impact on learning of itunes u oer - follow the sun 14 april 2011
TRANSCRIPT
The Impact on Learningof iTunes U
Open Educational ResourcesTerese Bird
Learning Technologist and SCORE FellowBeyond Distance Research Alliance, University of
Leicester
What’ll we talk about?
• A Bit of History• Is iTunes U an OER channel?• Impact• Positives and negatives• Futuregazing
Photo courtesy of quiroso on Flickr
How do we measure impact?
David Wiley said:
“I think OERs are like toothbrushes”
Photo courtesy of Michael_Lehet on Flickr
It’s all in the downloads
University Downloads
Open University, UK Over 32 million since June 2008
University of Oxford Over 8 million since June 2008
Coventry University 2.5 million in 2010 alone
University of Warwick 1 million Jan ‘09 – June ‘10
Characterising iTunes U TweetsCategory of Tweet Number
Use iTunesU material to teach others 4
Use for oneself – just interested 13
Use for oneself – learn something specific 10
Technical discussion 7
Academic discussion 15
General positive 20
General positive – OER-related 3
Negative 1
University of LeicesterMicrobiology Bytes iTunes podcasts
164 episodes; each file downloaded average of 73x every month at peak(Courtesy of Dr Alan Cann, University of Leicester Department of Biology http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/microbiologybytes-enhanced/id177803088)
Other Impact• PhD student applications improve• Hits on university website increase• Multimedia OER• Mobile OER• Beyond Campus• K-12
Photo courtesy of superkimbo on Flickr
Positives and NegativesPositives Negatives
Excellent profile for institution Not a browser
Three standard formats iTunes in public lab computer - issues
Excellent on Apple mobile devices Not easily accessed on nonApple handheld
Download files – constant internet unnecessary
Not very good for conversation with learners
Fast download Copyright – not always right for re-use
Good search capability Apple is a corporation
Reaches places YouTube can’t (China)
Pushes OER agenda and brings uni together in discussion
Apple is a corporation
References
• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/What_is_OER%3F
• http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1780• http://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/itunesu/impact/