Session GoalUse Backgrounder and AMNH experience with biodiversity-related OERs to promote discussion of issues of OER prodeuction, updating and use across disciplines

Source: A. Harborne

How do we build a community of practice around the creation and updating of OERs

for biodiversity conservation?

Nora Bynum

Eleanor Sterling

Ana Luz Porzecanski

Center for Biodiversity and Conservation,

American Museum of Natural History

The Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP)

Develop capacity to sustain the world’s biological and cultural diversity

Mitigate critical threats to global biological and cultural diversity by:

• Developing capacity• Heightening public understanding• Expanding scientific research

Unprecedented change: Ecosystems

– 5-10% of the area of five biomes was converted between 1950 and 1990

– More than two thirds of the area of two biomes and more than half of the area of four others had been converted by 1990

Millenium Ecosystem AssessmentAssessment Synthesis Report http://www.maweb.org/

Significant and largely irreversible changes to species diversity

– The distribution of species on Earth is becoming more homogenous

– The population size or range (or both) of the majority of species across a range of taxonomic groups is declining

– Humans have increased the species extinction rate by as much as 1,000 times over background rates typical over the planet’s history (medium certainty)

– 10–30% of mammal, bird, and amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction (medium to high certainty)

IPCC 2007. Summary for policymakers

Global change: temperature and greenhouse gases

Challenges to biodiversity conservation

•Lack of funding to implement

conservation

•Lack of human capacity to lead

conservation efforts

“(The) next generation of scientists and natural resource managers should be very bright, talented and well educated. They will need the ability to address broad issues at the ecosystem or watershed level, be broadly trained, capable of working across disciplines, able to process, filter and distill copious quantities of information, be familiar with advanced technologies, and have communication, dispute resolution, and social skills.”

Colker, R. M., and R.D. Day. 2004. Issues and Recommendations—A Conference Summary: Conference on Personnel Trends, Education Policy and Evolving Roles of Federal and State Natural Resources Agencies. Renewable Resources Journal Winter/Spring 2003/2004:6-8.

The Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP)

Develop capacity to sustain the world’s biological and cultural diversity

Improved quality of teaching and learning = better conservation biologists

The Importance of Biodiversity

M. F. Laverty, E.J. Sterling, and E.A. Johnson

“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?”

(Aldo Leopold 1949)

IntroductionHumans depend upon biodiversity in many ways, both to satisfy basic needs like food and medicine, and to enrich our lives culturally or spiritually. Yet in an increasingly modern, technological world, people often forget how fundamental biodiversity is to daily life and are unaware of the impact of its loss (see Threats to Biodiversity module).

Despite its importance, determining the value or worth of biodiversity is complex and often a cause for debate. This is largely due to that fact that the worth placed on biodiversity is a reflection of underlying human values, and these values vary dramatically both among societies and individuals (Perlman and Adelson 1997). The perspective of rural versus urban dwellers towards wildlife is one example. People who don’t live with elephants on a daily basis appreciate elephants for their sheer size, charisma, and intelligence. Those who live near elephants, however, tend to perceive them as a threat to people and their crops and property.

Values are also dynamic; they change over time and vary according to specific situations. Both the diversity of values towards a species and the changes in values over time can be examined in the case of the gray wolf in the United

Polinización y Dispersión de Semillas

•El florecimiento de muchas plantas depende de los animales para su polinización

•El 30% de los cultivos humanos dependen de la polinización libre; valor de reposición estimado en billones de dólares/año en USA solamente

Goal 1:

Develop and disseminate open-access instructional materials on managing and sustaining biological and cultural diversity

Goal 2:

Foster an active approach to teaching and learning that models the realities of professional conservation practice

Goal 3:

Facilitate communication and interaction among a diverse group of conservation practitioners in various countries and regions around the world

A project of global reach….

Progress to date….. 100+ complete or partial modules available for use and testing in several

languages (English, Spanish, French, and Lao), more in development

2500 registered users on http://ncep.amnh; 1000+ module components

downloaded every month

Since 2001, more than 80 workshops and training events in 15 countries

for more than 2000 university educators and conservation professionals

NCEP modulesThe Importance of Biodiversity

M. F. Laverty, E.J. Sterling, and E.A. Johnson

“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?”

(Aldo Leopold 1949)

IntroductionHumans depend upon biodiversity in many ways, both to satisfy basic needs like food and medicine, and to enrich our lives culturally or spiritually. Yet in an increasingly modern, technological world, people often forget how fundamental biodiversity is to daily life and are unaware of the impact of its loss (see Threats to Biodiversity module).

Despite its importance, determining the value or worth of biodiversity is complex and often a cause for debate. This is largely due to that fact that the worth placed on biodiversity is a reflection of underlying human values, and these values vary dramatically both among societies and individuals (Perlman and Adelson 1997). The perspective of rural versus urban dwellers towards wildlife is one example. People who don’t live with elephants on a daily basis appreciate elephants for their sheer size, charisma, and intelligence. Those who live near elephants, however, tend to perceive them as a threat to people and their crops and property.

