Last year’s Prime Minister’s Supreme Award winner shares her thoughts | A student view of innovation in teach-ing| We talk with Prof. Gareth Jones about teaching, innovation and CALT | An innovative approach to data capture | Open Educational Resources - ready or not? | The way I see it...

IN THIS ISSUE:

Innovation in Teaching & Learning

AKORANGAAKKORANGATHE PERIODICAL ABOUT LEARNING AND TEACHING FROM THE HIGHER EDUCA TION DEVELOPMENT CENTREISSUE 5: December 200 9ISSUE 5: February 2010

AKORANGAAKKORANGAISSUE 5: December 200 9

Last year’s Prime Minister’s Supreme Award winner shares her thoughts | A student view of innovation in teaching | We talk with Prof. Gareth Jones about teaching, innovation and CALT | An innovative approach to data capture | Open Educational Resources - ready or not? | The way I see it...

THE PERIODICAL ABOUT LEARNING AND TEACHING FROM THE HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTREISSUE 5: February 2010

AKORANGA ISSUE 5FEBRUARY 2010

WELCOME FROM THE EDITORIAL TEAM...

In the spirit of innovation we have created a new look for Akoranga this year and have also introduced the idea of themes. The theme for this fifth issue of Akoranga, and the first for 2010, is Innovation in Teaching and Learn-ing. We’ve tried to present a diverse range of views, ideas and examples of practice from staff, students and others in the Dunedin com-munity about what this means. In addition, we thought it would be interesting to canvas the views of people out and about on the Dunedin campus; some of the responses we received are printed throughout this issue.

We hope there is plenty in this issue to get you thinking about teaching and learning, and in particular to act as a stimulus to reflect on your own teaching practice.

This current and all past issues of Akoranga are available online at the Akoranga website: http://hedc.otago.ac.nz/akoranga

We welcome submissions to Akoranga from staff and students at Otago. The theme of our next issue (due out in September) is Values in Education. Please contact us, or check the Akoranga website, for submission guidelines if you would like to contribute. We also welcome your views, feedback, or letters on any of the items featured. Drop us an e-mail at: hedc.akoranga@otago.ac.nz

Happy reading and best wishes for a productive year ahead!

Ayelet, Candi, Kin and Jenny

What’s new? -2- Recent changes at HEDCAssociate Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith, HoD, HEDC

Questioning oneself: the premise of innovation in teaching -3-An interview with Selene Mize, winner of last year’s Prime Minister’s Supreme AwardSwee Kin Loke, HEDC

Passing the ball -4-Student Tim Vaughan’s thoughts on innovationAyelet Cohen, HEDC

Advancing Learning and Teaching -5-Prof. Gareth Jones, DVC (A&I), reflects on the role of CALT and teaching and learningJenny McDonald, HEDC

An autovideography approach to data capture -6-Working with a new research methodologyRussell Butson, Carla Thomson, HEDC

Open Educational Resources at Otago -7- An introduction to OER

Dunedin is making global OER futures happen! -7- Exploring OER Robin Day and Wayne Mackintosh, OER Foundation, Otago Polytechnic

Is the University of Otago ready for OER? -8-9- Jenny McDonald, Ayelet Cohen, HEDC

Higher Education update -9-10-Recent articles around the topic of innovationSwee Kin Loke, HEDC

Innovation in Teaching and Learning... The way I see it... -10-Opinion pieceAssociate Professor Tony Harland, HEDC

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Akoranga is produced by the Higher Edu-cation Development Centre (HEDC) at the University of Otago for all University staff.

Printing: Southern Colour Print

Copyright: We welcome reprinting if per-mission is sought.

We would like to acknowledge and thank all contributors to this newsletter.

Teaching Colloquia, The annual Chamber Debate, and Unitube – http://unitube.otago.ac.nz).

In my new role I have set up a Management Team to help lead and manage HEDC. The team (pictured below) consists of Debbie Downs (Centre Manager), Jenny McDonald (Academic Director of Educational Media), Sarah Stein (Co-ordinator of Academic Staff Development) and Jacques van der Meer (Co-ordinator of Student Learning Development).

Planning is well underway for our activities this year and new things to look out for include an expanded Peer-Assisted Study Session (PASS) programme from the team at the Student Learn-ing Centre and new packages of offerings for: new teachers, new supervisors, and teachers wanting support in educational research. A developing innovation is the establishment of sev-eral special interest groups to allow networking and learning with others who share similar interests. Some recently formed groups include undergraduate research and inquiry, institu-tional research, and the first year experience. We are also looking at how staff could gain a postgraduate qualification in academic practice through attendance (and some related as-sessment) at workshops and courses we offer, as well as gain-ing credit for participation in CALT-funded projects, teaching award nominations, etc. Future issues of Akoranga will keep you up to date with any developments. In the meantime, if there are any initiatives you think HEDC should be considering, we would welcome hearing from you.

WHAT’S NEW?

Given the focus on innovation in this issue of Akoranga, it is timely that I describe recent changes at HEDC. Are these changes innovative? Perhaps not, but certainly there is a fresh look for the management of HEDC and some innovation in the pipeline...

Late in 2009 I took on the role of Head of the Higher Educa-tion Development Centre (HEDC). HEDC is best described as an academic department with a significant institution-focussed service component. The main activities of HEDC include:

• Supporting academic staff professional development (e.g. workshops, consultations – individuals and groups, mentoring, postgraduate courses, evaluation services)• Supporting student development through the work of the Student Learning Centre (e.g. workshops, consultations, peer-assisted study sessions (PASS))• Supporting the integration of technology with teaching through the work of Educational Media (e.g. developing web-sites, web-based software and media which support learning and teaching)• Engaging in research (currently HEDC has nine PBRF- eligible staff)• Contributing to the development of policies and practices through committee work (e.g. BUGS, BOGS, CALT)• Fostering communities of practice and raising awareness of teaching and learning (e.g. this periodical, Spotlight on

Associate Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith, HoD, HEDC

2In the photos: HEDC’s Management Team (left to right): Associate Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith (HoD), Jenny McDonald (Academic Director of Educational Media), Sarah Stein (Co-ordinator of Academic Staff Development), Debbie Downs (Centre Manager), Jacques van der Meer (Co-ordinator of Student Learning Development).

The winner of the 2009 Prime Minister’s Supreme Award talks about the necessity of innovation & experimentation.

“Some of the things I’ve done have worked really well,” says Selene Mize, “and some haven’t.” During our one-hour conver-sation, this law lecturer seemingly preferred to recount the initiatives that did not yield the expected outcomes, including an oral argument option for presenting research which was eventually dropped. Her fortnightly invitations for students to have lunch with her at the seminar room were also hardly taken up. “But I might try it again some other time,” Selene adds. It became apparent to me on what the success of New Zealand’s top tertiary educator was, in part, built.

Her perseverance in experimenting with new ideas is only matched by her relentless search for feedback on her per-formance. “If things are not going well, do you want to know they’re not going well, or do you want to be in la-la land and think they’re going well when they’re not? If you looked at my portfolio, you’d see some years where there was quite a dip. Even though I feel kind of sad about it for a few days,” she laughs before emphasising, “it’s valuable. Something is not go-ing right in my class: what’s not going right? How can I fix it?”

Questions, questions, questions. Looking at the tran-script of our conversation, I notice the relatively high ratio of questions to statements.

“If you’re really trying to be a good teacher, then you have to be constantly thinking about what’s going to make it better. Should I try this? Or should I bring this content in? I think that just goes with being a good teacher. You can’t really know how well you’re performing unless you’re questioning it. You’re questioning it in your own reflection. You’re questioning it in the form of feedback from people, surveys, and course evalu-ations.”

These are the very questions that have guided Selene’s growth as a teacher for over 20 years - just practical, commonsense questions – and yet also questions that are informed by the sheer faith that it is always possible to become a better teacher.

“If you set your course in stone, write all your lectures and

say, ‘Now I’m going to deliver this for the next 30 or 40 years’, you’re going to miss out on some teaching effectiveness. I don’t think you have to innovate for the sake of innovation, but you have to constantly think, ‘Is there some way to im-prove this?’” Notice the trend?

“You’ve got to be open to the possibilities for improvement; you’ve got to be looking for them. Maybe you won’t find any, but you don’t want to close your mind to them.”

And where do these new ideas come from?“Learning from other people - other people in my department, at the university, at conferences - you get great ideas. And so the more you can borrow…” she laughs and adds in all serious-ness, “and make it your own, though. You can’t just do exactly what somebody else did. They start the idea, but you make it your own by shaping it to your own circumstances.”

Therein lies the art of being a teacher.

“It’s very rewarding to be a teacher. I love being a teacher. I knew I wanted to be a teacher by the time I was 13 or 14 years old, and it was long before I knew what I wanted to teach. So many people say, ‘To be a good teacher, you have to be passionate about your subject matter.’ I think you have to be passionate about teaching and have fun in teaching whatever, and whoever. I like working with people and just kind of seeing them improve. Seeing them, you know, progress.”

Swee Kin Loke, HEDC

“If you’re really trying to be a good teacher, then you have to be constantly thinking about what’s going to make it bet-ter. Should I try this? Or should I bring this content in?”

QUESTIONING ONESELF: THE PREMISE OF INNOVATION IN TEACHING

Staff- “Innovation is discouraged in lecturers. It

is considered not collegial to spend time on it and aim high

or fall out of step with accepted mediocrity, as it detracts from

research. Even teaching innova-tions with a concurrent research

angle are frowned upon.”

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PASSING THE BALL

Student Tim Vaughan explores four aspects of what he believes to be innovative in teaching and learning.

In order to gain a perspective on the topic of innovation from a student point of view, I met with Tim Vaughan, a third year student from the School of Business. From Tim’s responses to my questions it was obvious that he was confident that innova-tion in both teaching and learning was a concept he had been exposed to during his studies here at Otago. In trying to anal-yse what he thinks makes teaching and learning innovative, he came up with the following key practices.

1. Exposing students to a variety of theories and opinions on a subject, allowing the students to figure out themselves what they believe to be true.

