Evaluating a new Masters unit in open educational practice for university teachers

Tuesday 11:00-12:30 (2), Marlborough Suite

Type: Short paper

Theme: Academic practice, development and pedagogy

#oer14 #abs110

Authors

Ms Lindsay Jordan, Senior Lecturer in Learning & Teaching, University of the Arts London, [email protected]

Abstract

Introduction

In 2011, the Centre for Learning & Teaching in Art & Design (CLTAD) was awarded funding to develop a Masters-level unit in Open Educational Practice (OEP) through the HEA/JISC Open Educational Resources (OER) Phase Three Programme: Embedding and Sustaining Change. The unit was developed collaboratively by the director of the MA Academic Practice (Ellen Sims), the unit leader (myself), an external critical friend (Cordelia Bryan), and three further members of the CLTAD team with expertise in the area of Open Education (Chris Follows, John Casey and John Jackson), with all processes and outputs from the project made openly available online. This short paper presents an evaluation of the first implementation of the unit in 2013, including the impact of the unit on the participants’ teaching practice, and amendments to the second implementation of the unit starting in March 2014.

Methods

In the first implementation of the unit, the eight participants were required to use and/or create some open educational content; either a learning resource or activity, or any other open artefact for the purpose of learning and/or development. Participants took steps to maximise visibility and accessibility of the content, documented issues encountered and actions taken, and evaluated pedagogic impact. Their process and outcomes were disseminated through a written report, and an open, online video summary.

Results

Examples of participant projects:

The Animation Compendium; Darryl Hutchison
“The Animation Compendium is a broadly accessible, catalogued and searchable archive of ‘how-to’ videos, community forums, blogs and niche websites that I have bookmarked over five years of filtering online technical resources and animation related material to support teaching and learning. In the course of the research it was suggested that releasing my bookmarks in their raw state might be a more sustainable approach and my report discusses the arguments for and against this.”
http://darryl.myblog.arts.ac.uk/open-education-practice/oep-project-summary/

Exploring the Potential of Physical Interaction in Open Educational Practice through Music and Rhyme; Inigo Minns

“I wanted to look at how the physical elements of my teaching practice could be developed to become more open in parallel with digital developments. As a starting point I wanted to use music and rhyme as a mnemonic device for terminology and simple explanations that would become available when needed and transferable between people.”
http://process.arts.ac.uk/content/exploring-potential-physical-interaction-open-educational-practice-through-music-and-rhyme

Discussion

The diversity and originality of participant projects was considered by the unit delivery team to be outstanding. Another positive outcome from the first implementation was the productive relationships built up between participants and tutors through the open sharing of processes and outcomes, many of which remain active and developmental. Minor changes are being made to the unit prior to its second implementation in March 2014 in order to maximise opportunities for dissemination and evaluation of the participant projects, and incorporate the building of effective external networks for collaboration and/or feedback.

To ACCESS THE PREZI PRESENTATION please see http://prezi.com/ilnma_elkusb/remix-and-sing-along/

References

JISC/HEA Project blog (documentingthe development of the unit and related artefacts (including the handbook, assignment briefs, scheme of work, etc.): http://oepractice.myblog.arts.ac.uk/
Presentation at: http://prezi.com/ilnma_elkusb/remix-and-sing-along/

Funding acknowledgements

HEA/JISC Open Educational Resources (OER) Phase Three Programme: Embedding and Sustaining Change (Strand One)

Further details

Keywords: Open Education, PG Cert, CPD, JISC, HEA, OER