OER infoKit wiki Open Educational Resources infoKit / Technical and Data Management considerations
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Technical and Data Management considerations

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Saved by Phil Barker
on June 18, 2010 at 12:59:27 pm
 

 

 

There are a number of approaches that may be taken for releasing OERs, the choice of which is most appropriate will depend on individual circumstances, such as the scale of the initiative (e.g. is it a single individual choosing to release their own resources, an institution or a wider consortium), the aims of the initiative and the technical resources available. One of the first considerations is how to store and disseminate the resources themselves. The main points to consider are:

  • Whether the primary site for hosting and disseminating the OERs should be local and specific to the initiative releasing them, or part of a wider (global, national or subject-based) community.
  • Should the OERs should be disseminated through a formal repository or more informal channels such as blogs, wikis etc., including locally installed software or public social sharing sites.
  • Should the resources themselves be hosted in a range of places, or should there be a primary site which provides information to secondary sites (e.g. in the form of RSS/ATOM feeds, or via metadata harvesting) which can then link back to the OERs.
  • Whether the system that manages the hosting and dissemination of the OERs once released is separated from the processes of the creation and release of OERs (e.g. a remote point of deposit once the resource is finished) or whether integrated systems are used to manage all the processes from creation through to dissemination.
  • Whether all the OERs will be on a site that is completely open, or whether access restrictions will apply to some resources or some other parts of the site.

 

Another consideration is that of resource description and metadata. It is good practice for resources (where possible) to include some text that provides a basic description, for example: a descriptive title, keywords or short abstract so that users can quickly identify the topic of the resource; some details of the creator(s) of the resource (e.g. the authors names and/or the institution where the resource was created); the date of creation; copyright and licence information etc. This information can help people trying to select suitable resources, and its presentation within the text of the resource (especially when used as, e.g., the title element of an HTML document) helps to facilitate resource discovery by search engines. Clearly for some resource types (images, sound recordings) this may have to be handled in some other way.

 

Some systems require similar information about the resource to be recorded in the form of  structured metadata so that it can be used for resource management. For example, one of the easiest way to organise a large collection of resources is to 'tag' them with subject key words, or to record author details in a specific format, either at the time of deposit or at a later date. This simple metadata can then be used by the system to present resources by topic or as a result of a search query so that they may be found quickly and easily. However, metadata creation has to be either done automatically (which can be imprecise) or manually (which can be resource intensive).

 

For further guidance see the JISC CETIS pages on OER description

 

One approach to managing OERs is by hosting them in a formal repository system. The JISC-funded Good Intentions report contains an overview of UK repositories for teaching and learning and goes into more detail on the types of repositories available for resource dissemination. A companion infoKit on Digital Repositories is also available as well as a 2007 guide to setting up learning object repositories.

 

The repository may owned and operated by the institution producing the OERS, however some institutions choose to use an existing repository rather than set up their own. JorumOpen was launched in early 2010, providing easy access to resources licensed under Creative Commons, free to anyone, worldwide. Only members of UK Further and Higher Education Institutions, using the UK Access Management Federation to authenticate, can deposit into JorumOpen, but anyone is able to search, browse and download the resources.

 

A complementary method for disseminating OERs, which is sometimes used as an alternative to a formal repository, is to release resources through third party social sharing websites such as Flickr, SlideShare, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunesU. This has some advantages in that it uses existing, technologically sophisticated websites with wide user bases and a high profile on web search engines; however there are also risks and dissemination through these channels may not align well with the objectives of some OER release initiatives. For further information on these see the CETIS pages on distribution platforms for UKOER resources.

 

Another method of OER release is a 'small pieces loosely joined' approach. This is often done through the use of RSS feeds to aggregate content from a diverse and wide range of individuals, subjects and institutions. RSS feeds can power both audio and video podcasts meaning that individuals can 'subscribe' quickly and easily to content and courses that interest them. JISC CETIS has a guide to OER Syndication via RSS. Jorum also has guidance on RSS Registration and Bulk Upload, and has produced a paper on Issues surrounding syndicated feed deposit into institutional repositories. 

 

iTunesU is a hybrid of the repository and RSS approach. Universities are able to add their content to a large repository, whilst most choose to retain control of hosting. At the same time,audio and video content is made available in a user-friendly format with podcast feeds automatically created. 

 

 


 

JISC/HE Academy Pilot Programme: OER release

The JISC/HE Academy Pilot programme: OER release aimed to provide funding and support to enable individuals, subject communities and institutions to openly release existing materials. The lessons learned, approaches adopted and barriers overcome were expected to inform the wider community and offer models and guidance to support wider release in the UK. It was anticipated that the following technical and data management questions would arise:

  • Are there any messages around tools and standards that come from the programme?
  • What kinds of metadata are essential, what desirable, and what are the issues in creating and managing metadata?
  •  How do existing repositories support the release, management, discovery preservation and access to OERs e.g. OpenJorum in the UK, institutional repositories within an institution, web sources globally, etc.
  • What issues arise when using public/third-party hosting solutions?
  •  How best to make hybrid, interactive and multi-media resources available for open access.

 

Pilot programme outcomes and discussion of these questions is being developed on the OER Synthesis and Evaluation Team wiki - these pages are restricted until release at the end of June 2010.

Pilot programme outputs: Technical and Data Management

 

Image CC BY-NC-SA Maddy Lou 

 

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