“Some of my lecturers seemed to have strong beliefs towards a particular theory. Although I had a great understanding of that specific theory, I felt that this narrowed my understanding of the subject as a whole. Lecturers who introduced a range of theories, regardless of how controversial they were, allowed me to develop my understanding of the subject and find out where I stood in the matter.“

2. Showing students why theories are relevant to them: how will they be useful to them in the market place?

“When I see how something is going to be relevant to my future it’s easier for me to get excited about it. I become self motivated in learning it. When teachers demonstrate how a theory will be applicable to me in the ‘real world’, I immedi-ately want to know more about it.”

“Let’s take compulsory courses for example; the reality is that some people won’t be happy to take them. The way I see it, the only way to encourage them to learn is by providing them inspiration, a rounded view on the subject and how it is relevant to them.”

3. Not telling you how to do things, but rather encouraging you to do it yourself by inspiring you to take charge of your learning instead of having you “being fed” the material.

“In an innovation paper I did a while ago we were given a project where we had to come up with an innovative product or service. I found that by going through the process myself, I was exposed to more aspects, and felt I learned more than I would have had I simply been given the material.”

4. Providing an innovative platform to facilitate learning can lead to innovative ways for students to learn.

“I was heavily involved with the Audacious business plan competition last year. The Audacious business competition gets together a group of budding entrepreneurs where we compete for who has the best business plan. Every few weeks we would attend seminars where speakers from the ‘real world’ would inspire and teach us from their experiences. In addition to this, Ryan Priemus was always available as a ‘business coach’ with whom we were able to bounce off ideas and get constructive criticism about our progress… Having all the other entrepreneurs together created a sort of synergy and we fed off each other’s enthusiasm and vision for our businesses. I believe this style of teaching really encouraged me to learn on my own accord… “

“It was innovative because we learned ourselves, out of our own desire or goals that made us go there, what we wanted to achieve.”

Lastly, he added: “The students in the competition were not particularly worried about whether they would win or not (although this was a hugely motivating factor); they were mainly there because they gained from and enjoyed the process.”

I’m not sure why, but in a way I was surprised at what Tim chose to describe as “innovation in teaching and learn-ing”. It would appear that the core of innovative teach-ing in his eyes involves simply elements of good teach-ing: for example, focusing more on the process itself, providing opportunities for experiential learning (learning by doing) and, mainly, “passing the ball” to the students, and trusting their ability to as-sume responsibility.

Ayelet Cohen, HEDC

“IT WAS INNOVATIVE BECAUSE WE LEARNED

OURSELVES, OUT OF OUR OWN DESIRE OR GOALS

THAT MADE US GO THERE, WHAT WE WANTED TO

ACHIEVE.”

Staff- “I’m a very big fan of innovation in teaching and learning, but my major concern would be that we look at whether our students are learning or not scientifically. When you’re talking about innovation in teaching, there is absolutely no point in even thinking about innovation until you’re clear exactly what it is you’re trying to achieve: what do you mean that you want your students to ‘learn more’? What skills do you expect them to have and how would you test to see if they have those skills?”

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Universities around the world espouse the principles of excel-lence and innovation in teaching. At Otago, the Committee for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) was set up in 1999 to support and promote excellence in learning and teaching across the University.

The then DVC (Academic), Dr Phil Meade, chaired this new committee of Senate which was formed following the dis-solution of the Teaching and Learning Excellence Committee and the Distance Learning Committee. In addition to handling funds for Research into University Teaching and Internationali-sation Grants, the new committee also took over the Educa-tional Technology Support Services grants which had previ-ously been administered by the Information Services Division, and these became the new Innovation in Teaching Grants.

Since 1999 there have been a number of changes to CALT, to its terms of reference and to the grants it administers. Nonetheless, its overall purpose remains the same: to support and promote excellence in learning and teaching across the University.

In February this year, Prof. Gareth Jones completes his 5 year term as DVC (A&I) and also as chair of CALT. Akoranga

took the opportunity late last year to ask Gareth to reflect on the role of CALT and also on teaching and learning generally. We began by asking him to tease out the differ-ences between innovation in teach-ing and excellence in teaching.

Gareth: “With innovation in teaching you are looking at in-novation in content and innovation in delivery. For instance, let’s say that someone gives the same lecture for 25 years - and I’m sure no-one in the University does, but let us say someone did. They give it in exactly the same way; that’s hardly an example of innovation. But what about someone who gives essentially the same material, but year after year presents it in rather different ways … makes it exciting. One could say there is innovation there in delivery. Or what about someone who updates their material and is very much ‘cutting edge’ in terms of the content of the ideas ... but presents it in a standard fashion? Is that innovation? It seems to me that as you look at those last two examples ... you’ve got illustra-tions of different forms of innovation. So, in essence, I’d see innovation as openness to new ideas, new ways of expressing old or traditional ideas and new ways of putting ideas across. And, of course, new ways of putting ideas across may well involve the use of cutting edge technology.”

“I don’t see how you can have excellent teaching without some aspect of innovation built into it. The problem often is we might just see the innovation in terms of technology. So you can have someone who is doing superb teaching, but it’s not innovatory in that sense, and therefore I think we tend to separate them; and I don’t think we should separate them. I think, with excellent teaching, it really is going to influence

the students, it’s going to excite the students and it’s going to relate to the students. I would see excellent teaching and innovatory teaching going hand in hand.”

Akoranga: Do you have any advice for new academic teaching staff?

Gareth: “Don’t assume that you can teach well! I think that if you have people who are extremely good at what they do in terms of research and scholarship they can easily assume, ‘well, I can do it, therefore the students are going to pick up anything and everything that I give them’, and of course that can go horribly wrong. Don’t assume you’re a good teacher without people actually telling you that you are and those people include students. Therefore go looking for ways that you can be assisted, and go looking for ways in which you can present your material as well, and in as exciting a way as possible. I would go to people who have expertise in higher education - HEDC - also peers, people who have been teach-ing for some time, and people who are regarded as being good communicators … and I would go and ask the students.”

Akoranga: What about more experienced teaching staff - what advice would you have for them?

Gareth: “If they are any good, they know how well, or oth-erwise, they are performing. They might be at ease in large group teaching or small group face-to-face teaching. But they know strengths and weaknesses, and they need to seek out assistance [in areas] where they know they are somewhat weaker.”

Akoranga: Why do we struggle with the tensions between teaching and technology?

Gareth: “When looking at technology I think we’re afraid and we’re afraid that technology is going to lead us by the nose. It’s very obvious, when you see the ways students use certain technologies, we fear that technology will dominate every-thing … the latest gadget or gizmo will overshadow everything we’re trying to do in teaching. Like many other people in soci-ety, we fear that technology is getting out of control ... tech-nology might force us out of our comfortable rut: ‘I’ve done it this way for 20 years, why should I change?’ We’ll never get away from those tensions. We shouldn’t expect to get away from those tensions; but through the tensions we can be cre-ative. This is something we’ve got to learn. This is something not catered for, not talked about enough in the University, and this is where CALT can play a role.”

Akoranga: Will CALT’s role remain the same or change into the future?

Gareth: “It does seem to me that CALT will become of increas-ing importance. I think it’s important the University has a body like CALT asking awkward and sometimes embarrassing questions. The challenge is how to get CALT’s thinking into the wider University. We’re only just beginning to grapple with this. Without the think-tank side to something like CALT, then I think we would be very happy doing things the way we’ve always done them, and that’s not good enough for an institu-tion like this one.”

The full interview with Prof. Gareth Jones was recorded on video and is available at http://unitube.otago.ac.nz/view?m=7Uzgi19H3Y

Prof. Vernon Squire will succeed Prof. Jones as Chair of CALT from February 2010. For more information on CALT, including CALT membership, divisional representatives, contact details, CALT grants and brief descriptions of projects completed by past CALT grant recipients, go to http://www.otago.ac.nz/calt

Thanks to Ruth Taylor for assistance with historical information.

ADVANCINGLEARNING AND TEACHINGJenny McDonald, HEDC

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Russell Butson, Carla Thomson, HEDC

There has been little research that draws on students’ first-hand accounts and experiences of the ways that they use computer technologies to support their learning, especially the learning in which they engage outside of formal instruc-tional contexts.

In 2009, as part of a CALT-funded project exploring students’ learning behavior in this context, we asked four third-year students to make video recordings of their personal academic use of computer technology. We chose autovideography over more traditional methods to explore this under-researched field because we believed it would enable us to get as close as possible to students’ authentic behaviours, first-hand experi-ences and perspectives. Our interest lay primarily in capturing what students did (actual technology practices) rather than what they said they did (reported practices). We were excited about autovideography’s potential to reveal those private technological and academic practices that are ordinarily hid-den from faculty and researcher gaze.

This was an exciting new data collection method for us. We had never worked with video data (let alone relinquished control of data collection to students/participants) and it was rarely used in our immediate academic environment. As we viewed and worked with our participant-created videos, we increasingly recognised their power and uniqueness as sources of evidence.

In this article, we outline some of the ways that we developed and worked with this new methodology, which we alternatively label ‘autovideography’ (Kozinets & Belk, 2006), ‘native-generated imagery’ or ‘participant-created indigenous media’ (Rich & Chalfen, 1999).

Collecting autovideography dataWe gave the participants a range of record-ing devices to choose from, and asked them to create video and audio recordings of their authentic study practices. Beyond this brief, we issued very little direction. The students were free to record what they wished and to do what they wished (edit/delete/re-record) with their record-ings.

At intervals during the project, the students handed over their recordings to us. We then:

1. uploaded and converted the files2. viewed, annotated and partially transcribed the files3. identified emerging themes (iterative process)4. produced edited clips that exemplified emerging themes.

Our participants viewed the edited clips and gave permission for them to be viewed by other participants and used for re-search purposes. The clips were loaded onto a project website for all members to view, and respective clips were burnt to DVD for each participant.

As we commenced data collection, we were armed with theo-retical understandings of autovideography that were informed by the fields of visual methodology (Banks, 2001, 2007; Rich & Chalfen, 1999; Rose, 2007), video research in the learning sciences (Goldman, Pea, Barron, & Derry, 2007) and qualita-tive consumer research studies (Belk & Kozinets, 2005; Starr & Fernandez, 2007). However, we had little warning of the techni-cal hiccups and other challenges which we would encounter in using this new methodology.

ConsOur lack of experience with autovideography meant we lacked a clear picture of process-es and practices to employ. As a result, we had to respond to issues as they arose. For instance, we had to overcome a number of technical issues, particularly around upload-ing and converting data files, that resulted from using different recording devices. These problems consumed considerable time and made the early stages of data gathering rather stressful.

An issue that we are currently grappling with concerns the presentation of our findings. The multimedia artefacts are an essential component of the research evidence and, therefore, should be part of any publication. But incorporating multime-dia files into traditional paper-based publications is problem-atic. One solution we are considering is including url links (to web pages which host selected video clips) within published articles. This, of course, raises ethical dilemmas to do with the anonymity and confidentiality of participants.

ProsIts problematic elements notwithstanding, autovideography offered us insights into the concealed processes that students employ in their study (http://extreme.otago.ac.nz/SUICT/index.html). In particular, we gained insights into:• the particular processes (workflow) used by our participants in the construction of an essay;• the integration of technologies and texts: audio-players, word processor, mobile phone, texts, instant messenger, email, etc;• the lack of technologies used such as Web, planning (Out-look), note-taking (OneNote) and referencing (Endnote).

In addition, the student participants reported that, as a result of their involvement in the project and their use of autovid-eography, they had a better understanding of their practice. Consequently, some participants had made, or were contem-plating making, changes in their technology practice.

SummaryAlthough we encountered a number of pit-falls and problems with autovideography, we are convinced that it has the potential to uncover powerful, unique and previously unattainable data. We are keen to explore this methodology further and welcome any discussion about it.

Correspondence to Russell Butson: russell.butson@otago.ac.nz.

AN AUTOVIDEOGRAPHY APPROACH TO DATA CAPTURE

Banks, M. (2001). Visual methods in social research. London: Sage.

Banks, M. (2007). Using visual data in qualitative research. London: Sage.

Belk, R. W., & Kozinets, R. V. (2005). Videography in marketing and consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 8(2), pp. 128-141.

Goldman, R., Pea, R., Barron, B., & Derry, S. J. (Eds.) (2007). Video research in the learning sciences. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kozinets, R. V., & Belk, R. W. (2006). Camcorder society: Quality videography in consumer and marketing research. In R. W. Belk (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative research methods in marketing (pp. 335-344). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publish-ing Ltd.

Rich, M., & Chalfen, R. (1999). Showing and telling asthma. Children teaching physicians with visual narrative. Visual Studies, Vol. 14(1), pp. 51-71.

Rose, G. (2007). Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

Starr, R. G., & Fernandez, K. V. (2007). The mindcam methodology: Perceiving through the native’s eye. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 10(2), pp. 168-182.

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DUNEDIN IS MAKING GLOBAL OER FUTURES HAPPEN!

Open Educational Resources, or OER, is a phrase that is be-coming increasingly common in Higher Education. But what exactly are OER and do they have any relevance for the Uni-versity of Otago? In this extended feature, Akoranga explores OER.

We begin with an invited article by Dr Robin Day and Dr Wayne Mackintosh from Otago Polytechnic. According to Day and Mackintosh, Otago Polytechnic is the first institution in the world to adopt Creative Commons Licensing as the default position for educational resources and intellectual property created by staff and students at the institution.

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AT OTAGO

Dunedin is poised to become a global centre of excellence in open education thanks to initiatives by Otago University, the Otago Polytechnic and also one of the Dunedin area primary schools. These initiatives are founded on the core principle of open education - sharing knowledge freely and recognising it as a sustainable and renewable resource.

With the successful completion of the Online Information Lit-eracy (OIL) project, Otago University can claim the accolade of developing New Zealand’s first OER e-learning course licensed under an open content licence. Following this lead, Otago Poly-technic is the first tertiary education institution in the world to adopt an OER friendly intellectual property policy, by choosing Creative Commons Licensing as their default position for the institution. On the primary education front, Warrington School is the first school in New Zealand embracing open education as a foundational philosophy, and thus providing a leading example for OERNZ - a project supported by the Ministry of Education to build a national commons for reusable and portable content in the school sector.

Dunedin is also the home of the Open Education Resource Foundation, a new, independent, not-for-profit organisation that provides leadership, networking and support for educa-tors and educational institutions around the world to achieve their objectives using OER.

What is OER?OER is the acronym for Open Education Resources - materi-als and resources offered feely and openly for educators to reuse, adapt and modify. Typically OER use Creative Commons Licences - licences through which the copyright holders retain their intellectual property rights, but grant permission for oth-ers to use, adapt and build on their work on the condition that they acknowledge their source. OER can include curriculum outlines, lecture notes, course handouts, workbooks, online courses, open textbooks and research publications.

Why have OER?Open Education Resources are a low-cost alternative to high content development costs, and provide op-

portunities for institutions to reduce costs and save on the time associated with the development of flexible learning materi-als. For instance, ten institutions sharing the cost associated with developing high quality teaching materials is consider-ably cheaper than one institu-tion doing this alone. Adopting OER is also an excellent strategy for a university to widen the di-versity of its curriculum, and to improve the quality of the sub-ject matter, by focusing on im-proving material through reuse rather than replicating material unnecessarily. This is especially useful in disciplines with tradi-tionally low enrolments where the cost of provision is a factor.

A distinct feature of OER is the ability to modify and adapt materials to suit local teaching styles and the unique needs of students. Alternatively, teachers can produce customised texts by selecting and customising the chapters they need for their courses.

