Promoting effective engagement with UK PSF for STEM OER11 Conference, Manchester Conference Centre Theme – Academic practice and digital scholarship May 2011 Paper:OER1106 Tom Browne, Barrie Cooper, Marge Clarke, Andy Pye, Simon McGirr Education Enhancement | Academic Services | University of Exeter, UK

OER on the Horizon In 2010 it was stated that : “The movement toward open content reflects a growing shift in the way academics... are conceptualizing education to a view that is more about the process of learning than the information conveyed in their courses.” “Information is everywhere; the challenge is to make effective use of it. As customizable educational content is made increasingly available for free over the Internet, students are learning not only the material, but also skills related to finding, evaluating, interpreting, and repurposing the resources they are studying in partnership with their teachers.” (Educause Horizon Report, 2010) Its now 2011 – its time has come!

Online Learning Task Force Reported to HEFCE in January 2011 OLTF had been tasked to address how UK HE might maintain and extend its position as a world leader in online learning. Recommendation 6 Investment is needed for the development and exploitation of open educational resources to enhance efficiency and quality Collaborate to compete. Seizing the opportunity of online learning for UK higher education Report to HEFCE by the Online Learning Task Force Efficiency or effectiveness?

Open Educational Resources O for : Open – resources that are free and accessible over the internet. You can use them ‘as is’ or modify them to suit any context of your own. You merely have to acknowledge the original contributor. E for : Educational – is commonly the context but it can, if the author allows, also be commercial R for : Resources – can be anything, but commonly will include full courses, course materials, complete modules, notes, videos, podcasts, assessments, tests, simulations, worked examples, software, and any other tools or materials or techniques used to facilitate learning. Free stuff!

Exeter’s Journey Phase 1 : Open Exeter : HEFCE-funded, JISC-managed : May April 2010 Explored organisational / technical / support / academic issues at institutional level 360 credit equivalent from existing material Evaluate sustainability Recommendations ‘Re-engineering’ existing material, particularly re. copyright not scalable. OER must be integral part of scholarly endeavour – factored into curriculum design and delivery. Phase 2 : Open STEM : HEFCE-funded, HEA-managed : Sept Aug 2011 aligning to UK Professional Standards Framework Incorporate OER awareness into accredited staff development programmes Phase-1 to Phase-2

Challenges to Practice Reward and recognition IP issues Quality and reputation Confidence and trust Tension / dichotomy between individual and institutional perspective Support Issues Staff Development Tom Browne, Richard Holding, Anna Howell, Sue Rodway-Dyer (2010) The challenges of OER to Academic Practice. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. Time (and as proxy for other challenges)

Staff Development Recommendations from Open Exeter ‘ Re-engineering’ existing material, particularly re. copyright compliance, not scalable. OER must be integral part of scholarly endeavour – factored into curriculum design and delivery. However (relating to reward and recognition challenge): “I have been advised by senior academics that we should not strive for teaching excellence if this undermines the delivery of grants and publications.” T v R tension transcends OER agenda

Open Materials for Accredited Courses (OMAC) HEA strand: 11 projects, all releasing OER Resources to support staff engaged in teaching and supporting learning. Support e.g. HEA-accredited accredited programmes. Open Stem (Exeter) Transforming Teaching in Mathematics and Biosciences 2 cohorts of participants (Autumn and Spring Term) Trialing resources of activities used in staff development All resources to be released as OER Institutionally embed OER agenda into University behaviour

Open STEM outputs Course materials: videos, learning and teaching activities including subject- specific supporting material, intervention cards, scenario cards and completed student assignments for practice marking. Evidence: Substantial bank of evidence from focus group transcripts, evaluation and reflective log book feedback, coffee conversations, blog entries, quotes, data and session evaluations which will be built into a comprehensive case study. Guidance: ‘Pedagogical’ packages’ including our evaluation of materials and guidance on how to use them.

Pedagogical wrapper ‘ OER … need to be properly designed, and developed within a broader learning context that includes the critical activities needed to support learning’ ‘ … that can be shared both within and outside the consortium. Not only would the content be available, but also the underlying instructional principles, learning outcomes, learner assessment strategies, what learner support is needed, learner activities, and program evaluation techniques, so that other instructors or learners can adapt to their own context.’ Tony Bates OERs: the good, the bad and the ugly. Feb

Open STEM – the journey 12 month project, reporting in August Resource development is largely complete – now on the release phase. Remaining plan for the session: My experience of OER Open STEM design decisions Our resources and the “pedagogical wrapper”

My personal experience with OER Teaching fellow in mathematics at Exeter and part-time Academic Developer Contributor to the Phase-1 “Open Exeter” project - donated lecture notes for a mathematics course With “Open STEM”, I consciously wished to create a different sort of OER - a complete “package” consisting of activities together with advice and evaluation relating to how we had used them

Open STEM design decisions Q: Where should our primary repository for our OER be? A: We chose the Open University’s LabSpace because... it is an implementation of Moodle, with which the project team were familiar; it is a VLE, which meant that we could easily keep our individual resources small and disaggregated, yet present them as part of a larger coherent body of material; of the possibility of building a community around these resources using forums, contributions to a resources database,...

Open STEM on LabSpace Enrolment Key: OpenSTEM Resources Notes for Academic Developers

Open STEM on prezi.com Prezi provides a non-linear alternative for presenting our resources: Search for OpenSTEM on - this is still experimental! - performance issues are unclear in relation to the amount of content that can be put in a prezi.

Feedback and evaluation Feedback from people who trialled our activities was extremely positive (Autumn & Spring cohorts) - particularly like the subject-specific resources and demanded even more specialisation! Started demonstrating our resources to Academic Developers and other interested staff members with a good response: - advice and guidance on using the resources was deemed valuable - even staff whose role is not primarily Academic Development see potential uses for our materials

Follow our progress! Open STEM on LabSpace: (Enrolment Key: OpenSTEM) Open STEM blog: Open STEM website: and search for “Open STEM”