OER1039 Oral Presentation ppt

Open Content Literacy: developing a framework to support newbie content makers and sharers

Lindsey Martin, Alison Mackenzie, Edge Hill University

Conference Theme: Open Educational Content

Abstract: The current debate on the future of Higher Education in the UK has produced a vision of online and blended learning supported by a core of open educational resources available to universities and beyond. Knowing that reuse and adaptation (repurposing) of such content has potential to support scalable and sustainable diffusion of elearning within organizations is, however, very different to knowing how to locate, create, adapt or share content. Edge Hill University in the North West of England was one of 20 institutions funded by JISC under its Re-purposing & Re-use of Digital University-Level Content and Evaluation (RePRODUCE) programme to test perceptions around reusable content in a real-world setting that involved developing, running and quality assuring a technology enhanced course using at least 50% of learning materials sourced externally to our institution. Located within SOLSTICE, Edge Hill’s centre of excellence for teaching and learning, the ReFORM Project re-developed Dyslexia/Specific Learning Difficulties in Higher Education (Support Issues) adopting a blended learning approach and using teaching content largely constructed from externally sourced material. Among the lessons learned was the realisation that designing a curriculum with mostly reused and repurposed learning objects can be ‘messy’ and time consuming, reinforcing Littlejohn and Pegler’s (2007, p169) assertion that use and repurposing of digital content is dependent upon deliberate planning for reuse at the initial design stage. Post-project reflection supported by primary sources such as project blogs, reports, correspondence and semi-structured interviews with team members have informed our thinking about longer-term strategies to address issues of cultural change necessary to ‘mainstream’ wide-scale sharing of digital teaching content within our university. This paper describes an important unintended outcome of the ReFORM Project; an Open Content Literacy Framework developed to support engagement and informed decision-making of staff new to working with open educational content whether as creators or ‘consumers’. The Framework is a work in progress, undergoing peer review within Edge Hill and with colleagues in other institutions who are working with open educational content. Delegates will access the Open Content Literacy Framework, share the evaluation and lessons learned and have the opportunity to offer feedback.

Keywords: Open Content Literacy, Open Content Literacy Framework, Know How,

References:
Littlejohn, A. and Pegler, C. (2007) Preparing for blended e-learning. London: Routledge