International examplesA number of high-profile international institutions have devel-oped OER initiatives: the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy leads the MIT OpenCourseware initiative; the British Open University hosts OpenLearn; Rice University oversees the Connexions open content repository; and Athabasca University Press licences all their publications under open access licens-ing provisions. President Obama has launched the American Graduation Initiative, which will invest $50 million in open source course materials, triggering the introduction of the new Open College Textbook Bill that requires that text books funded under the initiative must use open licences.

However, it is not easy for individual institutions to launch their own OER initiatives due to the inertia and costs of get-ting started. The Open Education Resource Foundation offers a viable proposition for individual institutions to get the most from OER at least cost-wise, while contributing to the global sustainability of education.

How does the OER Foundation work?The OER Foundation is a non-profit, membership organisation in which contributing members have voting rights in determin-ing priorities for commissioned development of courses and open textbooks, which educators are free to use or modify for their own courses. The Foundation is the major funder of the WikiEducator - a global online community facilitating the collaborative development of education projects linked with the development of free content. WikiEducator also hosts the world’s largest wiki skills training project for education.

The OER Foundation facilitates collaboration and innovation across international boundaries. For example, with generous funding support from the William and Flora Hewlett Founda-tion, Dunedin is leading a USD$200,000 project to achieve OER content interoperability between WikiEducator and the Con-nexions project at Rice University, thereby widening opportu-nities for all education institutions to remix open content.

Robin Day and Wayne Mackintosh, OER Foundation, Otago Polytechnic

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“OER EMBODIES THE PURPOSE OF TEACHING

– THAT IS, SHARING KNOWLEDGE FOR THE SOCIAL GOOD

OF OUR LEARNERS.”

How does OER influence teaching and learning?The international reach of the WikiEducator community in-volves more than 11,500 educators in 110+ countries, and pro-vides a global think tank for improving the quality of teaching and a reflective community of practice, using tried-and-tested approaches associated with apprenticeship and situational mentorship. Using a learn-by-doing approach, it focuses on meeting lecturers where they are at on their pedagogical journey within a supportive community environment. This is a powerful model that enables institutions to engage in cycles of continuous improvement in ways that are not easy to scale or replicate on campus.

You can view the video interview with Robin Day and Wayne Mackintosh at:http://unitube.otago.ac.nz/view?m=5Ku0jvRO4V

If you are interested in learning more about OER, you may be interested in the monthly OER Foundation international work-shop, where you can experiment within a live and dynamic community of practice:http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content

How much impact are OER having at the University of Otago? Are there any Otago Open Educational Resources yet? Are any members of Otago staff talking about OER? Wanting to find out more about OER and Creative Commons, we spoke with Dr Bill Anderson, Director of Distance Learning in December. For Bill, OER really revolves around the definition of Open.

“From my perspective OER are resources that people are able to access and use regardless of whether they have created them or not.” He points to the Creative Commons (CC) licens-ing scheme as a useful mechanism by which to manage OER. “CC is very well thought out. The definition of openness can be bounded.”

ccLearn is a division of Creative Commons and is a useful start-ing point for those wanting to find out more about OER and Creative Commons (http://learn.creativecommons.org/resources/faq/). Their stated mission is to “minimize barriers to the creation, sharing, and reuse of educational materials - legal barriers, technical barriers, and social barriers.” The ccLearn website suggests that while there is some variation in terms of OER definition, the values of OER can be thought of broadly in the following terms: “Open educational resources are free for any individual to use, and licensed (via copyright) for unre-stricted distribution and the possibility of adaptation, transla-tion, re-mix and improvement.”

Allowing for the possibility of remixing or adapting materials relates back to Bill’s concept of being able to set the degree to which materials are open. As he points out, “it is nice that the producer’s or developer’s perspective is reflected... you can choose how you make what you have created available.” This idea should have some appeal, not only for those teaching staff happy to freely share their materials, but also for those who regard the resources they produce as personal IP and not for wider distribution.

In the last 12 months or so, a number of Otago staff have given seminars or been involved in workshops which relate to OER. Late last year, Dr Mark McGuire spoke at the Distance Educa-tion Symposium on Open Educational Resources (http://unitube.otago.ac.nz/view?m=pZvqkZqfBN). Creative Commons also fea-tured in a presentation by Danyl Strype of Disintermedia at the Unconference: NZ Digital Futures, organised by the Internet Research Group of Otago in November 2009. Several staff from

Otago attended the Heywire8 event held at Otago Polytechnic in August 2008 around OER.

