26 October - 1 November 2009
What is the future of educational resources in higher education? Many people believe the future is free. Making scholarly material freely available online to other scholars is, as Nick Sheppard reminds us in his article in the latest issue of our ALT Journal, part of "the democratization of knowledge". Leeds Met is establishing an institutional repository: an online environment for collecting, preserving and disseminating the intellectual output of the University. Work is underway to extend the repository to learning and teaching by using it for storing and sharing Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) both within Leeds Met and, where appropriate, externally.
This week's reflection is an introduction to Open Educational Resources by Simon Thomson of the Technology Enhanced Learning team.
Reflection
Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to prepare a teaching session at short notice? We all know how long it takes to prepare a good quality teaching session. Wouldn't it sometimes be nice to be able to search for teaching and learning materials that were copyright free and accessible? Let us introduce you to Open Educational Resources (OER).
Leeds Met and other UK institutions, with support from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), are involved in a pilot study for such a resource repository. Utilising Leeds Met's repository we aim to increase awareness of OER and content availability, using open licences to allow sharing and repurposing. The Leeds Met project 'Unicycle' has representation in all Faculties as well as our CETLs. Do you have some good teaching and learning materials you would like to make available to the community? You would be identified as the author and attributed nationally for the work. As part of the pilot we are looking for pilot modules to create and access OER materials - do you have a Semester 2 module for which you still need material? Maybe the project can help you source materials in return for your contributions.
Simon Thomson
Technology Enhanced Learning team
Project Manager, Unicycle OER
s.thomson@leedsmet.ac.uk
Update
National Teaching Fellow Stephen Gomez, Head of Work-Based and Placement Learning at the University of Plymouth, will be giving the first in our series of 'Inspiring Teaching Masterclasses' on 2 November from 2-4pm in the Rose Bowl. He will speak on 'Transforming lives through work placements'. For full details and to book, go to the ALT Calendar.
If you are interested in finding out more about Open Educational Resources, there is a TEL Network event on OER from 12-2pm on 29 October in Old Broadcasting House. To book contact telteam@leedsmet.ac.uk
On 26 November there will be a workshop on how to use Open Educational Resources and the institutional repository from 2-4pm in LSB G28 [Library], Civic Quarter. To book please contact Louise Conyard, l.conyard@leedsmet.ac.uk
Further information can be found at:
. UNESCO OER Toolkit: http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/index.php?title=UNESCO_OER_Toolkit
. Reusable Learning Object CETL: http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/
. JISC OER Programme: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/oer/
. Creative Commons licensing: http://creativecommons.org/
. OpenEd: http://opened.creativecommons.org/
. Giving Knowledge for Free: the emergence of open educational resources (OECD publication): http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/7/38654317.pdf
The Institute for Enterprise is working with Faculty staff to devise a framework of enterprise competencies. These competencies will allow staff to map their course to an enterprise framework and ensure that formative and summative assessments make students' enterprising skills more visible and consistent. The framework mirrors the work already done by CETL ALPS in this area. Initially it will be piloted as part of the review of courses in the Faculty of Business and Law and then rolled out across all Faculties. University academic staff, Institute for Enterprise staff and students are participating in workshops to develop and refine the wording. This is an exciting example of innovative work completed in one Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning being transferred into a different subject area.
Sally Brown
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
S.Brown@leedsmet.ac.uk