CETIS OER2 Deliverables

This page presents a broad overview of the deliverables produced by CETIS as a result of the CETIS OER Phase 2 Programme Support project. The project team comprised R. John Robertson, Phil Barker and Lorna M. Campbell with additional input provided by other CETIS staff as required.

Contents

 * Programme Support Activities
 * Presentations and Conference Papers
 * Conferences and Events Attended
 * Blog Posts
 * Technical Issues Identified

OER 2 Programme Meetings
CETIS representatives attended the programme launch and interim meetings. At the launch meeting R. John Robertson presented an overview of CETIS support for the programme, technical guidelines for the programme, and what technical approaches Phase 1 projects had taken. http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/cetis-ukoer-phase-2-support. CETIS staff also and attended strand sessions. At the interim programme meeting CETIS provided a technical surgery and attended strand sessions.

OER 2 Technical Guidelines
Revised, updated and disseminated ukoer technical and resource description guidelines via CETIS blogs and jiscmail lists. http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/12/03/oer-2-technical-requirements/

PROD calls
Technical review calls were held with the projects. As in previous programmes the calls provided an opportunity to make contact with projects individually, to gather richer data about the technical and descriptive choices made by projects, and to review those choices and provide advice where necessary. Thus far 20 of 23 projects have been interviewed and the team hope to contact 2 of the remaining projects The detailed information gathered is available in PROD. During August this data will be analysed in more details and different views of it will created and made available as visualisations, blog posts and reports. Biii Monitoring Pilot Project OER Reuse

Interim reports submitted by projects in the Biii strand in Autumn 2010 were summarised and a short overview report submitted to Amber Thomas. At that time few of the monitoring pilot projects had actually started monitoring, so the reports detailed plans rather than findings. A synthesis of final reports scheduled for after the end of these projects will show how the plans came to fruition.

OER Sources
In response to observations that it was difficult to find where outputs from the UKOER Phase 1 project materials were hosted and even more difficult to find interoperability services for these hosts, we collated a list of UKOER Pilot Programme sources at http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/UKOER_sources Reflections on this exercise were reported at the time (http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/10/ukoer-sources/) in the hope it would encourage debate and improve how projects advertised the availability of machine-to-machine mechanisms for disseminating resources. A side observation from this exercise was that many projects were relying on the context provided by their hosting mechanism to convey crucial information about their resources such as licensing terms, context which is lost in many routes of resource discovery (see http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/21/self-description-and-licences/ )

Responsive OER 2 Programme Support
As detailed in Appendix A, CETIS responded to a wide range of technical issues raised by projects over the course of the programme and identified in the interim reports. CETIS staff also engaged extensively with projects on twitter and on relevant suppurating jiscmail lists.

CETIS OER Technical Interest Group
Established the OER Technical Interest Group (OER-TIG) to provide a forum to explore technical issues relating to the creation, description, dissemination, aggregation, discovery, use and tracking of open educational resources. The group adopted the existing oer-discuss jiscmail list as its primary communication channel and the list has seen a considerable increase in traffic since the group launched. Oer-discuss has subsequently become a significant forum for discussing technical issues relating to OER. Other group activities have included contributing to the OER Hackday, providing a forum for the OER Technical Mini projects, engaging with initiatives outwith the UK F/HE sector including Creative Commons, OCWC and the US Learning Registry, amplifying and disseminating CETIS events relevant to OER. http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/01/06/jisc-cetis-oer-technical-interest-group/

JISC CETIS OER Technical Mini-Projects
Scoped and drafted pilot OER Technical Mini-Projects call in liaison with JISC, OER TIG and wider community. Circulated call via oer-discuss jiscmail list and encouraged open discussion of bids. Facilitated closed selection panel call. Recorded markers comments on project proposals and disseminated comments via oer-discuss. Coordinated administration of programme funding from JISC (£30,000) and allocation of project grants (2 x £10,000). Monitoring project progress, or lack thereof. See below for all blog posts relating to OER Technical Mini-Projects.

OER Hackday
In collaboration with UKOLN DevCSI, planned and facilitated the OER Hackday. This involved scoping, advertising and amplifying the event, nominating UK and international participants, identifying and collating ideas and challenges in the run up to the event http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/OER_Hack_Days, setting up a google group to explore these topics https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/oer-hack and disseminating the event’s outputs.

Open E-Textbook Usecase
Produced an open e-textbook usecase as a contribution to the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 Study Period on e-Textbooks. This formal usecase describes how a teacher might collate a range of open educational resources from a range of sources with different Creative Commons licences to create an open e-textbook. http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/11/25/open-e-textbook-use-case/

CETIS UKOER Support Wiki
Revised and restructured pages and information about OER on CETIS wiki. Some of this work is outstanding and remains in draft. http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/About_CETIS_support_for_UKOER

OpenAttribute
OpenAttribute is an independent initiative producing tools that exploit the RDFa encoding of Creative Commons licence information in HTML resources, for example browser extensions that extract and display this information so that it can be copied. We have been tracking and encouraging this work since we are interested in it as a good example of semantic markup of self-description embedded in resources.

CETIS “What Metadata?” Meeting
This meeting, held in London in Oct 2010 investigated what data we have (or could acquire) to answer the question of what metadata is really required to support the discovery, selection, use and management of educational resources. Outputs included suggestions on data and analysis that formed the basis for the miniprojects we proposed. Summaries at http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Cetiswmd http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/10/19/cetiswmd-summary/ and http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/10/29/cetiswmd-activites/

JISC Liaison
The CETIS team liaised regularly with JISC programme managers on both a formal and informal basis to discuss relevant technical developments, issues, activities and interventions. Staff also participated in all regular JISC programme support calls, produced monthly programme support update bulletins and submitted a formal interim project report to JISC as agreed.

Internal Project Management
Monitored and managed project workpackages, outputs and deliverables. Informed JISC of any slippage or changes to agreed workplan. Held regular formal and informal progress report calls.

OER Synthesis
Liaised with OER Programme Synthesis Team regarding input on OER tracking and collating outputs of Strand Biii projects.

Amplification
All relevant technical programme and project news, outputs and deliverables were disseminated via a range of media channels including the CETIS blogs and wiki, twitter, mailing lists, etc. CETIS also proactively promote the OER programme and projects through out more general engagement with the UK F/HE and international teaching and learning ommunities.

Chinese National Centre for Educational Technology
Facilitated a meeting between JISC and the Chinese National Centre for Educational technology on the development and use of digital resources in education.

Presentations and Conference Papers

 * An open and closed case for educational resources, pecha kucha session, Repositories Fringe 2010, Edinburgh, #rfringe10.


 * OERs in HE-trends and scenarios, workshop, ALT-C 2010, Nottingham.


 * Locate Collate and Aggregate, CETIS Conference 2010, #cetis10, Nottingham, http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Locate%2C_Collate_and_Aggregate


 * Technical approaches to sharing OERs (http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/oer11-developing-tech-patterns) and Is open education between the Cathedral and the Bazaar?: the promise and pitfalls of borrowing models and metaphors for the OER community (http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/oer11-cathedral-bazaar), OER11 Conference, Manchester.


 * How do I aggregate OER? let me count the ways... (http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/how-do-i-aggregate-oers), Sustaining/disruptive innovation and OERs/Open education and Openness in the wasteland: how will changes in the English HE system effect OER practice?, OCWC 2011, Cambridge, Mass.


 * UKOER Approach to Metadata, ASPECT Project Workshop, Brussels, http://www.aspect-project.org/node/123


 * Libraries and OER, JISC RSC SW and SWRLS Learn to Share to Learn event, slides http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/rjr-taunton and http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/jisc-swrls-workshop-librariesand-oer


 * Repositories for OER, presentation, Born Usable, Born Digital Workshop, Oxford slides http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/repositoriesforoer


 * Openness as a catalyst for innovation in education, presentation, 2011 Global Symposium : Educational Innovations and Reform in Countries around the World, Seattle slides http://www.slideshare.net/RJohnRobertson/openness-and, slidecast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/openness-as-catalyst-for-innovation/id448964205?i=95795225

Conferences and Events Attended

 * Repositories Fringe 2010, Edinburgh.
 * ALT-C, Nottingham.
 * OpenEd 2010, Barcelona.
 * Mozilla Drumbeat, Barcelona.
 * Kuali OLE Meeting, London.
 * Open Nottingham, Nottingham.
 * OER11, Manchester
 * OCWC2011, Cambridge, MA.
 * NDLR Fest, Dublin.
 * NTU SHARE Workshop, Nottingham.
 * Born Usable, Born Digital Workshop, Oxford
 * Inf11 programme meeting, Birmingham.
 * “Discovery - building a UK metadata ecology”, Discovery Programme launch conference, London.
 * Guardian HE Network online IPR discussion.

Blog Posts
Barker, P., (2010), An open and closed case for educational resources, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/09/10/open-closed-case/ Barker, P., (2010), Jorum and Google ranking, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/09/16/jorum-and-google-ranking/ Barker, P., (2010), CETIS “What metadata…?”meeting summary', http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/10/19/cetiswmd-summary/ Barker, P., (2010), Sharing Service Information?, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/11/01/registries/ Barker, P., (2010), Analysing OCWSearch logs, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/09/23/analysing-ocwsearch-logs/ Barker, P., (2010), EdReNe: Building Successful Educational Repositories, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2010/12/09/edrene-building-successful-educational-repositories/ Barker, P., (2010), Google Custom Search for UKOER, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/01/20/google-custom-search-for-ukoer/ Barker, P., (2010), Hopes and Fears for eReaders and eTextbooks, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/01/24/hopes-and-fears-for-ereaders-and-etextbooks/ Barker, P., (2011), Some down sides to OER, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/02/17/some-downside-to-oer/ Barker, P., (2011), Metadata requirements from analysis of search logs, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/02/23/searchlogs/

Barker, P., (2011), JISC CETIS OER Technical Mini Projects Call, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/02/jisc-cetis-oer-technical-mini-projects-call/ Barker, P., (2011), UKOER Sources, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/10/ukoer-sources/

Barker, P., (2011), Self Description and Licences, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/21/self-description-and-licences/

Barker, P., (2011), RDFa Rich Snippets for Educational Content, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/03/30/rich-snippets/

Barker, P., (2011), What I didn’t tweet form #openN11, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/04/12/openn11/

Barker, P., (2011), The Hunting of the OER, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/05/27/the-hunting-of-the-oer/

Campbell, L.M., (2010), The #cetis10 Locate, Collate and Aggregate extravaganza, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/11/08/the-cetis10-locate-collate-and-aggregate-extravaganza/ Campbell, L.M., (2010), Open e-Textbook Use Case, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/11/25/open-e-textbook-use-case/ Campbell, L.M., (2010), OER 2 Technical Requirements, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2010/12/03/oer-2-technical-requirements/ Campbell, L.M., (2011), '''A TAACCCTful mandate? OER SCORM and the $2bn grant''', http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/01/25/a-taaccctful-mandate-oer-scorm-and-the-2bn-grant/ Campbell, L.M., (2011), JISC CETIS OER Technical Interest Group, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/01/06/jisc-cetis-oer-technical-interest-group/ Campbell, L.M., (2011), Ranking and SEO - light on a dark art, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/02/09/ranking-and-seo-light-on-a-dark-art/ Campbell, L.M., (2011), JISC CETIS OER Technical Mini-Projects Proposals and Discussion, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/04/14/jisc-cetis-oer-technical-mini-projects-proposals-and-discussion/

Campbell, L.M., (2011), JISC CETIS OER Technical Mini-Projects Results, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/05/09/jisc-cetis-oer-technical-mini-projects-results/

Campbell, L.M., (2011), Dev CSI OER Hackday Report (reblogged from DevCSI), http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/05/24/devcsi-oer-hack-day-report/

Campbell, L.M., (2011), Event: Advances in open Systems for Learning Resources, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/lmc/2011/07/07/event-advances-in-open-systems-for-learning-resources/

Robertson, R. J., (2010), Are OERs just Re-usable Learning Objects with an open license?, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2010/09/01/rlosoersopened/ Robertson, R. J., (2010), Open Education, OERs, and institutions, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2010/09/10/open-education-and-oers/ Robertson, R. J., (2010), Threshold concepts and Open Educational Resources, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2010/09/10/thresholdconceptsoers/ Robertson, R. J., (2010), opened10: brief thought, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2010/11/05/opened10-brief-thoughts/ Robertson, R. J., (2010), Open Education and OER is like …?, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2010/12/10/oermetaphors/ Robertson, R. J., (2011), Workflow and deposit tools for learning materials, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2011/01/25/workflow-and-deposit-tools-for-learning-materials/ Robertson, R. J., (2011), Considering oai-pmh, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2011/01/21/considering-oai-pmh/ Robertson, R. J., (2011), Don't forget the Public Domain, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2011/01/20/dont-forget-the-public-domain/

Robertson, R. J., (2011), OER Hackday: Initial Reflections, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/johnr/2011/04/05/oer-hackday/

Wilson, W., (2010), Parsing CC license information in different feed formats, http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott/blogview?entry=20101214120842 Yuan, L, (2010), OERs workshop at ALT-C, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2010/09/17/oers-workshop-at-alt-c/ Yuan, L, (2010), Bridging community approaches and institutional approaches in developing OERs, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2010/11/02/bridging-community-approaches-and-institutional-approaches-in-developing-oers/ Yuan, L, (2010), Developing a sustainable OER ecosystem in HE, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2010/11/11/developing-a-sustainable-oer-ecosystem-in-he/

Yuan, L, (2011), Disruptive Innovation in Open Education in HE, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2011/05/03/disruptive-innovation-and-open-education-in-he/

Yuan, L, (2011), Is There a Business Model for Open Learning in Institutions?, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2011/07/28/is-there-a-business-model-for-open-learning-in-institutions/

Technical Issues Identified
As part of CETIS's engagement with the programme managers and other UKOER2 support functions, technical issues identified during the programme of wider interest were shared as they arose. This is a brief record of those issues as they were shared (i.e. the following is documentation of support issues as they occured).
 * A number of projects raised concerns about version control of their content.
 * Many projects adopted Creative Commons in various flavours.
 * Tech platforms in use by projects were predominantly repositories but there was strong interest in Wordpress and Drupal as a front-end.
 * There were concern that JorumOpen did not support its OAI-PMH endpoint (it was switched on but there was no support for using it or dissemination about it) and JorumOpen did not have any form of API. These were problematic issues in that they created a perception (for at least one project) that JorumOpen didn’t want to push UKOER content it’s receiving out to the wider network and that it wanted to be a destination site rather than a point of dissemination).
 * One project had to be reminded that open implies not having to register to download content.
 * Questions were raised regarding how the change of name from JorumOpen to Jorum affected the OER Programme’s deposit mandate? Query was referred to the JISC Programme Managers.
 * One project asked if Jorum was going to support CC3.0 unported/ UK licenses. Query referred to Jorum.
 * Questions were raised regarding sources for UKOER phase one materials. Query addressed in blog post.
 * Questions were raised regarding the clear labelling of licensing (and other attributes) of OERs. Query addressed in a blogpost.
 * Many ideas were raised during the OER hack days and technical miniproject discussions. These included: bookmarking for OERs; use of blogging software for OERs (especially WordPress); Google custom search engines; tools to facilitate attribution; “paradata” and working with the US learning registry. Google analytics and search engine optimisation seem to be upcoming issues.
 * One project had ongoing problems using the Creative Commons MS Office plugin.