More repurposing

I spent yesterday uploading more learning material into our WebCT and organising the content into modules. This proved to be a hit and miss affair depending on the organisation of the files within the zip file downloaded from Jorum. Both learning modules were designed as SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) packages so that you should be able to simply upload them into WebCT as they are.

However, after uploading the first SCORM package I wanted to edit the order of the files and delete a couple of them. I tried to find a way of doing this in WebCT but couldn't. I then tried to edit the original files on my computer then re-save them but this didn't work either. I've contacted one of our eLearning team so I'm hoping that they'll find a way of doing this as editing the SCORM package within WebCT would be by far the most convenient way of repurposing.

I found that most of the files were named according to the original users' needs. This didn't make further organisation very easy as I had to go into each file (about 30) and rename them with meaningful titles. Compare this with the first ever learning object that I downloaded that included a file called 'Read me' with full instructions on which order to put files etc. So, for example the first learning object that I worked on yesterday was a module made up of about 163 HTML files. These were listed as below:

page1.html
page10.html
page2.html and so on...

Unfortunately these pages weren't in the order of the module and many of the files included were images (figues and tables within other HTML files) and so weren't necessarily needed to be listed in the module in WebCT.

The compatibility of SCORM with WebCT has big implications for academics, librarians and other learning technologists to be able to repurpose material easily. Having said this, thoughtful organisation and naming of files would also have saved me alot of time and hassle. In our end of project report I'll be compiling all of our usability feedback and contacting Jorum with it. It would be great if when repurposing content new users give tips on how they have either improved the organisation or metadata of the original material and/or highlighted the challenges they faced. If this knowledge could be added to the metadate in Jorum this could improve the process for any further users. Just a thought.

First one done!

I spent this morning uploading and playing around with one of the LOs from Jorum. The title is Reading Critically and is an introduction to detecting bias in a piece of written work from the University of Edinburgh Settlement (http://www.sett.ed.ac.uk/). The LO itself is a series of HTML pages containing a piece of text and asking students to answer various questions about bias, so it's got a good level of interactivity. There are also tutor answers and the option to print out the material.

Uploading the zip file and extracting all subsequent files into WebCT was very straightforward. There was a very useful file entitled 'Read me' which held all the instructions about which HTML file to link to in order for the others to work. I set up a folder in WebCT and followed the instructions and all seems fine.

I then had a tinker with the text within the original HTML source page and edited a few sections. This was very easy too and I think that with not much effort an academic/learning technologist could easily repurpose into a subject specific LO.

It may be that for some LOs the hard part will be the pedagogical issues as I spent some time over whether to edit the content to suit a higher level of student, make it more interactive etc. whilst the actual editing was very quick. As with creating learning material from scratch it's all about the planning - who is it aimed at and what do you want them to learn from it?

I think we will need to include a section on aims, learning objectives and other pedagogical aspects in any workflow documents.

More next week when I tackle the rest...!

Project web page and update

Rachel has now added a section to the GEL web site for the ReJiG project. You can find it at http://www.gel.bham.ac.uk/ReJIG.shtml. We will add any links and updates to this page as well as to the blog and this is where we will put links to some or all of the learning objects (LOs).

Update
An audit of Jorum was undertaken and we identified 11 LOs that are appropriate for repurposing. Using our information retrieval skills (!) we drew up a list of keywords and terms to search for learning material and also made use of the different taxonomies on Jorum to find stuff. This stage took a long time and I think a systematic search of Jorum may put some people off. The different taxonomies (MeSH, JACS etc.) won't mean much to many of our academics so I think a review of these would be useful.

Once I found what looked like useful material I checked the metadata to view a full description and to check things like file type and size. So, we ended up with 11 LOs in subject areas ranging from critical reading, using statistical data right through to basic laboratory skills. Some are simple Microsoft Word documents whilst others are a bit more complex.

We have now begun the repurposing phase of the project. I'll be working on 6 LOs, Rachel will be working on 5 and we have so far uploaded them into our institutional virtual learning environment (VLE) WebCT. We will store them there whilst we 'play around' with repurposing and develop our workflow documents.

I will add more to the blog at the end of this week as we are really into the nuts and bolts of the project now and discovering much about this process every day.

ReJiG: BRUM part two?

Even though the BRUM project was completed last year, we're still receiving requests to share our experience of developing RLOs for information literacy from interested practitioners and I have started another project which is almost a BRUM part two: Return of the Killer BRUM!

ReJiG (Repurposing from Jorum into GEL) is an internally funded project with money from our generous alumni through the University of Birmingham Fund scheme. Along with a colleague from our Learning Development Unit, Rachel Wood, this project aims to repurpose learning material from Jorum to fill gaps in our Guide to Effective Learning (GEL) web site. The GEL site contains a host of study skills material, most of which is available to anyone accessing the site.

One of the reasons behind the project, and this is where it partly follows on from BRUM, is to further engage academics and support staff in reusing and repurposing learning materials. We're hoping that along with lots of repurposed content we will also develop a flowchart/checklist/process map for anyone wanting to reuse material from Jorum. We have tried to encourage use of Jorum (and the wealth of guidance provided on the site) within our institution but most of the academics that we've spoken to would like a bit more direction and reassurance about the process of repurposing.

So far we have audited the GEL site and identified gaps in provision. So, we now know we need to focus on material for numeracy, critical and analytical thinking and research skills. I recently undertook an audit of the Jorum repository to find appropriate materials and came up with a long list of possibles.

Rachel and I will now look to identify about 10 learning objects from my initial list to repurpose for use on the GEL site and spend the next month or so getting our hands dirty and repurposing the material.

I'll post further information as the project progresses but if anyone out there is undertaking anything similar please do get in touch.

Librarians without frontiers

I travelled to Lesbos last week for the 7th Libraries Without Walls conference. I gave a paper about BRUM on the practicalities of creating RLOs for information literacy covering the technical and design aspects, liaison and issues for the future. Keynote speaker Christine Borgman asked a pertinent question about sustainability, which I hadn't addressed in the talk. Ann-Marie and I did look at the issues surrounding sustainability including using repositories such as Jorum and collaborating further with external colleagues on exploring ownership of RLOs and reusability of learning objects with obsolete software etc.

Later in the conference I got talking to Susan Eales who used to work at JISC and helped to set up Jorum and we had a discussion about the copyright issues attached to learning objects being put back in to Jorum once they've been re-purposed.

As part of our recommendations from the project we will be following up these issues with external colleagues such as JISC and other RLO creators such as Rebecca Mogg at Cardiff.

All of the other papers at the conference were really interesting and varied and after I've got through autumn term and seeing hundreds of new medical students I'll write up a conference report and put any relevant RLO-related points on the blog.

In the mean time enjoy some photos from Lesbos. I've yet to ask conference delegates permissions for their images so they're photos of the scenery.