OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 2014

Tuesday 14:30-15:00 (2), Marlborough Suite

Type: Lightning talk

Theme: Building and linking communities of open practice

Authors

Miss Siobhán Burke, Jorum Educational Technologist, Mimas, University of Manchester, [email protected]

Abstract

Introduction

This session will explore the creation of two new collections available in Jorum; the reasons behind their creation and the impact they have had to date on the discovery and use of the resources within those collections.

The new collections contain OER for Research Data Management (RDM) and Information and Digital Literacy Skills. The impetus for this initiative came from the Jorum user community initially. The existing collection structure within Jorum did not meet the needs of either of these communities. The intention of these developments was therefore to improve discoverability of this content with the outcome that their usage would increase.

Methods

The two collections were created separately and in slightly different ways. The RDM collection was the result of Jorum’s participation in the Jisc-funded DaMSSI-ABC project (one of several within the Jisc Managing Research Data Programme). As part of the project, Jorum was tasked to create a sustainable ‘portal’ within Jorum to showcase the Jisc RDMTrain projects’ resources and existing RDM OER. Also, Jorum had to create a new classification scheme to describe these resources. The DaMSSI-ABC project team, in conjunction with and taking input from the Jisc RDMTrain projects contributed to the collection’s creation.

The Information and Digital Literacy Skills collection was created internally, but was able to build on the experience and outcomes of creating the RDM collection. Initially, the intention was on an Information Literacy and Skills collection only. But after seeking feedback from the Information Literacy OER community, it was obvious that discoverability of Digital Literacy skills resources was equally limited and merging these together with Information Literacy seemed a sensible solution. The classification scheme here is based on SCONUL’s 7 Pillars of Information Literacy and Digital Literacy lenses.

Results

Although the content differs, the collections have been created on the same basis and with the same purpose: to improve discoverability. Firstly, the prominent display of these collections next to those for pre-existing collections for Further and Higher Education resources ensures a heightened visibility. Secondly, the addition of collection-specific descriptions will enable users to hone their search to the most relevant resources.

The new Research Data Management and Information and Digital Literacy Skills collections were launched in August and November 2013 respectively. Feedback has been positive for the RDM collection and through further promotion, Jorum hopes to gather more data on this initiative - qualitative and quantitative.

Discussion

Jorum’s new reporting functionality will explore the relative success of introducing these collections by examining the usage over time. This will inform any future lessons that can be learned about OER discovery and how to improve this.