Repositories for Teaching and Learning Materials

Workshop facilitated by Sarah CurrierSCONUL Conference 2009

Bournemouth, England, 12 June 2009

Workshop plan

• Introduce myself• Find out who’s here? What are

you interested in?• Landscape of t&l repositories• Issues for planning, setting up,

managing and evaluating t&l repositories

• Some examplesDiscussion throughout!

An initial note

You’ll notice I didn’t call this talk: Learning Object Repositories

• The term learning object is no longer used much in relation to repositories

• Learning objects are only one type of teaching and learning resource

• It’s a technical-sounding term that is off-putting to the intended user community

What do we want to achieve?

• How many already have formal repositories for teaching and learning materials?– How many of these are integrated with institutional

research outputs repositories?– How many are institutional repositories?– How many are faculty or subject department repositories?– How many are members of wider consortium repository

(e.g. Jorum, WM-Share, IRISS LX)?– How many are integrated with VLEs?– How many are open to the Web? (vs. staff only?)

What do we want to achieve?

• How many are thinking about or planning repositories for t&l materials?– How does your institution currently deal with

educational materials?– Who is involved in the planning/set-up?

• Library? Educational development dept? Subject depts / academics? Students? Others?

– Are you planning to use same repository system as for research outputs?

What do we want to achieve?

• Anyone just started a JISC Open Educational Resources project?

• Any other reasons for being here?

In the beginning…

eLearning

Institution VLE

Web sites

Other VLEs

Slide by Charles Duncan, Intrallect Ltd.

Fully-functioned…

Research outputs

Scanned

eLearning

ePrints Images Private

Institution VLE

RAE evaluation

Web sites CLA reporting requirements

“Collection”Portal

Other VLEsWikis, Blogs

Open accessportals

Slide by Charles Duncan, Intrallect Ltd.

Landscape: some models

• Two JISC outputs to help with planning, setting up and evaluating t&l repositories:– CD-LOR Structured Guidelines

• Focus on the communities of users and stakeholders you intend to support with your repository

– Good Intentions: Business Models for Sharing Educational Materials

• Focus on how to develop an appropriate business case and business model for your repository

Landscape: dimensions (1 of 4)

• Stand-alone repository system– Focus on specific functionality for educational

technologies, integration with VLEs, Web services integration and Web 2.0 support

• Blended repository– Bring together research outputs and t&l

materials? Other resource types?

Landscape: dimensions (2 of 4)• Commercial system

– intraLibrary, Equella, Hive, CoRE• All built to support t&l materials (including LOs / content packages); all still

require technical work, technical support, possibly spend on development

• Open source system– ePrints, Dspace, Fedora (DuraSpace), Digital Commons

• Not set up for t&l materials, require your own developers or spend on their developers, a lot of flexibility about how to implement

• Homegrown system• VLE’s built-in “repository”

– Any good ones yet? Not that I’ve seen!– Look out MrCute for MOODLE though.

• Distributed, personalised, Web2.0 approach?

Landscape: dimensions (3 of 4)

• Implement locally on your own server• Use hosted service... also:• Institutional repository• Subject/faculty-level repositories• Work with national or regional service, e.g. use Jorum to store

all your local materials• Join up with or start a multi-institutional subject consortium,

e.g. IRISS LX (social work/social care), IVIMEDS

Landscape: dimensions (4 of 4)

• Sharing resources with ... who?– Within institution only?– Within subject/faculty level only?– Open: share with other UK HE/FE?– Open: share with the whole world?

• NB: JISC Open Educational Resources Programme will be encouraging latter two- does anyone here have an OER project?

• JorumOpen planned- Beta deposit service for trial now!

First things first

What is the problem to which the repository is a solution? And who identifies this as a problem?

What will be the measure of success for your repository?

Margaryan, Milligan and Douglas, 2007

Thinking outside the repository box

“We have used the term 'service' to describe the various infrastructures that exist to support sharing, but must stress that this includes a wide range of activities including those supported by formal repositories and/or open social software services, as well as informal mechanisms within or across institutions, between lecturers and/or students. This term [...] was deliberately chosen to highlight the wide range of activities, mechanisms and support that are offered to encourage and facilitate sharing, including, but not limited to static storage of content.”

McGill, Currier, Duncan & Douglas, 2008

Thinking outside the repository box

Implications:• Think about the places, ways your intended community

works, socialises, shares and communicates• Think about interoperability

– What if you need to migrate your content in 5 years?– What metadata specs and standards to you need?