A Google search for “creative commons” on the Otago domain currently results in around 145 hits, some of which are online texts or resources licensed under the Creative Commons, and many of which are links to articles or groups that relate to either OER or Creative Commons. For example, the University Copyright Officer, Richard White, runs the Copyright Commu-nity of Practice mailing list to which anyone at Otago with an interest in copyright can subscribe:http://lists.otago.ac.nz/listinfo/copyrightcop

Clearly there is interest in OER and some use of the Creative Commons Licence at the University of Otago. So, should the University of Otago follow Otago Polytechnic’s lead and adopt CC as a default position? According to Bill, a number of institu-tions worldwide have opened up material. Open University in the UK is an example. “They have found ways to work with range of positions held by academic staff to develop an institu-tional posi-tion... Otago has an Intellectual Property Policy. At pre-sent we are obliged to work within that... it would be helpful if OU were able to consider Creative Commons [as it] provides a range of other ways of owning the material.” Examination of the current University policy indicates that permission must be sought from the University by the copyright holder before materials can be assigned or licensed to any other educational institution. We suggested that some people might see OER as just a marketing tool, however Bill disputes this idea. “It is not just a marketing tool. If we show that we have some fantastic resources and good approaches to teaching, then hopefully we will attract people... [But, openness] is a traditional value of a university; to advance knowledge and disseminate those advancements - by making resources available - what we are doing is contributing to an international community. We can do that fearlessly because the essence of a good course is the teaching.” However, he cautions that, “it is not enough to just make stuff available... we need to make sure it is the good stuff.”

We set out to investigate whether Otago is ready for OER. Although a few people are releasing some of their teaching materials and resources through a Creative Commons licence and there have been a number of seminars and events where discussions of OER have featured, current University Policy doesn’t appear to facilitate the distribution of OER. Bill Ander-son, and likely many other university staff, regards openness as a traditional value of the University and suggests that CC could be a useful tool for the University of Otago to consider as part of its Intellectual Property Policy. It will be interesting to see whether this eventuates.

In the meantime, if you are thinking about making some of your teaching resources or materials available through a Creative Commons, or any other licence, we have reprinted on page 9 an excerpt from the current University IP Policy. Item 5 (a) seems to indicate that the consent of the University is required even though teaching staff are deemed to be the copyright holders of the teaching materials that they cre-ate. In the absence of a University position on OER, the best course at present would seem to be to seek advice from your HoD or PVC.

IS THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO READY FOR OER ? Jenny McDonald, Ayelet Cohen, HEDC

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS POLICY (last modified Tuesday, 10 November 2009)

5. Copyright licence and restriction on use of copyright in teaching materials

Where University staff, in the course of their employment, produce teaching materials or resources for distribution or display to students:

(a) the copyright owner shall not, while employed by the University, assign or license the copyright in such materials or resources to any other institution providing educa-tional services without the consent of the University; and

(b) the University is entitled to a non-exclusive, non-assignable, royalty-free, irrevocable and perpetual licence from the copyright owner to reproduce the materials or resources for use within the University for teaching and research purposes; and

(c) the University is entitled to a non-exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence from the copyright owner to incorporate the materials or resources into computer soft-ware (“Courseware”). Intellectual Property in Courseware is owned by the University and may be sold or licensed to any other institution providing educational services. The distribution of income from the sale or licensing of Courseware shall be pursuant to paragraph 6 below.

Akoranga welcomes feedback or letters to the editorial team. Contact us by e-mail at: hedc.akoranga@otago.ac.nz

Student - “Innovation to me is new ideas, new ways of getting them across. There

is nothing new & outrageous that anybody is doing here.” Staff - “Individually, if you’re developing your

teaching or learning, it’s innovation: it’s new to you. Any innovation that is new to you is prob-ably something that should be pursued, and that is useful & exciting.”

Swee Kin Loke, HEDC

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE

We scoured the latest Higher Education journals and maga-zines for papers and news stories on innovative ideas and new perspectives. Here are five of our favourites, and we invite all readers to join our search for such papers to be shared in future issues of Akoranga.

Get it out in the openHave OERs started a “revolution in learning”?

Rebecca Attwood’s cover story in the September 2009 issue of Times Higher Education reports on how open educational resources (OERs)—ranging from downloads of lectures to entire courses for free—have changed the quality of teaching and learning in some Higher Education (HE) institutions. At MIT, giving public access to their educational material has led many staff members to create better-quality and more up-to-date content. At the Open University, offering study units for free has given many potential students the confidence to sign up for their distance courses.

This article is available at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408300&c=2

Having, being and higher education What do we value in Higher Education: “having” or “being”?

In this paper, the authors lay out the imminent dangers of further embedding HE in a consumer culture. Using Fromm’s humanist philosophy as a lens to study the ‘market-led’ university, the authors contend that the current HE market discourse encourages students to ‘have a degree’ rather than ‘be learners’ (learning as personal transformation).

Molesworth, M., Nixon, E., & Scullion, R. (2009). Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer. Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 14(3), pp. 277-287.

Supervision as metaphorNew ways to conceive the supervisor-PhD candidate relationship

What does “supervision” mean to you? Based on 96 interviews with doctoral supervisors from six universities, Lee Alison and

Bill Green map out metaphors employed to describe supervision practices (these metaphors range from

mentors, friends, slaves, to midwives!). The

Staff - “Innovation is smart & strategic inter-ventions, small changes with big differences. Innovation to me is the absolute staple of my work & what drives me forward.”

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authors contend that these metaphors also define and shape both stakeholders’ dispositions as well as their practices of knowledge construction.

Alison, L. & Green, B. (2009). Supervision as meta-phor. Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 34(6), pp. 615-630.

Publisher attempts to rein in radical medical journalHow much space is there for radical ideas in Higher Education?

