Supporting academic colleagues in developing open content literacies

Melissa Highton

University of Oxford

“I feel my job is to disseminate our knowledge and enthusiasm for our subject as widely as

possible – this is why I support Creative Commons”

“Receiving email feedback is great – you don’t get much feedback from within the University so to receive it from listeners around the globe is great.”

“It’s a huge personal boost to receive feedback: as a teacher it is just what you want to hear.”

“Releasing podcasts suited my subject (Censorship) I was keen to disseminate my material as widely as possible, particularly as my work involves releasing previously secret documents.”

“Recording my lectures has become a routine part of my life – I have slighted adapted my style now that recordings are released because I used to refer to handouts a lot but then I got inundated with email requests for the handouts from listeners.”

“I’m now linking podcasts to a new online course and they can be used as marketing materials to attract people to the course.”

“I will be using podcast interviews as source material for my next book.”

• I'm an English Literature undergraduate at the University of Buenos Aires… • I'm an American musician who lives in St. Louis, Missouri … • I'm a sixth form English student.. • For the last 8 years, I've been working in Central Asia helping to start

schools. … • I am an American from a poor background and I was not brought up reading… • I am a part-time, mature student (own teeth still though) at the University of Bristol

studying English Literature … • I am actually an old member of New College. I took an MPhil (1995)… • I am Professor of English Literature, Université de Fribourg… • I had assumed that Shakespeare studies had passed me by… • Being a 17 year old, I don’t really know much nor have much for critical thinking skills… • I’m Norwegian so I hope my english is understandable… • I've only just begun college and become quite frustrated with the slow progress (and

some rather uninspiring teachers)… • I am a mature student working towards a degree in Philosophy at Queen's University in

Kingston, Ontario, Canada… • I’m the 70+ doing an M.A in Ethics and found your romp very helpful…. • As an engineer at the beginning of his career (and who thinks that he should studied

philosophy instead)… • I am basically a pastor in a church in Delhi. …..

“our more able students are being encouraged to listen to the podcasts both to improve their understanding of the plays and to encourage them to believe that the Oxford is not a rarefied and unattainable target, but operates at a level they will find accessible.”

“As head of More Able and Talented at a large state school, I am constantly looking for resources to improve our teaching and your podcasts are giving us just that opportunity. Members of the English department are now using Wittgenstein’s Dabbit illustration in the way you did and finding it to be a very effective approach …..”

Thank you for offering online your lectures on introductory quantum mechanics, and thank you for providing a PDF copy of your text. The text is a marvellous resource, and your lectures are exceptionally lucid and compelling. I am learning a great deal and enjoying them very much. I teach high school science and maths, and I hope I can pass along to my students (at least some of) these ideas with the same excitement and clarity.

“I have recently enrolled in an Open University with the plan to complete a BA in Philosophy, but the first unit I have had to complete is a Study Skills unit which has been so boring and mundane I have been questioning whether to continue or not. Your enthusiasm for philosophy is infectious and put me back on course to continue my studies. Thanks again.”

“Can I just say how utterly engrossing they are - and how completely stimulating. I completed my undergraduate studies a great number of years ago, but listening to you lecture makes me yearn for study."

“Please podcast all lectures sometimes we have essay crisis, cannot come to lecture, but we really want to go!”

“I'm not joking but the site has become my favourite site in ten seconds flat - can't stop downloading! Where has this been all my life?????? This is ridiculous!”

“I like to search by topic. Sometimes you just want to read about something but you don’t know what to read”

“I like to see things from other Universities and overseas. I’m at Oxford so it’s good to have access to stuff from elsewhere”

“I love podcasts and videos – I don’t see this as study, I just love watching stuff”

“Yes, big demand I would think. I have just listened to your lecture on The Spanish Tragedy and found it very interesting indeed. I am planning to listen to the rest of the series and have started dusting down any volumes I have of Elizabethan plays”

“these are the thoughts of the World’s most eminent academics … that’s what’s going to draw most people to the site”

“it’s a really good access point to all the research people are doing”

For retired people like me podcasts of lectures (recorded raw, not dressed up as some have them, complete with distracting background music) are a boon. Lifelong learning! Saves us from having to watch “countdown” of an afternoon.”

“This morning: Funding applications suck my soul of life, free lectures from Oxford on iTunesU help it heal”