Open Educational Resources - what’s going on?
The revolution continues apace - following the launch of the circular and related guidance in December, alongside the ongoing commentary in twitter and on blogs and the programme briefing day in January there is now a great deal of resources and guidance available for those currently writing to the 4th March deadline.
This is a joint JISC/Academy delivery of a HEFCE programme, to encourage the HE sector to release and share learning materials openly, for the benefit both of themselves (in terms of reputation, exposure and encouraging prospective student interest) and the world (regarding opportunities for the reuse of high quality learning materials).
We’re looking to help institutions and consortia put processes and policies in place to support the large scale and sustainable release of resources. So, it’s not about buying and relicensing stuff - more about helping people get over the “hump” of interia and changing the culture of the sector. Releasing valuable resources in their own way, suiting their own needs and benefiting the wider community.
And this first year is only the pilot - we are looking for evidence of what works, what are the approaches that are most effective in particular settings. Not in terms of institutional versus individual versus subject - in terms of common successful practices, key compontents of projects that have worked well. And an even bigger programme is intended to follow - learning from the trailblazing dynamism of the pilots and bringing OER into the mainstream.
Interest has been widespread - worldwide, even. A lot of eyes are focused on our HE sector regarding OER - in terms of pumping public resource into this agenda, and testing multiple models of release, we are leading the western world. And our (your) content is going to be out there. Via Jorum Open, via web pages and web 2.0 services. Making a case for the quality and innovation that the UK HE sector is respected for, and dragging this message into the 21st century worldwide learning economy.
Is this a programme or a revolution? From some angles it is hard to tell. Certainly we are taking a big risk, putting a marker down regarding our intentions and aspirations. And we are looking for a level of cultural change that we know is difficult to achieve and difficult to measure. Certainly some pilot projects will “fail”, but in terms of learning these are still successes as they help us on the road to understanding how to achieve our aims.
Effective use of social software report & case studies now available
This JISC funded report, and collection of 26 case studies, which examined the effective use of social software in the UK further and higher education sectors in enhancing student learning and engagement is now available for download at www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects/socialsoftware08.aspx.
This very readable report provides insights about the:
* educational goals of using social software tools;
* enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software;
* benefits to the students, educators and institutions;
* challenges that may influence a social software initiative;
* issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative.
It also includes a very useful ‘recommendations’ section aimed towards anyone considering implementing a social software initiative to support student learning and engagement.
I’d like to end this blog post with a quote taken from the study:
“When I thanked an educator, associated with one of the initiatives investigated in this study, at the end of a long day of interviews with her and her students, she said: ‘my heart is with the learners; if I know that something works for them, I want to share it with others so that other learners can also benefit; that is what we are here for - to help our learners’. This statement embodies the spirit of this study: the willingness of colleagues to share their experiences with the wider community.”
Quote from study author
Report on timetabling and resource scheduling
The final report on timetabling and resource scheduling undertaken by Oakleigh Consulting Ltd is now available.
A full copy of the report can be downloaded from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearningcapital/timetablingandresourceschedulingreport.pdf
The study was commissioned to produce scenarios and process models describing timetabling and resource scheduling processes, looking at where these interacted with other administrative process in an institution. It was also expected to summarise how well these processes are supported by currently available technology and to identify any problems or issues.
In addition JISC were looking for ways in which these processes could be improved and better supported by technology and to inform the future work of the JISC.
The study has been informed by wide consultation and a series of 8 regional consultative workshops, with representation from 59 institutions across further and higher education
sectors.
The report identified common approaches to timetabling and resource allocation; requirements identification, scheduling of activity, and location allocation. The report identifies and describes four model approaches to timetabling in institutions and examines the technical processes and requirements associated with each of these models.
The importance of the link between timetabling and curriculum design as well as its
importance in relation to work based learning and employer engagement are explored. It offers issues which could be relevant to be addressed by existing JISC projects in the Curriculum Design and Delivery Programmes and the Institutional Innovations Programmes.
The report “offers a useful profile of current practice, challenges, use of technology, and innovation throughout the HE and FE sectors, which can be used as a benchmark summary and act as a ‘menu’ of approaches and possible use of policy, technology, process, and people ‘levers’ to develop current practice”
The report provides a set of building blocks for successful practice and suggests that these could be refined into guidance materials for institutions and suggests the need for a community to share practice and issues around timetabling and resource scheduling. We’d welcome your opinion as to the benefits of guidance materials and a community of practice to institutions.
JISC encourages you to download and read this report and welcomes comments or questions relating to this report.