Cover Sheet for Proposals JISC/Academy Open Educational Resources Programme

Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 05
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04/03/2009
Cover Sheet for Proposals
JISC/Academy Open Educational
Resources Programme
(All sections must be completed)
Name of Initiative:
Open Educational Resources
Programme bid to:
Individual
Name of Lead Institution:
University College Falmouth
Name of individual:
Alex di Savoia
X
Institutional
Subject area
Subject area:
Name of Proposed Project:
openUCF
Name(s) of Project
Partner(s):
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name: Alex di Savoia
Position: Lecturer
Email: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Address: University College Falmouth
MA Professional Writing
Tremough Campus
Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ
Tel: 01326 254 330
Fax: 01326
Length of Project:
1 year (maximum) to build
Project Start Date:
April 2009
Total Funding Requested from
JISC/Academy:
Project End Date:
Ongoing / permanent
£20,000
Total Institutional Contributions:
Outline Project Description
The openUCF model will attempt to engage a community of OE students and academics to shape
our open content for varied educational objectives. The proposed Drupal-based platform will be usercentred. It will initially comprise peer reviewed learning materials, collections of searchable
educational resources and faculty development, support services wiki which will be expanded
through peer-to-peer development, resource and research wikis; content RSS feeds and social
bookmarking applications.
I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix A and
included an FOI form in the attached bid (Tick Box)
I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms and
Conditions of Grant at Appendix B (Tick Box)
Page 1 of 16
Document title: Open UCF Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
X
YES
NO
X YES
NO
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
JISC/HEFCE
Northavon House
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol
BS16 1QD
4 March 2009
RE: Grant 14/08: HEFCE/Academy/JISC Open Educational Resources Programme: Call for Projects
(Individual)
Dear Sir/Madam
I would like to offer my enthusiastic and unreserved support for the attached bid, which proposes to develop a
range of learning materials under the JISC Open Educational Resources Programme
I see this bid as a strategic move building on the skills and knowledge gained during the development of our first
wholly distance learning course in MA Professional Writing. The successful recruitment to this course, together
with the positive feedback from both participants and experts, has convinced the course development team
within the School of Media that our online teaching materials are innovative and robust enough to be made
available to a wider learning audience.
The proposal to develop a suite of Open Education Resources is in line with the aspirations laid out in our
institutional strategic plan (2008 – 2013) which includes a formal commitment to:
•
developing new ways in which creative professionals can learn how to work together, sharing skills, ideas
and knowledge across traditional barriers so that future generations are prepared for the very different
careers demanded by the world’s economy. We want to reinvent education.
•
striving towards removing barriers in higher education for people from non-traditional backgrounds.
•
to creative and academic freedom, openness and transparency, internationalism, equality and inclusiveness
and partnership.
•
establishing the Arts University Cornwall by 2012/13, where students and staff, as members of a community
of practitioners and researchers will reach the highest creative and professional level, enriching society and
the economy.
The School of Media at University College Falmouth is also a recognised Skillset Media Academy. Skillset, the
Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries, accredited twenty academies in England and Wales in 2008, in
recognition of their status as centres of excellence in the delivery of professional media education and training.
In 2009 the School of Media was designated as one of the test centres for the delivery of professional upskilling
after a successful Skillset Media Academy Network bid to HEFCE’s Strategic Fund. The success of the bid was
in large part due to University College Falmouth’s commitment to employer engagement, and the success of the
MA Professional Writing (by distance) course in attracting ‘new’ part-time students.
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
In conclusion, this bid will help a small specialist institution compete in the developing employer engagement
market within the UK. If successful, University College Falmouth will be able to further develop a niche within
this market, building on recent successes. It will significantly move forward our online, part-time provision
thereby attracting ‘new’ students to the Skillset Media Academy accredited courses within the School of Media’s
course portfolio.
