THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD The Rise and Fall of the ALTC Exchange Associate Professor Rob Phillips Educational Development Unit Murdoch University

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD My Role 2006: Consultant: facilitating shared understandings 2007: Senior Consultant: technical advice and facilitation

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD What is the ALTC Exchange? “your space for learning and teaching connections” ◦ A social networking and repository service for learning and teaching ◦ Not just a repository ◦ A place for sharing, discussing and learning

CARRICK EXCHANGE Search and Access Social Networking Contribution Project Workspace Other Services Simple, advanced and federated searches Download and use of resources A ‘sandpit’ to explore new technologies Notification services (RSS feeds, etc.) Archive of completed projects Private and public space Groups with a need to collaborate and share Toolkit of group functions Contribute your own resources Digital rights with range of licensing options Peer review Exchange ideas about teaching practice Form communities of practice around L&T issues Informal tagging of resources Commentary and ratings on resources Reflective journals S e r v i c e s

More than a Repository Australian Authentication Framework and web services UsersInterfacesServicesRepositories User 1 All services Exchange repository Contribution Search and access University repositories International repositories Social services Team workspace User 2 Set of services CoP 1 Set of services

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Functionality Overview Navigation ◦ Four structured content modes ◦ Unstructured navigation - tags Informal Socialisation ◦ Tagging, rating, linking Formal Socialisation ◦ Open Special interest groups ◦ Closed Project groups MyExchange – YourExchange

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Front Screen top

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Menus

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THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Books

Investigations Failure Factors of previous initiatives Engagement and contribution strategies Rewards and Recognition Peer review and commentary Intellectual property and rights management Metadata

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Engagement and Rewards Strategies to build self-sustaining communities ◦ Engagement strategy ◦ Champions Reputational factors ◦ eg Contributor of the month Inclusion in promotion policies

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Peer Review Different levels for different types of resources Open vs closed peer review Scheme developed by ascilite

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Rights Management Goal of open sharing, while protecting your work and enabling others to modify it Creative Commons Addressing the dilemmas ◦ Universities generally claim copyright in teaching and learning materials ◦ Will they stop staff from contributing? ◦ Political…

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Metadata 100s of learning resources catalogued Metadata schema and vocabulary developed Dilemma between ◦ Minimising workload ◦ Maximising searchability

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Menus

A Visionary Project Project was complex Technically quite ambitious Complex policy issues Politically ambitious Project was proceeding on schedule and under budget

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD History 2006 – consultation and think tank 2007 – project development ◦ on schedule and under budget Sept 2007 – project wound back 2008 – project restructured 2011 – service closed down

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Why Did it Fail? Risk Management One risk was ◦ “Senior Management doesn’t understand the concept” Too risky for management… Wound-back project focussed on technology Not community

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Online Community Success Factors Engagement Strategy ◦ Awareness, knowledge, use Nature of Community ◦ Littlejohn & Margaryan ◦ Purpose, context, coherence, rules, roles and responsibilities, modes of dialogue

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Types of Communities - Carey Community of interest: people share a common interest Community of purpose: people trying to achieve a similar goal Community of action: people who cooperatively design things Community of practice: people share a common interest over an extended period of time to “establish professional identity and norms for practice” Community of disinterest: time poverty

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD From Disinterest to Communities of Practice Community Drivers ◦ Point of Passion ◦ Point of Pain ◦ Point of Problem – driver for adult learning Bush Telegraph example

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Contributing and Lurking Theory ◦ 90% readers ◦ 9% minor contributors ◦ 1% active contributors ◦ Can you develop the 1% of champions? See also Hummel et al.

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Implications for Libraries

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD Implications for Libraries Avoid delivery Communities of disinterest Address people at their Point of Problem Learning is an internal activity which often occurs informally by engaging with meaningful tasks

THE CARRICK INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LTD References Carey, T. (2007). Hummel, H., Tattersall, C. Brugos, D. Brouns, F., Kurvers, H. and Koper, R. (2005). Facilitating participation: From EML web site to the learning network for learning design. Interactive Learning Environments, 13(1-2), 55–69. Margaryan, A. & Littlejohn, A. (2007). Philip, R., Lefoe. G., O'Reilly, M. & Parrish, D. (2007).