In an Economy for Reusable Learning Objects, Who Pulls the Strings?

It seems a foregone conclusion that repositories for reusable learning objects (RLOs), based on common standards and supported by suitable search facilities, will foster a global economic market in the production of RLOs. Actual reuse will support producers of high-quality RLOs, and other producers will be unable to compete, i.e. competition within the market will implicitly define the qualities that are needed. This paper challenges the suggestion that this will occur. If the marked is defined as cost versus value, then the set of qualities that distinguishes RLOs from other educational software prohibits the development scalable search engines to search the repositories. At a more sophisticated level of market analysis, it is the needs of the producers, rather than the purchasers, that will define quality in the market. Any attempt to limit this imbalance will, paradoxically, require acceptance of alternative constraints that many may find hard to accept.