#290 Panel (60 minutes)

Tuesday 17 April 11:30 - 12:30 Bowett Room

Open Educational Resources for the development of Doctoral students and researchers

Vivien Sieber, University of Surrey, UK
Eleanor Quince, University of Southampton, UK
Sue Oreszczyn, The Open University, UK
Ian Fairweather, University of Manchester, UK

Moderator: Vivien Sieber, Head of Learning and Research Support & Development, University of Surrey, UK

Panel:

• Vivien Sieber, Head of Learning and Research Support & Development, University of Surrey, UK
• Eleanor Quince, University of Southampton, UK
• Ian Fairweather, University of Manchester, UK

Conference Theme: Impact

Abstract: Following the Roberts Review “Set for Success” (2002)[1], considerable effort and resources have been applied to the development of the transferrable skills employers expect from researchers.  Envisaging a career development pathway beginning with doctoral students, moving through early career researchers, to lecturers, senior research fellows and Professors, Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF)[2] identifies a range of attributes and skills that researchers (from doctoral studies to career researchers) should develop alongside their academic research at various stages in their career. The RDF categorises skills into four domains:
A: Knowledge and intellectual abilities
B: Personal effectiveness
C: Research governance and organization
D: Engagement, influence and impact.
Each domain is subdivided into three specific attributes into which the general skills are grouped.  RCUK Doctoral Training Centres and most institutions provide training programmes and workshops mapped to the RDF which assist particularly, though not exclusively, their doctoral students and ECRs in developing these skills.  Vitae[3] itself provides a forum for ongoing development of the RDF and some training opportunities.  In order to engage with an often disparate community of researchers, many institutions have begun to develop online resources for the training of staff at all levels, either as an alternative to workshops, for example “Skills Portal” [4], or as something which can be used within/alongside workshops.  As a result, developing online resources to provide researcher training does not need to be labour or time intensive: there is material out there which you can adopt and amend to suit your needs.  

Session outline
The session will be a mixture of presentation and facilitated discussion.
Taking the RDF as a starting point, the panel members will introduce participants to the idea of using OERs as a means of offering a relatively quick and easy way to create on-line researcher training materials.  Participants will then be led in the selection of existing OER material and how to re-use or re-purpose it to meet their needs.
In small groups, participants will be asked to consider OERs that map in some way to the RDF and to identify any potential pitfalls to using these resources.
Coming together for a final, facilitated discussion, participants will have an opportunity to experience the steps necessary to “adopt” an OER:

• Resource discovery (search terms, repositories)
• Technology (download, link, format)
• Evaluation
• Modification/reuse
• Researcher use/feedback
• Licensing, copyright

Outcomes
Participants will:

• develop an understanding of the issues, barriers and drivers to using OER;
• gain further knowledge of the RDF;
• receive examples of OER which they can use/re-use for researcher training;
• be led to consider various approaches to encouraging resource use within their institution

[1] http://www.ra-review.ac.uk/reports/roberts.asp
[2] http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/429351/Introducing-the-Researcher-Development-Framework.html
[3] http://www.vitae.ac.uk/
[4] http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/learningskills.html