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Research > Learning Portals
Learning Portals are centralized learning centres or repositories that contain an aggregation of educational information on a topic, often current or continually updated. Learners explore according to their own interest, time, and space. Learning portals support user and context learning, and are less centered on administration of that content and the results of the learning.
Coolest Websites for Learning Portals

MERLOT is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses. MERLOT's activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of its Individual Members, Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.

ISKME created OER Commons, publicly launched in February 2007, to provide support for and build a knowledge base around the use and reuse of open educational resources (OER). As a network for teaching and learning materials, the web site offers engagement with resources in the form of social bookmarking, tagging, rating, and reviewing. OER Commons has forged alliances with over 120 major content partners to provide a single point of access through which educators and learners can search across collections to access over 30,000 items, find and provide descriptive information about each resource, and retrieve the ones they need. By being "open," these resources are publicly available for all to use, and principally through Creative Commons licensing, many thousands are legally available for repurposing, modifying and improving.

Open CourseWare Consortium: http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

The OpenCourseWareConsortium is a worldwide community of hundreds of higher education institutions and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWare and its impact on global education. We serve as a resource for starting and sustaining OCW projects, as a coordinating body for the movement on a global scale, and as a forum for exchange of ideas and future planning

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Curriki originated from the idea that technology can play a crucial role in breaking down the barriers of the Education Divide – the gap between those who have access to high-quality education and those who do not. Curriki helps bridge this divide by providing free and open resources to teachers who need them most. A non-profit organization, Curriki is the leading K-12 global community for teachers, students and parents to create, share, and find open learning resources that improve teacher effectiveness and student outcomes. As a global community, Curriki encourages collaboration of diverse experiences from around the world to develop "best of breed" learning resources (peer-reviewed and classroom tested) and to create a culture of continuous improvement. Curriki attracts more than 2 million unique visitors per year.

Education is an undeniable human right that is often taken for granted. At Online College Classes you will find resources offered by some of the finest educational institutions in the world in an exceptionally large variety of academic disciplines and topics. We want to help people realize their potential through eye-opening lecture series, online college courses, open courseware, online university texts and a plethora of informative multimedia. We provide language learning materials, podcasts, and academic research. Truly a comprehensive survey of modern and historical thought, Online College Classes offers a wealth of information.

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