• Think about a service-based approach (Web services that is): what components do you need to interact with?– Facebook? Twitter? Delicious or Diigo tagging? Widgets? Most

importantly: RSS feeds!– Student and staff records?– VLEs and other campus systems?

Thinking about communities (1 of 5)

If you build it, will they come?

“[...] the pedagogical, social, and organisational aspects of these communities have not been at the forefront in the design and development of [learning object repositories]. Research has consistently demonstrated that the most substantial barriers in uptake of technology are rooted in these factors”

Margaryan, Milligan and Douglas, 2007

Thinking about communities (2 of 5)

Community dimensions to think about(1) Purpose: the shared goal/interest of the community; the reason why the

community was formed in the first place(2) Composition: the number and types of (sub-)communities to be supported(3) Dialogue: modes of participation and communication (online, face-to-face, or

mixed) adopted by the community(4) Roles and responsibilities: of community members(5) Coherence: whether the community is close-knit or loosely confederated/transient(6) Context: the broader ecology within which the community exists (for example,

professional bodies; governments; implicit and explicit rules that govern the functioning of community; ground rules of conduct; rewards and incentives mechanisms; etc.)

(7) Pedagogy: teaching and learning approaches used in the community (for example, problem-based learning, collaborative learning, etc.)

Thinking about communities (3 of 5)

Repository dimensions to think about(1) Purpose: including t&l repositories created to support professional development of

teachers, or for the exchange of specific resource formats, such as sound files, learning designs, or student assignments

(2) Subject discipline: including t&l repositories created to support mono-disciplinary or multidisciplinary communities

(3) Scope: including t&l repositories supporting departmental, institutional, regional, national, or international communities

(4) Sector: for example school, higher education, further education, hobby-based learning, work-based, or lifelong learning

(5) Contributors: such as teachers, students, publishers, institutions, funded projects(6) Business model: concerning the business, trading, and management framework

underpinning the repository

Thinking about communities (4 of 5)

Thinking about engaging communities• Iterative, agile design: be ready to change tack, make mistakes• Multi-disciplinary team from the start:

– Educational development, library, staff development, learning services, technical services, academic and student representatives

• Engagement and support vital from line managers at departmental, school, faculty, institutional level: gives people permission to put time and effort into working with repository, sharing materials

• Talk to others doing the same thing (JISC CETIS Repositories Community, JISC-Repositories list, software user communities, international contacts)

• If you can, have a designated repository manager from the start. Can be librarian or educational technologist, as long as they are keen!

Thinking about communities (5 of 5)

Thinking about engaging individuals• How do they currently store, back up, share and discover t&l resources?• What pain points can you solve first off, to get them engaged?• What’s juicy for them? E.g. Showing off their good resources on the front

page of your website! (E.g. ALT Learning Object Competition).• Be aware of time & other pressures: sometimes engaging with new

technology/processes takes more time at the start; make sure it pays off for them fairly quickly re supporting their work and saving them time.

• Identify champions in user communities to mentor others• Mentor and support users by choosing a specific task they can easily

achieve, or a specific problem they can solve with your repository

Thinking about your business case for sharing t&l materials

70% of respondents to a 2006 survey re-purposed resources created by others - CD-LOR Personal Resource Management Strategies Review

Margaryan, 2006BUT:

“there is little tradition or articulated desire for sharing learning materials in the sector in the ways made possible by these technologies” - TrustDR

Casey, Proven & Dripps, 2007

Using “Good Intentions”

• Good Intentions project developed a template to gather different existing business models for sharing t&l resources, and evaluating affordances, successes

• Created a matrix to map different elements of business cases to different business models– Too big to show it all here: worth following up, but here

are examples

Business model template

Finance models

Service models

Supplier/consumer models

Issues affecting models

Impact of business cases

Significant impact Some impact Possible with right conditions No impact

General benefits to global community Open CoP Subject-based Institutional National Informal

Supporting subject-discipline communities to share

Encourages innovation and experimentation

Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries

Supports re-use and re-purposing

Supports community input to metadata through tagging, notes, reviews

Supports effective retrieval through professionally created metadata

Ensures trust through appropriate licensing

Business cases - Global

Case Subject Open

Supporting subject-based communities to share

Encourages innovation and experimentation

Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries

Supporting re-use and re-purposing

Supporting continued development of standards and interoperability

Supporting continued development of tools for sharing and exchange

Supporting sharing and reuse of individual assets

Helps develop critical mass of materials in particular subject areas

Supporting ease of access through search engines such as Google

Business cases - NationalCase Subject Open

Cost efficiencies

Decrease in duplication

Supports cross-institutional sharing

Provides access to non-educational bodies such as employers, professional bodies, trade unions, etc

