#300 Presentation

Tuesday 17 April 15:45 - 16:15 Bowett Room

OER at the Heart of Curriculum Development

Simon Thomson & Wendy Luker, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Conference Theme: Impact

Summary: Leeds Metropolitan is refocussing its undergraduate programmes and use of OER is a key stratgey in resourcing the curriculum

Abstract: Since establishing its institutional Repository with JISC Start Up funding in 2007, Leeds Metropolitan University’s strategy has been that this should be multi-purpose repository, for both open access research and learning objects.  The University has been actively involved in the UK Open Educational Resource "movement" since the Phase One funding call in 2009. Through the JISC/HEA funded ‘Unicycle’ project we successfully kick-started the creation and collation of open resources to be made available through Leeds Metropolitan’s Repository. and established workflows and good practice associated with this.  Since then the institution has continued to develop the Repository’s functionality, and has also increased the release and use of OER within the institution beyond the funded life of the project, demonstrating Unicycle’s sustainable model.
Our granular approach to OER use has been a persistent theme through a number of staff development activities. The institution is now embarking upon an exercise to refocus the undergraduate curriculum, and through this process course development teams are being encouraged to consider the use of Open Educational Resources. We believe that we are one of the first UK institutions to engage every undergraduate course in identifying where they might use OER to supplement and extend the learning materials they already use. We have put OER at the heart of our curriculum design using it in a complementary form to enhance the tutors own materials, to offer alternative perspectives, to broaden the range of learning opportunities offered to students, and thereby increasing the quality of the learning experience.
This session will be of interest to learning technologists, academic staff, repository managers and information professionals as well as senior managers involved in learning and teaching strategy development.  The session will cover:

• The benefits and outcomes of a strong collaboration between the Centre for Learning & Teaching and the Libraries & Learning Innovation teams in establishing a range of workshops, training materials and resources to support course teams in understanding the range of Open Educational Resources that are available to them, their potential to enhance the curriculum, and how course teams may be supported in accessing these resources and embedding them in their teaching;
• An outline of how the e-learning infrastructure has been developed within the University to ensure that all stakeholders are easily able to identify and access high quality and relevant open educational resources;
• An analysis of the relative success the teams have had in encouraging the embedding of OERs to support the Leeds Met graduate attributes alongside subject specific content;
• Exemplars of how OERs have been integrated within modules across a range of subject areas, alongside tutor-created and commercially available materials to enhance the learning experience.

The presenters will provide links to a range of learning and support materials used as part of the initiative being described.  They will also share examples of good practice in embedding OERs in the curriculum, and case studies of academic staff’s experiences of accessing and using OERs, and the benefits and otherwise that they have encountered in doing so.