The JISC-funded OER programme of projects have finally been launched: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/oer and anyone interested in issues surround sharing learning material really should be following these projects closely.
Follow this link to see a list of the projects being funded: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elreproduce/fundedoerprojects.xls. I spoke to Sarah Hall (very briefly) about OpenStaffs at Staffordshire University and I will watch the progress of the projects with interest. The Social Sciences department here at Birmingham are running one of the projects so it will be good to see how it goes.
The outcomes of these projects will be crucial in influencing how other UK HEIs begin to open up their content and share it with others. I will post soon about a talk I gave on Tuesday at an internal eLearning event and issues around sharing (including the adoption of standards and peer review of material) cropped up again.
*Very poor Rushmore-related joke: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128445/quotes
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
SOLSTICE Seminar: Creating and Sharing Digital Content
SOLSTICE Seminar Series:
Creating and Sharing Digital Content: Promises and Pitfalls
Thursday 16th July, 10am - 3.45pm
FREE EVENT!
Venue: Edge Hill University, Ormskirk
Creating the conditions for institutions to develop high quality content for use, reuse and open sharing is high on the agenda for UK Policy and funding bodies.
New institutional practices are required to support environments to mainstream and sustain use, reuse and open sharing of digital content.
Individual practitioners must also aquire new skills and strategies to realise the potential of open educational resources (OER).
This seminar will bring together who are currently working through all or some of these issues.
Melissa Highton, Head of the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University. Melissa is heading up the Open Spires Project funded under the recent JISC OER Call Open Spires focuses on supporting strategic institutional learning and encouraging cultural change.
The RLO CETL was established in 2005 and will be making all of its content freely available in the new Open Jorum.
If you require any further details please contact Amanda Boult at boulta@edgehill.ac.uk.
Creating and Sharing Digital Content: Promises and Pitfalls
Thursday 16th July, 10am - 3.45pm
FREE EVENT!
Venue: Edge Hill University, Ormskirk
Creating the conditions for institutions to develop high quality content for use, reuse and open sharing is high on the agenda for UK Policy and funding bodies.
New institutional practices are required to support environments to mainstream and sustain use, reuse and open sharing of digital content.
Individual practitioners must also aquire new skills and strategies to realise the potential of open educational resources (OER).
This seminar will bring together who are currently working through all or some of these issues.
Melissa Highton, Head of the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University. Melissa is heading up the Open Spires Project funded under the recent JISC OER Call Open Spires focuses on supporting strategic institutional learning and encouraging cultural change.
The RLO CETL was established in 2005 and will be making all of its content freely available in the new Open Jorum.
If you require any further details please contact Amanda Boult at boulta@edgehill.ac.uk.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Good Intentions report
I *finally* got around to finishing reading this report:
Good Intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials by Lou McGill, Sarah Currier, Charles Duncan, Peter Douglas (December 2008). Available at http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/
It makes very interesting, hopeful reading for those of us keen on truly sharing our learning materials, improving the quality of IL RLOs and reducing duplication of effort. The report looks at how sharing takes places and learning from the good practice that's out there in the RLO/repository community. The authors focus on different models that are particularly successful, including the subject-based sharing model and the open sharing model.
The subject-based model is of interest to us in libraries as the authors explain that disciplines with a strong professional identity (librarians) and shared curricula (we're all teaching referencing, plagiarism, evaluation of information and search strategies at least) are more successful than, say, institutional sharing models.
They conclude that evolving attitudes to IPRs (Creative Commons etc, Open Jorum) and technology (Web 2.0 sharing tools) mean that sharing is becoming more widespread. The report also includes some really useful tables and business model charts.
Good Intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials by Lou McGill, Sarah Currier, Charles Duncan, Peter Douglas (December 2008). Available at http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/
It makes very interesting, hopeful reading for those of us keen on truly sharing our learning materials, improving the quality of IL RLOs and reducing duplication of effort. The report looks at how sharing takes places and learning from the good practice that's out there in the RLO/repository community. The authors focus on different models that are particularly successful, including the subject-based sharing model and the open sharing model.
The subject-based model is of interest to us in libraries as the authors explain that disciplines with a strong professional identity (librarians) and shared curricula (we're all teaching referencing, plagiarism, evaluation of information and search strategies at least) are more successful than, say, institutional sharing models.
They conclude that evolving attitudes to IPRs (Creative Commons etc, Open Jorum) and technology (Web 2.0 sharing tools) mean that sharing is becoming more widespread. The report also includes some really useful tables and business model charts.
SUILCoP talk
Just wanted to update everyone about a presentation that I gave at the Staffordshire University Information Literacy Community of Practice (SUILCoP) on the 29th April. My talk covered the background to BRUM, RLOs in general and, most importantly, sharing learning material. It was good to speak to an audience who were all interested in sharing IL RLOs, but don't quite know where to start. After waffling on for about 45 minutes, there was a short group discussion and many of the issues that came up at the LILAC symposium were echoed here, including:
- Developing standards - by which I mean having a set of standards as to how material is first created. For example, DDA compliance was raised as an issue for one library and I'm sure this would be a universal standard.
- Training/expertise - it was agreed by the participants that some of our time when developing IL training material is wasted in getting to know software or new bits of kit (e.g. Captivate, TurningPoint, Echo360) and virtually no formal training is offered in library schools (Bob Glass of MMU is keen to follow up this point in particular).
- One-stop shop - many people expressed interest in the idea of a one-stop shop of shared training materials or at least a detailed listing of what's out there. I have put up a current listing of all the IL RLO sites that I'm aware of on the ILRLOShare wiki (details below).
It was a really enjoyable event and it was interesting to meet so many like-minded library folk. I've uploaded my slides to SlideShare so please take a look: http://www.slideshare.net/NancyGraham/rlo-design
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
IL RLO Share wiki
In order to keep the momentum going from the LILAC symposium discussions I've set up a wiki at http://ilrloshare.wetpaint.com to host:
- the discussion write-up
- discussion threads on all topics discussed at LILAC
- IL RLO intitiatives/project links
- IL RLO events
- del.icio.us links relating to IL RLOs and sharing of learning material
If you're interested in any of the above or any aspect of IL RLOs please follow the link and click on the Apply to be a Writer button.
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