On a personal level, I attended the UNESCO conference in 2000 where Open Educational Resources were first
discussed. At the time I was delivering media course content in partnership with a number of West African
broadcasting companies (Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Cameroon). In 2000 that part of the developing world
was just starting to see the arrival of faster access to the internet (offered by US telecoms companies in aircraft
hanger buildings on the edges of cities). Nine years later, I am in a position to see a UK HEI begin to deliver its
media content globally in partnership with, in particular, African universities. It is a very exciting time, which is
made all the more exciting by the quality of the staff making this bid.
Yours sincerely
Paul Inman
Director, School of Media,
01326 370451
paul.inman@falmouth.ac.uk
Page 3˜ of 16˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
Overview of Project
1. Overall Approach
The openUCF model will attempt to engage a community of OE students and academics to shape our
open content for varied educational objectives. The proposed Drupal-based platform will be usercentred. It will initially comprise peer reviewed learning materials, collections of searchable
educational resources and faculty development, support services wiki which will be expanded through
peer-to-peer development, resource and research wikis; content RSS feeds and social bookmarking
applications.
Initially, it will host learning content and assignments from MA Professional Writing. This content will
encompass 7 Taster Sessions worth 15 MA credits as well as a complete unit on Scriptwriting worth
20 MA credits. Each taster session should take 1 week to complete. The full scriptwriting unit should
take around 200 hours to complete. All of the necessary course resources and content have already
been developed for OE use by the MA Professional Writing course team. This material was adapted
from the full time campus-based course for the course’s successful part-time distance learning VLE.
Each MA Professional Writing unit will have its own specific learning outcomes, online forum-based
community area, an online chatroom, a space for students to upload their work for peer review, a peer
critiquing/editorial area, links to professional writing resources (www.profwriting.com,
http://professionalwriting.falmouth.ac.uk/research/ and www.bloc-online.com) and a peer-developed
wiki. As an educational resource, the MA professional Writing units will have a resource structure so
that learners at various stages of education can take new knowledge, externalise it, internalise this
external knowledge and demonstrate their own interpretation of that knowledge.
There are two fundamental questions for us: 1) How do we provide education via OE and 2) How do
we support OE learning?
2. Background
MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth (UCF) successfully launched UCF’s first parttime distance learning course in January 2009. UCF has identified a need to extend this online
educational success through Open Education using Creative Commons licensing. MA Professional
Writing is to be the first UCF course to provide Open Education Resources (OERs). Working in
partnership with various UCF academic and non-Academic offices, MA Professional Writing will
project manage the proposed openUCF educational platform and community. Inherent within the
success of the part-time distance learning course has been the course team’s ability to create an
online academic community that is robust, valued by the course’s distance learners, with heavy
amounts of use by the majority of the course’s students. MA Professional Writing will repurpose a
portion of the materials created for its Distance Learning course and provide these as OERs.
UCF’s School of Media, which includes the MA Professional Writing courses, is one of only 20 centres
of excellence for professional media education and training in England and Wales through its awarded
Skillset Academy status. Our Skillset status brings with it an incredible new range of opportunities for
our students. In particular, the accrediting body (representing the UK's audio visual industries)
recognised our close collaborations with media businesses, an excellent staff base of media
practioners and academics.
What we propose is to bring our knowledge as a specialist arts, media, design and performance HEI
and our wealth of online retention knowledge and an ability to create innovative online platforms to an
OE Drupal-based platform to encourage deep independent and group learning within an active, open
community. We also seek to build a network of learners and academics for personal and professional
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
progression. This will involve six strands. The technical strand encompasses a robust, fluid and
adaptable OE educational platform which incorporates flexible, future proof uses of Internet
technology within an informed pedagogic design. This includes a mobile learning component within
the technology solution The community strands encompass: building an OE student support
eHandbook through a peer-driven wiki; building an online academic social networking solution to
enable and support a community of learners and academics; and organic, user-driven subject wikis
which will enable students and academics to add, edit and remove information in an organic manner.
The repository strand includes building a freely accessible repository of OE resources and providers.
Lastly, openUCF will be a platform which will be promoted to relevant industry employers to upskill
employees; fostering links between industry and education.
UCF is already a UK sector leader in online student engagement, communication and relationship
building, in particular though developing relationships with applicants and new students. Such online
support includes our social networking forum www.falmouth.ac.uk/helpme.
A number of UCF courses, notably within the School of Media, have made widespread use of Web 2.0
technology including course wikis, repositories, digital reference areas, blogs and podcasting. This
illustrates an academic culture within UCF that is amenable and supportive of operating and providing
aspects of their course online.
From a project perspective, the use of online educational platforms, which include social networks and
electronic media (e-handbook), will allow OE students to have a ‘student’ voice. It will also enable
academics to come together to share ideas and information, debate, research and network.
Student feedback suggests that our existing ‘package’ of online activities generate an early sense of
belonging and connection to the institution and their learning experience; enhancing the student
experience and making it easier for students to integrate both socially and academically (Tinto, 1993).
UCF aims to build upon this success with campus-centric online solutions by offering a platform which
not only encourages and supports deep learning but provides avenues for students and academics to
connect online.
3. Aims and Objectives
Student Aims and Objectives
The openUCF project will use the principles underpinning the HEFCE/Academy/JISC Open
Educational Resources Programme.
MA Professional Writing, the first course to supply content to openUCF, is a course designed for
people who wish to make a living, or at least to earn money, from writing in the arts, media, and
business communications industries. A distinctive feature of the course is that it enables students to
explore and enhance their creativity and to experiment with form and genre, whilst understanding and
tailoring their product to the market context.
The campus-based and distance learning Professional Writing courses are designed around the
premise that there are a range of core skills which, if mastered, can be applied to writing in all forms
and genres. openUCF provides an introduction to these core skills and a framework which will
encourage personal development of these skills. Peer review, in the form of peer to peer critiquing
within the online communities, supersedes traditional academic assessment.
The course’s OE objectives are built around a student-centred programme in which the student is an
independent learner capable of self-reliance, critical self-reflection and sustained independent study.
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
These skills are fostered through a range of learning and teaching practices, processes and methods
that reflect a creative, yet intensively practical, vocational and market-oriented approach. Students
are challenged – creatively, intellectually, practically and professionally. The course aims to dispel
romantic myths about writing while stimulating the creative instinct to play with words, structures and
meanings.
Students undertake the course as part of a supportive and purposeful community, whose members
are encouraged to share their writing and to give and take constructive criticism – a skill vital to
professional practice. The course team will take the successful methods used in its full time and part
time courses and adapt them to the openUCF platform.
This course’s approach is informed by a close working relationship with industry – in terms of
teaching, work experience and collaboration – which continually reaffirms the course’s relevance and
helps ensure that students are working in the context of contemporary practice.
Academic and Industry Objectives
UCF needs to develop and meet the ever-changing requirements of potential students, industry and
the Higher Education landscape. Involving industry and academics within MA Professional Writing’s
OE within the openUCF framework will initially include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Supporting a growing HE emphasis on flexible and lifelong learning and continuing
professional development in line with industry requirements
The impact of and opportunities offered by emerging technologies and new forms of writing
Changes in industry practices
A solution that recognises and responds to economic, academic and career imperatives
UCF’s recent Skillset accreditation, which offers new opportunities for curriculum development
A process to demonstrate the independent learning ability required for continuing professional
development and personal responsibility
An increase in demand from industry and HEI for CPD opportunities for current employees
Fostering a community and network of external professional writing academics seeking to
share knowledge and best practice in delivering a writing curriculum
An environment that encourages individual and collaborative academic research
The ability to continue to advance their knowledge and understanding, and to develop new
skills to a high level
4. Social Learning
Online learners
What is social learning? The simplest explanation is that some students comprehend or understand
content by talking about the content. Social interaction with others relating to a content topic – the
construct can be a question, action, process, procedure or project/task – promotes an understanding
of the content at the centre of the function. The transference of the content into ‘real world’
applications or situations is the indicator that true knowledge of the content has been gained. The
Internet is an arena where such learning interactions occur.
Compelling evidence for the importance of social interaction to learning comes from the
landmark study by Richard J. Light, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, of students’
college/university experience. Light discovered that one of the strongest determinants of
students’ success in higher education—more important than the details of their instructors’
teaching styles—was their ability to form or participate in small study groups. Students who
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better
prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own.1
…instead of starting from the Cartesian premise of “I think, therefore I am,” and from the
assumption that knowledge is something that is transferred to the student via various
pedagogical strategies, the social view of learning says, “We participate, therefore we
are.(John Seely Brown et al)”
Creating a participation environment, the general student area will contain links to other OER
resources, an online student support area which will be a wiki developed by UCF and then driven by
the OE peer community.
Industry involvement
There will be a professional/industry community area where openUCF invites participation from
course-related industries and professionals. This community aims to enhance employer engagement
and work-based learning at HE level. This will extend UCF’s ‘Train To Gain’ service provision as
encompassed by AIR (Academy for Innovation & Research)2. Creating a professional/industry
community within openUCF will encourage the sharing of information within the spirit of AIR whilst
opening the objective to a wider user group.
This community will encompass the aims of HERDA’s South West Higher Level Skills Pathfinder
project (SWHLSPP) by creating a partnership which includes HE institutions, FE colleges and industry
bodies (e.g. Design Council). One of the objectives of this community will be to stimulate demand for
HE and upskilling within companies and organisations for which OE can be a viable solution; develop
a CPD framework; researching current employer demand for work-based learning; and developing
frameworks for new OE courses to satisfy industry demands for work-based learning. This community
will have its own specific wiki, community forum, peer review area, chatroom, support area and
resources area.
A community approach
openUCF uses community-building techniques and looks to original contributors, peer reviewers and
the user community to keep online catalogues, resources and wikis updated. It will contain links to
international OE resources. openUCF will be substantially decentralised, with volunteers/members
providing almost all of the services and materials. UCF will provide the specific learning outcomes and
initial information. However, it is our goal to enable the collaborative development of educational
modules and courses by authors and HEIs external to UCF.
Most importantly, this model builds upon UCF’s ability to create volunteer-driven online communities
that other institutions have either adopted or explored. With academics and students invited to make
their contributions, students will be able to observe the practice of academic argument and dialogue
while making contributions of their own. Responses, which will be student-driven, can take a variety
1
Richard J. Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001). For a summary of
Light’s research, see Richard Light, “The College Experience: A Blueprint for Success,”
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/light/index.html. An earlier, though more focused, contribution to our appreciation of the power of
group study was provided by Uri Treisman. As a graduate student at UC-Berkeley in the late 1970s, Treisman worked on the poor
performance of African-Americans and Latinos in undergraduate calculus classes. He discovered the problem was not these students’
lack of motivation or inadequate preparation but rather their approach to studying. In contrast to Asian students, who, Treisman found,
naturally formed “academic communities” in which they studied and learned together, African-Americans tended to separate their
academic and social lives and studied completely on their own. Treisman developed a program that engaged these students in
workshop-style study groups. The program was so successful that it was adopted by many other colleges. See Uri Treisman, “Studying
Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College,” College Mathematics Journal, vol. 23, no.
5 (November 1992), pp. 362–72, http://math.sfsu.edu/hsu/workshops/treisman.html.
2
AIR will establish a new way for businesses in Cornwall and Higher Education to work together. Based at the Tremough Campus in
Penryn, but with activities spreading across the whole of Cornwall, AIR is concerned with innovation and design. By bringing together
people, ideas, resources and opportunities, AIR will stimulate the development of a knowledge-based economy in the county, helping all
involved to develop their ideas in new and profitable ways.
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
of forms: essays, research projects, blogs, forum postings, video responses, podcasts or another
form.
5. Sustainability
We agree with OE sustainability points raised by Li Yuan et al. (JISC CETIS 2008). We need to:
• Encourage institutions, rather than just individual pioneer-faculty, to buy into the OER
movement so that institutional resources will be committed to sustain it.
• Explore roles for students in creating, enhancing and adopting OER.
• Consider a voluntary (or mix of voluntary and paid) wiki-like model, in which OER is the object
of micro-contributions from many.
• Examine ways that social software can be used to capture and structure user commentaries
on the material.
There is growing UCF course interest for including community-based approaches to promote sharing
of knowledge and networking. Such courses include, but are not limited to, MA Professional Writing,
MA Television Production, MA Broadcast Journalism, BA(Hons) Photography, BA(Hons) Fashion
Design and BA(Hons) Performance Sportswear Design. What is required is an over-arching project
team structure to actively engage with UCF courses to expand their current level of online community
experience and elicit their participation in openUCF.
We also agree a key point raised by Li Yuan et al around the issue OE critical mass:
To make OER initiatives work and keep them for the long run, it is important to first gain and
maintain a critical mass of active, engaged users, increase usability and improve quality of the
resources created…OER should not only pay attention to the “product” but on understanding
what its user community wants and on improving the OER’s value for various user
communities (JISC SETIS 2008).
This is a key rationale behind our creating different communities within the same platform, which have
their own (freely accessible) areas and resources.
Another key component for the sustainability of openUCF is not only the quality of the OERs at an
institutional, peer and open user level – but how well this content integrates with external OE materials
and adapts across other OE platforms. Content format, such as best practice in terms of document,
audio and video formats - along with innovative uses of RSS feeds, social bookmarking and
accessible HTML - will go quite far in addressing these fundamental issues, risks and concerns.
6. Learning and Teaching
Li Yuan et al (JISC CETIS 2008) make a compelling observation that
Learning is a social process based on ongoing communication, exchange of ideas and
opinions … The development of using OER implies support for an open curriculum where
learners have the flexibility to select a range of individual units/courses to suit their personal
needs for the development of expertise…
This ideal underpins our desire to include a peer-to-peer critique/editorial platform within openUCF.
This is an essential component of community building and an environment which encourages deep
learning. In essence, we’re building communities that support, encourage and enable their own desire
for deeper learning with practical, measureable online outcomes. Merely providing a VLE with lists of
content, with no encouragement to form a community, would more than likely foster surface learning
at best and lack of engagement with openUCF at worst – neither of which are desired outcomes. It’s
about creating active practitioners within their respective fields.
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
Finding and joining a community that ignites a student’s passion can set the stage for the
student to acquire both deep knowledge about a subject (“learning about”) and the ability to
participate in the practice of a field through productive inquiry and peer-based learning
(“learning to be”). These communities are harbingers of the emergence of a new form of
technology-enhanced learning—Learning 2.0—which goes beyond providing free access to
traditional course materials and educational tools and creates a participatory architecture for
supporting communities of learners (JISC CETIS).
This proposed collaborative model for the development and use of OER allow communities of practice
to develop. Open collaborative models have been shown to increase innovation in some areas (von
Hippel, 2005) and working in communities has the potential to advance learning for students, and
increase knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer support among lecturers (Wenger et al. 2002). In
essence, this forms a “demand pull” as opposed to a “supply push” approach to education (John Seely
Brown and Richard P. Adler).
7. The Units
MA Professional Writing will offer learning materials from its Professional Contexts unit. This unit
introduces students to key aspects of the writing industry and how to operate professionally within it.
Students will develop negotiating, planning, research and analytical skills crucial to a writer operating
in the field or as part of a team.
PRW104 Practice 1: Writing Creatively for Business
In this taster unit, students are introduced to exploring and developing the research, writing and
editing skills that go into producing various types of factual and persuasive writing for business and
non-profit organisations. They also develop an understanding of career opportunities for business
writers, and consider the ways in which the field is changing and developing.
PRW105 Practice 1: Scriptwriting
This taster unit is designed to build on what students have learned so far about story-telling, focusing
on the writing of TV, radio, short film and feature film scripts. Whilst primarily dealing with forms of
dramatic fiction, it also looks at scriptwriting techniques as applied to documentary and documentarydrama.
PRW106 Practice 1: Novel Writing
This taster unit offers students the opportunity to develop a sound structural foundation on which they
can eventually build a novel. It provides an introduction to developing the disciplined practices
essential to the organisation of an extended piece of work. The unit is based around lectures on the
elements that constitute the building blocks of the novel, with workshops and peer critiquing focusing
on development of aspects of students’ own fictional narratives.
PRW107 Practice 1: Feature Writing
This taster unit encourages students to explore and develop the research, writing and editing skills
necessary for effective newspaper, magazine and online feature writing. Independently and in groups,
students present, analyse, discuss and produce examples of feature writing for a range of different
markets and audiences, building an understanding of the genre and demonstrating this through
building portfolio of marketable features.
PRW108 Practice 1: Writing Non-Fiction
Students will explore the international market for non-fiction in its many forms and genres both online,
via trade publications and on foot, in bookshops. They will gain an awareness of specialist publishers
and commissioning editors in sectors of the non-fiction market that have special interest to them.
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
PRW107 Scriptwriting
This unit allows students to:
• Develop a range of professional, creative, practical, critical, intellectual and transferable skills
in professional scriptwriting
• Develop an understanding of a part of the scriptwriting industry and the opportunities that exist
within it
• Start to identify and pursue their professional aspirations as scriptwriters
• Develop a critical awareness of contemporary practice at the forefront of scriptwriting
• Develop advanced independence, autonomy and mature critical judgment through the
negotiation, development and completion of a portfolio of scriptwriting-related materials
8. Project Outputs
Students will be able to submit work online, interact and receive peer feedback and feedback from
participating academics via openUCF. They will be able to:
• Access the course unit outlines, assignment briefs and background materials
• Access a body of material about UCF resources, ‘how to’ support and online help
• Participate in online workshops, posting their work for critiquing by peers and tutors
• Build online ‘anthologies’ of their work
• Take part in synchronous and/or asynchronous online seminars
• Receive online peer evaluation and feedback
• Receive online evaluation and feedback from OE peers
• Use online project workspace such as www.bloc-online
• Have access to an online social meeting space
• Take part in student-led group telephone tutorials and discussions
• Communicate via openUCF discussion boards
• Develop personal websites and blogs using off-the-peg templates
• Use the resources of the Professional Writing research portal and www.profwriting.com
9. Project Outcomes
The project team will comprise of members of staff from various departments, including Learning and
Teaching. The project team will meet on a regular basis to provide interim project reports and check
against project plan and milestones.
•
Statistical analysis of openUCF usage (e.g. monthly) will allow us to build models of students’
useage as a form of student feedback and measure how widely the proposed website is visited.
(e.g. by country/city)
•
An electronic feedback form will be designed, with a field that also requests suggestions and ideas
for further development, which will allow the site to grow organically and invite student input.
Statistical analysis could profile students’ needs by course/country etc.
•
Informed institutional changes in policy and practice in supporting distance learning students,
which will inform policy regarding OE students.
•
Requests for information from other institutions offering OE
•
A strengthened online student community measured through student feedback co-ordinated by the
Learning and Teaching Office
•
Ongoing critical discourse around support for OE students through dissemination activities
(conferences, papers, report)
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Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
10. Technology
The Drupal-based OER platform currently being designed will: create and provide a flexible,
extendable and user-friendly learning infrastructure supported by adaptable ‘open use’ tools (e.g.
Gimp); allow users to transform the use of the infrastructure for meaningful use and learning
outcomes; and provide a service/environment that allows and encourages continuous learning the
transfer of new knowledge, research and discoveries for future OE project work and learners. This too
will ensure the sustainability of openUCF.
In an OE environment the free provision of learning resources is only part of the equation. Peer
learning and support is also critical. This is served in part by provision of integrated social networking
facilities and tools to allow students to share knowledge, collaborate and support each other. How this
is delivered by the project is dealt with elsewhere in this document.
We propose to make two critical additions which push the boundaries of what is currently available in
OE environments. First is the ability for the system to capture what the students learn and think about
the resources they are using, and do this within a context. The second addition is to make that
knowledge immediately available to other users. At its heart is a basic implementation of the semantic
web - where “information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work
in cooperation (Tim Berners-Lee et al 2001)”.
There are 3 key elements in the system that allows this:
1.
2.
3.
Meta information about resources
Hierarchical taxonomies that allows content to be tagged with meaningful terms
Capture of feedback and the context in which it is made
For example, the system will have a Resource Repository. This is a “vertical content silo” where
course documentation, papers, videos, audio files etc are uploaded to. This silo allows the original
submitter to: 1) tag resources from a pre-defined taxonomy and add free text tags; and 2) provide
additional “meta data” about the resource in the form of a title, description, author, copyright, date
created, regional coverage etc
The resource material is then searchable “vertically” within the Resource Repository component.
More importantly the resource material can be displayed as a “relevant/related resource” within other
content nodes that a) request it and b) share the same or similar taxonomical tagging (hierarchical
tagging using child-parent relationships enable this to be fine grained enough to prevent “bleeding” of
resources across content). This makes the resources available “horizontally” across the OE
environment.
Registered users can comment on, rank the resource and apply pre-defined and bespoke tags.
Session variables are used to track where a user has come from within the taxonomy so when they
rank, tag and/or comment on a resource they have used, that information is captured within a
taxonomical “context”. This allows the system to display, for instance, a list of most highly ranked
resources that are specifically relevant for a particular course or module. The comments of previous
users can be reviewed, along with the original meta data. It is also possible to view content tagged by
the administrators separately to content tagged by users. The number of “tagging” with a particular
tag therefore further refine the contextual relevance of the item.
This allows the OE platform to become an evolving knowledge base.
Another innovation involves mobile application technology. Existing java phone applications will allow
us to “push” OE course content onto mobile phones (mp3 and video, doc links etc) plus
Page 11˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
synchronisation with PCs, Laptops and MACs via Bluetooth – enabling “Learning on the go”.
Integrating this technology with openUCF will be dependent upon project budgets.
11. Dissemination
Dissemination of practical outcomes from this proposal, for the HE sector shall take the form of
conference presentations and a published report (available for download from the UCF website).
Existing UCF initiatives are already recognised in the sector (mentors, forums, bloggers, handbook
etc) through regular conference presentations e.g. CASE Europe 2007, NALN 2007 and 2008 and a
further abstract (with regard to electronic pre-entry communication with students via a website) was
presented to the Designs on eLearning conference at Penn State University, USA. (September 2008)
Should this bid be accepted, we would aim to also work with the UCF Marketing and Public Affairs
departments to broadcast the project through a variety of press and media channels.
In addition, we would offer specific support and consultancy for other institutions that wish to
implement a similar model.
12. Team Experience
Alex di Savoia, the Project Manager (PM), is currently a part-time media lecturer at UCF, brings 15
years of web experience, including developing and sustaining successful social networking platforms
and use of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, social bookmarking, etc. His latest project was
project managing the successful launch of the MA Professional Writing distance learning course.
Formerly UCF’s Web Content Manager, Alex understands the process of websites built using open
source code, accessibility benchmarks and liaising with academic and non-academic departments of
the College.
Christina Bunce, Course Leader for MA Professional Writing, was the driving force behind the
development and launch of the distance learning Professional Writing Course. She identified and was
determined to build on the strengths of the full-time campus based course in the online version: an
engaging, learning community-focused experience that enabled students to follow their own creative
pathway at the same time as gaining the writing, commercial and transferable skills that would enable
them to operate as flexible practitioners. One of the main objectives when planning the distance
learning version of the already successful campus-based course was to give students a multi-media
learning experience with ‘outward facing’ learning materials – linking with resources, contacts and
professional development opportunities external to the core offering.
The proposed Web Team is an external web company specialising in delivering accessible content
management system (CMS) websites. It provides a full CMS web development service covering:
branding, web design, information architecture, hosting and training (for all levels of users). Its content
management web solutions are W3C standards compliant and accessible to WCAG Level AA (Priority
2) and meet the requirements of UK and US legislation.
13. Risk
The points below are risk issues which have been raised by the project team:
• A general lack of engagement by other UCF courses in providing content to openUCF
• Legal implications for providing course materials for openUCF with a Creative Commons
License which aren’t completely owned by the lecturer, course or institution sharing them
• A poor student learning experience
• Courses, academics and industry/professionals not understanding the benefits of OE in
general and the aims of openUCF specifically
• Identifying solutions in cases when the host server malfunctions, fails, etc
• Monitoring openUCF (especially the community forums, chatrooms, etc); especially
surrounding issues involving poor netiquette, libel, etc
Page 12˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
14. References
E. A. von HIPPEL (2005b), Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA, April 2005.
E. Wenger, R.McDermott, W. Snyder (2002), “Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to
Managing Knowledge”, Hardvard Business School Press, Boston.
John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning
2.0 [Online] Available at:
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823
[Accessed 18 February 2009]
JISC CETIS, 2008 [?]. Open Education Briefing Paper. [Online] Available at:
http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/OER_Briefing_Paper.pdf [Accessed 26 January 2009].
John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning
2.0 [Online] Available at:
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823
[Accessed 18 February 2009]
Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila, (2001 ). The Semantic Web. A new form of Web
content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new Possibilities. Sceintific
American [Online] Available at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-semantic-web [Accessed 26
January 2009].
Page 13˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
15. Budget
Directly Incurred Staff
TOTAL
£
Non-Staff
TOTAL
£
Travel and expenses
£n/a
Hardware/software
£n/a
Dissemination
£
Evaluation
Creative Commons payments to lecturers
Legal Costs (licensing advice)
£
300
6 x MA professional
Writing lecturers
£850 each
£ 5,100
Scriptwriting Unit
(10 sessions)
£500 / session
£5,000
£ 500
Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B)
£
Directly Incurred Total (C)
(A+B=C)
£23,50
Directly Allocated
TOTAL
Estates
£
Other
£
Directly Allocated Total (D)
£
Indirect Costs (E)
£
Total Project Cost (C+D+E)
Amount of Funding Requested
£
£23,50
Institutional Contributions
resources, time,
funds
Percentage Contributions over the life of the
project
JISC/Academy
60 %
No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and estates
charges, and staff included
No
FTEs
Page 14˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
2,100
Which Staff
13,000
0
£
0
£ 3,500
Partners
40 %
Total
100%
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
16. Project Plan (summary overview with milestones)
Key milestone
Date
By whom?
1st project team meeting
April 2009
Design mock ups including
sample content
Design concept sign off July 2008
Editing content
August 2009
Build phase (to run
concurrently with content
generation)
Upload content (ongoing)
August 2009
Project staff, Web Team,
Learning & Teaching ,
Course team(s) and
Educational Development
Lecturer
Project staff, Web Team,
Learning & Teaching ,
Course Team(s) and
Educational Development
Lecturer
Project Staff & Course
Team(s)
Web Team
Testing and amendment
phase
October 2009
Pilot Evaluation
November 2009
Launch and Publicity
December 2009
Post-launch evaluation
January 2009
Dissemination
January 2010 onwards
Page 15˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
October 2009
Project Manager to train
Educational Development
Lecturer and Course
Teams
Project staff, Course
Team(s), Web Team and
external invitees
Project staff, Course
Team(s) and external
invitees
Course Team(s)
Project staff, Course
Team(s) and external
invitees
Project Staff and Course
Team(s)
Project Acronym: oUCF
Version: 5
Contact: alex.disavoia@falmouth.ac.uk
Date: 04 March 2009
FOI Withheld Information Form
We would like JISC and the Academy to consider withholding the following sections or paragraphs
from disclosure, should the contents of this proposal be requested under the Freedom of Information
Act, or if we are successful in our bid for funding and our project proposal is made available on JISC’s
website.
We acknowledge that the FOI Withheld Information Form is of indicative value only and that JISC and
the Academy may nevertheless be obliged to disclose this information in accordance with the
requirements of the Act. We acknowledge that the final decision on disclosure rests with JISC and the
Academy.
Section / Paragraph No.
N/A
Page 16˜ of 16 ˜
Document title: JISC Project Plan
Last updated: March 2009
Relevant exemption from
disclosure under FOI
Justification