Values are also dynamic; they change over time and vary according to specific situations. Both the diversity of values towards a species and the changes in values over time can be examined in the case of the gray wolf in the United

• Flexible, multi-component,

peer-reviewed resources• Aimed at professors and

conservation trainers• Freely available online• Emphasis on active teaching

NCEP Modules: different from Connexions module

Module Title Examples• Application of Remote Sensing to Biodiversity

Conservation• Application of Remote Sensing to Ecological Modeling• Applied Demography• Assessing Threats in Conservation Planning and

Management• Biodiversity and Forest Ecosystem Management• Biodiversity Conservation and Human Health• Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Conservation

and Development Projects (ICDPs)• Classroom Assessment Techniques• Ecological Consequences of Extinction• Ecosystem Loss and Fragmentation• Introduction to Marine Conservation Biology• Introduction to Marine Conservation Policy• Introduction to Remote Sensing • Invasive Species and Mechanisms of Invasion• Management of Harvested Wildlife Populations• Marine Protected Areas and MPA Networks• Marine Reserves and Local Fisheries (interactive EX)• Metapopulations• Monitoring for Adaptive Management in Biodiversity

Conservation

Credit: Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

• Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation I: Reserve Planning and Design

• Scientific Writing• Species' Distribution Modeling for Conservation

Educators and Practitioners• Student-Active Teaching Techniques• The Bats of Madagascar: a conservation challenge• The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change• The Importance of Invertebrate Biodiversity• The Management of Conservation Breeding Programs in

Zoos and Aquariums• Threats to Biodiversity: An Overview• What is Biodiversity?• Why is Biodiversity Important?

Marine Reserves and Local Fisheries - Interactive Exercise

With no reserves, the number of lobsters declined.

With 20% reserves, after an initial dip the number of lobsters rebounded.

Marine Reserves and Local Fisheries

NCEP and Connexions…………

NCEP Module Development

Initial Writing/Adaptation

Review and Revision

Final Production

Why is Biodiversity Important? Learning Objectives

Through using this Synthesis and Presentation, teachers will enable students to...

• Understand the importance of biodiversity and the different ways people value it.

• Define and give examples of utilitarian values for biodiversity, such as goods and services.

• Define and explain the intrinsic value of biodiversity.

• Discuss how our value system affects biodiversity conservation.

Source: ©AMNH-CBC

NCEP Module Components

• Synthesis document- 20-30 pages, fundamental content

• Presentation and Notes- 20-50 slides with teaching instructions

• Exercise and Solutions- put concepts into practice

• Optional Case Studies - specific themes in depth

Biodiversity

The variety of life on earth in all its forms and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it

Source: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility www.gbif.org/index.html

Basic Diversity Concepts

• Separation to morphospecies

• Richness, diversity, endemism, community similarity

• Determine conservation priorities 5 sites

• Advanced- consider phylogenetic relationships, basal taxa

What is Biodiversity- Spider Exercise

United States• Provided modest

honoraria (e.g., $1500 entire module)

• Authors work alone, in pairs, or small groups,

• Module review accomplished by peer volunteers

• Supported by 3.5- 5.0 FTE

Outcomes - US• Successful module and case study development (45+, 5

years)• LONG process- sometimes 1.5 to 2 years to final

production• Staff intensive process: staff work on development, or

review, or final production• Materials development as capacity development-

bringing practitioners and academics together

Source: A. Harborne

Peru/Bolivia and Madagascar

• Initial module development workshops for participants to develop outlines and learning goals

• Modest honoraria for module development and module review

• Staffing varied: in Madagascar, 4 FTE, in Bolivia/Peru 1 FTE

Outcomes - Peru/Bolivia and Madagascar

• Successful module and case study development (27+, 4+ years in French for Madagascar; 25+, 4+ years in Spanish for Bolivia/Peru )

• LONG process- sometimes 1.5 to 2 years to final production

• Staff intensive process: staff work on development, or review, or final production

• Madagascar more independent from AMNH/central NCEP than Peru/Bolivia; different management structure

• Materials development as capacity development

NCEP Current Focus

• Shifting from focus on materials development to training and capacity development for module users: develop invested user base

• Expanding participation out from conservation to related fields (and other platforms) to build sufficiently large enough user base to permit collaborative updating and revision of module materials.

Breakout Questions - OER Development and Updating

• What levels of staffing, funding and effort have been associated with your OER project? How have you maintained these over the medium to long term (i.e., beyond typical project cycle)?

• How have you determined what to archive and what to update, along with the best ways to accomplish these tasks?

• Do you think that a self-organizing, decentralized system can be effective for materials updating for projects and groups with small user communities (in the thousands as opposed to the millions)?

Breakout Questions- OER Users

• What strategies have you found effective to expand and develop user groups?

• How can we construct virtual communities focused enough to be useful to users, while still creating the larger groups that may be needed to sustain features such as self-organizing review and revision?

• Should we consider models that involve payment or co-payment by users?

• How do we evaluate the effectiveness of OER use?