In the January 2010 issue of Times Higher Educa-tion, Zoë Corbyn gives an account of the recent attempt by Elsevier to subject a medical journal to peer review. Over 34 years, Medical Hypotheses has been editorially reviewed by Bruce Charlton, professor of theoretical medicine at the University of Buckingham, who judges the appropriateness of journal papers based on whether the submissions are radical, interesting, and well argued. Medical Hypotheses recently published a paper that denied the link between HIV and AIDS.

Zoë Corbyn’s article is available at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410113&c=1

The power of in-class debatesCan debating be a new instructional strategy in my class?

Drawing from her study involving 87 students, who participated in a series of five debates, Ruth Ken-nedy reports that, beyond developing important critical thinking skills in her students, using in-class debates as an instructional strategy led to (self-reported) knowledge gains.

Kennedy, R. R. (2009). The power of in-class de-bates. Active Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 10, pp. 225-236.

Staff - “Innovation in teaching and learning is providing different approaches... different methods of providing learning opportunities for students... people using technologies, blogs and podcasts... different ways of reaching students and com-municating with students...”

If innovation is a new way of doing something then we need to be very careful when this is applied to univer-sity teaching. I have two brief com-ments that I hope will present an al-ternative to being ‘for’ innovation.

First, teaching is one of the oldest professions and because it has been around for such a long time, not many innovations will ever be genuinely new. An individual may come across something new for their practice but if they inquire sufficiently they will usually find that it has been done before.

There is a temptation to ask: ‘what’s innovative in teaching?’ (which may provide a technical solution to learning about practice) when a better question might be ‘what’s good teach-ing?’ (which should lead the teacher into a world of complex inquiry). And if we are genuinely interested in good teaching, then we will tend to fall back on ideas and values that have been tried and tested over millennia, and hardly count as innovative. For example, getting to know students as indi-viduals, teaching them to be creative thinkers and enthusing them with a passion for a subject. Each an old idea frequently marginalised in today’s university education. If we re-claim such values, are we being innovative? Probably not. Yet if a teacher persistently ‘re-invents the wheel’ they could make a difference to teaching and learning and it is this difference that truly counts.

A second reason why I argue against innovation is that it can be seen as a fix-all solution for coping with imposed change, such as recent neoliberal reforms and the move to mass-higher education. Are your classes getting larger? Then solve the problem through innovative teaching (not through proper resourcing).

The word itself seems to have its roots in the factory and ignores the fact that teaching is a complex human activity seldom genuinely enhanced by either innovation or defer-ence to industrial metaphors. Can’t mark 500 essays? Use technology (which has become synonymous with in-novation). Of course technological change can make a substantial difference to academics and students yet there is also a caveat here because technology can be substantially innovative without making any difference at all.

Associate Professor Tony Harland, HEDC

INNOVATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING... THE WAY I SEE IT...

Student - “Innovation to me is to look up dif-ferent things & make

them your own.”

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Dunedin citizen: “If you just repeat what has come before, how do you go ahead? We’ve

got to be innovative, otherwise we’re terminal... it’s innova-tion in places like this (uni-versity) that’s going to solve

tomorrow’s problems.”

AKORANGAAKKORANGA

ISSUE 5: Dece mber 2009ISSUE 5: February 2010

Check our website - http://hedc.otago.ac.nz - for the latest information, full workshop details and registration. Please note that new workshops are added regularly.

For tutors and demonstrators - Introduction to Tutoring and Demonstrat-ing at Otago, Facilitating Small Groups, Assessment and Marking, Introduction to Tutoring at the Residential Colleges For new teachers - An Introduction to University Teaching, Voice and Com-munication Skills, Supporting your Tutors and Demonstrators: A Workshop for Co-ordinators

For new supervisors - Key Processes for Supervisors of PhD Candidates, Monthly Series for New Supervisors, Providing Quality Postgraduate Supervision

Teaching and learning approaches - Lecture Activities to Engage Stu-dents, Undergraduate Research and Inquiry

Integrating technology into teaching and learning - PowerPointers, Learning via Video/Web Conferencing, Teaching with Web Applications and Re-sources

Distance teaching and learning - DISTAID programme

For researchers - Applying for CALT Grants, Policy for Research Consulta-tion with Māori, University Research Grant Writing, Qualitative Data Analysis, Discourse Analysis

Treaty of Waitangi and Māori culture - Māori Culture, Introduction to the Treaty of Waitangi, Advanced Treaty of Waitangi

Professional development of women - Promotion for Academic Women, Women in Leadership at Otago (WiLO) Programme

Special topics - Developing Teaching through Peer Observation, Education for Sustainability: Exploring Roles and Activities for Higher Education

Also starting very soon.... the monthly Lunchtime Learning with Tech-nology seminar series begins with “Learning with video” on Monday 22nd February, 1.00-2.00 p.m. in the HEDC seminar room. These are informal seminars designed for teachers to share their experiences of using technology. Bring your lunch!

Note that these workshop offerings are only the “Shop Window” to the profes-sional development support we can provide at HEDC. Please contact us for one-on-one or group consultancies about any aspect of academic practice.

A BRIEF PREVIEW OF HEDC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS AND PROGRAMMES FOR 2010

THE PERIODICAL ABOUT LEARNING AND TEACHING FROM THE HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTRE