to the combined effect of demographical and technological explosions over the last 70 years [2]. New types of LO have recently appeared, such as MOOCs or podcasts, and new ones will undoubtedly be created with the rise of Virtual reality and Metaverse.
Addressing the Paradox in Education
Up to now, education was focused on scalability, i.e., how to provide satisfactory education at a large scale. Going forward, education is aiming at providing a more personalized learning experience to each learner (e.g., adaptive learning).
The education system is thus facing a paradox: how to deliver large-scale education (i.e., standard learning pathways) while personalizing each learner's learning pathway. Learning objects are a key part of the solution to this paradox: by breaking down the learning pathway into smaller objects, we can interchange the learning objects in a learning pathway while ensuring that they all lead to the same learning goals.
Competency-Based Education vs. Traditional Education Systems
This shift is related to the concept of Competency-based education compared to Traditional education systems.