"Many colleagues have commented previously that the relationship between MOOCs and OERs is problematic, now it seems to have hit the skids altogether." So writes Lorna Campbell, of the new FuitureLearn website, which went live today. My eyes are still hurting after looking at it - an orange and pink colour scheme will do that (thank Wolff Olins (see also, and also) for the design). There are no courses yet available on this UK-MOOC site, but there is nonetheless plenty to talk about. In particular, Lorna Campbell highlights the terms and conditions posted on the site, criticizing the conditions. She writes, "If content can not be reproduced, modified or transferred then clearly it can not be reused, therefore it is not open." David Kernohan, on Twitter, opines, "least open license possible, no under 16s, purchasing clauses, gathers data from (& sells to) external sources. Open. 2013." I don't care about the "attribution non-commercial" aspect of the license, but do wonder why FutureLearn applies a "no derivatives" claise, and also why it stipulates that content is accessed strictly "through a student account," which does seem to preclude sharing. Also, I couldn't help laughing at a tweet proving pretty much conclusively that FutureLearn's terms and conditions are copied and adapted from Udacity's (or, less likely, that both are copied and adapted from some third source) - I've saved the comparison here.
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