HEFCE funded JISC/Academy OER Programme

Widely available learning content, and informational content, is fundamentally changing the relationship between students and their institutions as sources of expertise. This presents a challenge to existing models of the production of academic knowledge and the role of the institution in supporting student learning. Coupled to this, HE funding models are changing in response economic pressures, many institutions are re-examining their own business models in response to this.

Between 2009 and 2012 HEFCE invested in this area through the JISC and the Academy to promote the sharing and reuse of learning resources, and to provide a reputational benefit to UK higher education through the promotion of high quality learning resources worldwide.

During the UKOER Programme more than 80 projects benefited from funding, many with multiple partners across a wide range of sectors. The institutions involved experienced significant benefits and the UK HE sector as a whole has experienced increased academic reputation as a result of the work undertaken by this programme.

The Programme built on previous work in the areas of digital content, repositories and sharing of learning materials and involved three phases of activity as illustrated by the following diagram:

source: David Kernohan, JISC Programme Manager

http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-ukoer/

Phases of UKOER Programme

• JISC/HE Academy Pilot Programme - OER Release

• JISC/HE Academy OER Programme phase 2

• JISC/HE Academy OER Programme Phase 3  

Lessons learned and key outcomes

• UKOER Lessons Learned  

Resources and outputs from the programme

• Key reports and publications from the programme

• Guidance and support materials - includes practical resources developed for projects by programme support teams and those developed by projects for their own institutions, partners and the wider community

• OER-Evaluation

   

Subject areas covered by the programme

• UKOER subject disciplines

OER developed and released during the programme

All learning and teaching resources from both phases of the OER Programme received the tag #ukoer and were made available through various repositories, community portals and openly on the web. The OER have also been made available through Jorum, the UK national open repository for learning materials.