The Evolution of MERLOT

MERLOT (www.merlot.org), the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, was launched more than 16 years ago as a project of the California State University System, but has evolved significantly since its inception. The first rendition of MERLOT was simply a repository of fewer than 4,000 learning materials. Today MERLOT is a multi-service resource, with a collection of 42,000+ carefully curated and peer reviewed materials at its nucleus, serving an international community of 120,000+ members, and supporting more than 50 unique academic and Partner Community teaching and learning portals. With the collection repository at its nucleus, MERLOT supports a variety of social networking services that encourage discourse and communication among all users of Open Educational Resources. Since the launch of MERLOT II in October, 2013, the community has improved access to the many new services described in this presentation.