Supports a broad vision of sharing across the country

Promotes the concept of lifelong learning

Supports shared curricula

Supports discovery of most used/highest quality resources

Supports the notion that educational institutions should leverage taxpayers money by allowing free sharing and reuse of resources

Mitigates the cost of keeping resources closed

Mitigates the risk of doing nothing in a rapidly changing environment

Supports sustained long-term sharing

Business cases - Institutional

Case Subject Open

Increased transparency and quality of learning materials

Encourages high quality learning and teaching resources

Supports modular course development

Maintaining and building institution’s reputation - globally

Attracting new staff and students to institutions – recruitment tool for students and prospective employers

Shares expertise efficiently within institutions

Supports the altruistic notion that sharing knowledge is in line with academic traditions and a good thing to do

Likely to encourage review of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

Enhancing connections with external stakeholders by making resources visible

Business cases - Teachers

Case Subject Open

Increased personal recognition

Supports sharing of knowledge and teaching practice

Encourages improvement in teaching practice

Supports immediate one-off instances of sharing

Supports attribution

Encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration and sharing

Supports CPD and offers evidence of this

Business cases - LearnersCase Subject Open

Easy and free access to learning material for learners

Increased access options for students enrolled on courses (particularly remote students)

Easily accessed through student-owned technologies

Increased access for non-traditional learners (widening participation)

Likely to encourage self-regulated and independent learning

Likely to increase demand for flexible learning opportunities

Likely to increase demand for assessment and recognition of competencies gained outside formal learning settings

Likely to encourage peer support, mentorship and ambassadorial programmes

Some examples of current, successful repositories

IRISS Learning Exchange:• Built on intraLibrary, using their open source SRU

search tool• Leeds Met and others are adapting for their own use• Social work education across Scotland (HE, now

WBL/CPD and FE also)• Started closed to members only, now completely

openhttp://www.iriss.org.uk/openlx/

Some examples of current, successful repositories

EdShare (Southhampton)• Built on ePrints: first formal attempt to make

ePrints a learning materials repository• All subjects at Southampton Uni, open• Worked closely from the start with academics

http://www.edshare.soton.ac.uk/

New article out yesterday on Ariadne: Morris, 2009

Some examples of current, successful repositories

CURVE (Coventry University)• Won an IMS Learning Impact award this year!• Built on Equella to interoperate with their VLEOxford Brookes University• Also building on Equella• Track down Jan Haines here for more info!Staffordshire University• Consortium with local institutions• Built on Hive: bulk migration of materials out of VLENewcastle University Medical School• Institutional and discipline-based• Built on intraLibrary, integrated with WebCTKeele University• Institutional: CLA materials and t&l materials in one repository• Will use for specific material collections, e.g. Architectural images• Built on intraLibrary, integrated with WebCT• Really cool direct deposit tool on academics’ desktops (utilising SWORD)

Some examples of current, successful repositories

Your chance to share about your work...

ReferencesCasey, J., Proven, J., Dripps, D. (2007) Managing IPR in Digital Learning Materials: A Development

Pack for Institutional Repositories. JISC. Available: http://trustdr.ulster.ac.uk/outputs.php Charlesworth, A. et al (2007) Sharing eLearning Content: A Synthesis and Commentary. JISC.

Available: http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/46/1/selc-final-report-3.2.pdf Margaryan, A. (2006) CD-LOR Deliverable 7: Report on Personal Resource Management Strategies.

JISC. Available: http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/cd-lor/CDLORdeliverable7_PRMSreport.pdf Margaryan, A., Milligan, C. And Douglas, P. (2007) CD-LOR Deliverable 9: Structured Guidelines for

Setting up Learning Object Repositories. JISC. Available: http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/cd-lor/documents/CD-LOR_Structured_Guidelines_v1p0_000.pdf

McGill, L ., Currier, S., Duncan, C. , Douglas, P. (2008) Good Intentions: Improving the Evidence Base in Support of Sharing Learning Materials. JISC. Available: http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/

Morris, D. (2009) Encouraging More Open Educational Resources with Southampton’s EdShare in Ariadne, Issue 59 Available: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue59/morris/

Other ResourcesSarah Currier Consultancy http://www.sarahcurrier.com/ JISC CETIS Repositories Domain http://jisc.cetis.ac.uk/domain/metadata JISC CETIS Repositories & Metadata list http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CETIS-METADATA Special thanks to Lou McGill and Charles Duncan for “Good Intentions” slides:

http://www.loumcgill.co.uk/ and http://www.intrallect.com/