Lumen Learning vs OpenLearn

Lumen Learning develops digital courseware and faculty professional development resources for higher education. Its course materials replace textbooks with interactive text, video, simulations, practice questions, updated content, and mobile-friendly access. The catalog covers more than 50 subjects, with a focus on introductory, general education, and developmental courses. Lumen One offers personalized study plans, immediate feedback, student-faculty connection tools, a peer community, and teaching-practice tips. Courseware can be customized after delivery into Canvas, Blackboard Learn, D2L Brightspace, or Moodle and adjusted for different term lengths. Mobile access works through common browsers on iOS and Android without an app. Static courseware text and images are open educational resources. The course support fee is $35/term. Additional options include professional development priced per seat.

OpenLearn is a free web learning platform delivered by The Open University. It offers courses, articles, quizzes, interactive games, videos and audio across many subjects, with short courses described as taking 1 to 24 hours. The listed Free courses plan includes nearly 1,000 courses at free. After completion, learners can download a free Statement of Participation, and some courses award a digital badge. OpenLearn courses do not carry formal credit toward a qualification. A free account enables enrolment, progress tracking and activity-record downloads; general content is available without an account, though users must be at least 13 to create one. Materials can be shared through other learning systems in IMS Common Cartridge, HTML and Moodle formats. OpenLearn says its software tools are open source and its main learning environments use Moodle and Drupal. The site reports partial WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, with issues in some legacy images and interactive activities. It was founded in 2006 and is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.