Librarian’s Top 3 RLOs

Picture: University of Birmingham - Main Library, the hub of RLO creation and evaluation!

Following on from Nancy’s post about the excellent feedback we had from our librarian colleagues, we have now received further useful evaluations, which will inform the future development of the RLOs and their use at the University. I thought it would also be interesting to poll colleagues for their ‘top 3’ RLOs. Although based on a small sample (currently of 4), the current combined view is:

1) Digital Recording - Library Tour
2) Turning Point (personal response system) - Referencing
3) Podcast – elibrary

Overall there was a very wide range of interest in the different RLOs, and comments indicated that people imagined using them in very different ways.
What are your Top 3? (RLOs available from the BRUM RLOs for download link)
And how do you use them?

Project promotion and JORUM

We finally got around to sending out an email to the LIS-INFOLITERACY mailing list, calling out for news of any similar projects in the UK. It would be great to get some feedback on the RLOs from other librarians too.

We are now busy helping academics post the RLOs on their WebCT sections and encouraging students to fill in the diagnostic questionnaire. We will post updates as and when we get them.

On a related note, I attended a JORUM training session in Leicester a couple of weeks ago and it was really useful in highlighting how we could best organise and use any RLOs created at the University. Eventually we could have a system in which a co-ordinator gathers together all RLOs, quality checks them and contributes them to JORUM.

But I think the most interesting part would happen after someone else downloads, re-purposes and re-uses a learning object. To be able to track any changes that took place with an RLO that you created would be really useful to see how they evolve and at which point they are most useful etc. I spoke to the techy person from JORUM who thought this was a good idea, but said that any updated or edited RLOs wouldn't be able to go back into JORUM due to copyright restrictions. Maybe something for the future...

Do you use Learning Object Repositories?

The JISC CDLOR (Community Dimensions of Learning Object Repositories) has just produced an interesting report on if and how people involved in teaching and learning currently find, create, store and share their educational resources.

Findings suggest that there is significant sharing of work, but that this is predominantly within departments and via email and the majority of respondents re-purpose materials (rather than using them without modification). Issues include the searchability of repositories, the trustworthiness of resources, and the integration of repositories with institutional VLEs.

RLO evaluation

I've just read the evaluation of our RLOs by two of our librarian colleagues. They're really valuable and both come up with some excellent suggestions. I suppose it's a bit like having our very own editoral board looking at what we've created and quality assuring the content. Having an outsider look at your work and criticise it is really very useful.

It's brought up issues that we were already aware of, such as the technical aspects that we need to improve upon to make the RLOs more user friendly. What we'll need to do is put some time aside to make improvements to the RLOs and release new versions of them. These learning objects can't stand still, they must constantly evolve and be allowed to change as appropriate.

We've also decided that we need to make several versions of RLOs available at the same time. Our colleagues have had problems downloading the eLibrary podcasts and we're thinking about putting up three or four different software types to choose from.

Colleagues also made the point that these RLOs can be embedded not only in course material but also within appropriate library web pages so that our referencing RLOs are linked to from our referencing website and so on.

Another interesting point made by a colleague is that we should have a clearer framework for each RLO, focusing on who our intended users are and maybe even putting together learning outcomes for each learning object. I think this would make a crucial part of a workflow document each time an RLO is produced, especially if we then contribute it to JORUM.

More soon....

Students like RLO !

We used the Captivate ‘Doing a Literature Search’ RLO in a lecture room, with 2nd year Business students this week. Despite being eerily quiet (as there isn’t any sound with this RLO), the RLO was really well received., students’ confidence improved and students appeared to be receptive to the idea of an RLO.

Student comments were particularly enlightening: most (33 out of 58) found out how to ‘find and use information' through trial and error. Second was ‘friends’ and joint third ‘lecturers’ and ‘self-guided materials’. Only 5 replies mentioned ‘a course’ and 1 a ‘library tour’, and nobody mentioned their friendly librarian! This suggests to me that we still have a lot to do in reaching out to students and supporting them in ways and at a time that are meaningful to them. Hopefully providing quality RLOs will help in this area, alongside providing more embedded information skills sessions, in context and at the point of need.