by Gerard L. Hanley, Ph.D.
Merlot Program Manager and Senior Director, Academic
Technology Support California State University, Office of the Chancellor

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is
a cooperatively developed, free, web-based resource where faculty can easily find digital
learning materials with evaluations and guidance for use. Designed primarily for
faculty and students in higher education, MERLOT (www.merlot.org) addresses the
difficulties that institutions of higher education and their faculty experience, fulfilling
the promises of technology enhanced education. Institutions make regular and
substantial investments in the development of instructional technology amidst concerns
that they may be "reinventing the wheel." There are many challenges for faculty
producing high quality instructional materials in a timely and reliable manner, receiving
appropriate professional recognition for their work and providing evidence of
improvements in teaching and learning. Many more faculty are ready to use online
teaching resources rather than author instructional technology. One of the major goals
of MERLOT is to enable faculty to effectively and easily choose and use the best learning
materials for their students' learning needs, their own teaching methods and the learning
goals of their academic program.

The continuously expanding resources in MERLOT currently include over 6,000
descriptions of web-based learning materials for a wide range of disciplines, sample
student assignments for using the materials, peer reviews of the materials and comments
by users of the materials (see http://www.merlot.org/home/WhatsNew.po for what's new
in MERLOT.) MERLOT also contains over 7,000 profiles of people who are the users
and contributors of the materials within MERLOT. Learning materials are indexed on
the MERLOT site by its members through supporting templates and instructions. Most
of the learning materials found on www.merlot.org are modular (e.g., simulations,
tutorials, animations, other collections) and are designed to be integrated within the
context of a larger course. Most of the materials run inside a web browser, which
facilitates use within an online course or as assignments to students outside the classroom.

Community Development of MERLOT: MERLOT's development is driven by the
cooperation among academic institutions, professional organizations and individual
people who strive to enrich teaching and learning experiences. The MERLOT project
is supported by 22 systems and institutions of higher education
(http://taste.merlot.org/institutional.html) as well as the National Science Foundation and
National Learning Infrastructure Initiative of EDUCAUSE. The California State University,
which created MERLOT in 1997, continues its leadership of and responsibilities for the
management, planning and operation of MERLOT's processes and tools. For more
details about the history and organization of MERLOT, go to http://taste.merlot.org.

A strategic priority of MERLOT is the peer review of online learning materials, a process
that will help insure that learning materials within the MERLOT collection address
significant theoretical or research issues are contextually accurate, pedagogically sound
and technically easy to use. MERLOT uses three (3) evaluation standards: quality of
content, potential effectiveness for teaching and learning and ease of use in its peer
review process. MERLOT has modeled its peer reviews after the discipline-based
peer review of scholarship and research. Perhaps most importantly it provides a
mechanism for professional recognition for faculty developing and using instructional
technology. Details about MERLOT evaluation standards and review process can be
found at: http://taste.merlot.org/eval.html and http://taste.merlot.org/process.html

Academic Communities of Reviewers: MERLOT trains and sustains 13 editorial boards
which are responsible for finding, organizing, reviewing and managing a large quantity of
high quality learning materials and support resources. The faculty on these discipline-
based editorial boards are selected by the 22 institutional partners in the MERLOT project,
see: http://taste.merlot.org/join/external.html for more details.

Complementing Peer Reviews with User Comments: MERLOT has a second and parallel
review process that complements the formal peer reviews. Anyone who signs on as an
individual member of MERLOT can contribute User Comments. The user-centered review
process has precedence in a number of highly used websites, such as Amazon.com, and
will allow individuals to provide their observations and evaluations on the learning materials
within MERLOT. A User Comments page containing guidelines for giving feedback
parallels the evaluation standards used in MERLOT's peer review process.

Usability Testing and Program Evaluation: Assessment is at the core of designing reliable,
usable, reusable, effective tools and processes for users of MERLOT. The assessment of
MERLOT is conducted by the CSU, Long Beach Center for Usability in Design and
Assessment (CUDA). CUDA evaluates MERLOT workshops, peer review processes and
tools, online community building, management and facilitation processes, collaboration
processes and the usability of the MERLOT websites (see:
http://taste.merlot.org/assessing/overview.html for summary of findings.)

In conclusion, MERLOT is developing a digital resource for faculty by facilitating faculty's
participation in the design, development, expansion and evaluation of the collection of
academic content connected with pedagogy. All faculty are invited to join this cooperative
endeavor and shape the resource to serve their needs. Become a MERLOT member at:
http://www.merlot.org; it's free and easy.