1. Supporting skills development at a distance through a VLE
USTLG Spring Meeting 23rd April 2007
Clari Hunt, OU Library

2. Outline How OU courses are developed How we work with courses
Statistics
Examples
Generic tools

3. Development process of an OU course
Faculty staff develop a business case for a new course in a certain subject area and do an outline of the content
Once approved a team of academics write the course over a 1-3 year period.
They develop the printed material as well as any multimedia and the course website
The course is presented to students and will run for about 8-10 years with regular reviews of the content
NB The tutors who support the students are not the academics who wrote the course

4. How we work with courses
Work with the course teams to help them use library resources within the course
Eg help them select suitable resources to use and add necessary links onto the course websites
And to develop the IL skills of their students
Eg write activities for inclusion in the course
We also have a helpdesk (open 7 days a week) to support students and tutors who have problems

5. Some statistics
Number of Courses:
e-resources integrated
IL integrated
E-resources recommended
IL recommended
Completed 93 58 70 16
In progress or planned 34 28 10 7
12% of students study a course with integrated e-resources
7% of students study a course with integrated IL

6. Examples – links on course website

7. Examples - activities

8. Examples – MSc in Science site

9. Generic tools - Safari

10. Generic tools – Info skills for researchers

11. Generic tools – toolkit for tutors

12. Library & Learning Resources Centre The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA