Merlot : A Repository of e-Learning Objects for Higher Education

University faculties are under increasing pressure to do more with less. They are expected to continuously improve educational experiences to more students at less expense. Without assistance, the pressures of increasing demands and decreasing resources may prove too great to maintain a high quality learning environment. Merlot is an online repository of e-Learning objects designed to enable a broad base of faculty to provide high quality, online material to enhance college level learning. The materials in Merlot may be peer reviewed by both experts in the discipline and users of the materials. As teaching takes a more important role in promotion and tenure decisions at universities, Merlot provides a mechanism for evaluating online learning and teaching materials in a fashion similar to other scholarly research. Quality of content, potential effectiveness as a teaching tool, and ease of use are the key criteria in the Merlot review process. This paper provides a description of Merlot, the peer review process, examples of Merlot objects, and the role Merlot plays in the promotion, evaluation, and dissemination of e-Learning objects.