OER in the Social Sciences: Tacit models of resource creation

Anna Gruszczynska, C-SAP (Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics)

C-SAP OER pilot project overview (1)• Part of UK Open Educational Resources programme

subject strand• Critical social sciences perspective on the processes of

sharing digital educational resources• 6 academic partners: sociology (2), politics (2),

anthropology (1) and criminology (1)• Each partner contributed approximately 60 credits or

equivalent of teaching material• Materials were deposited into JORUMOpen and

MERLOT (US-based educational repository) for sharing

C-SAP OER pilot project overview (2)

Rationale• Within the context of HE

academic practice, most teaching resources are produced at individual level

• The ways in which resources are used in a teaching context are often unrecorded (relying on tacit understanding)

• To re-use material effectively, such tacit understandings might have to be revealed and made open

Aims• Explore processes,

challenges, assumptions about sharing and re-use

• Examine the taken-for-granted, tacit assumptions behind teachers’ selection of topics, issues, pedagogic approaches etc.

• Encourage longer term release of open resources

Exploring ‘tacitness’

• Copyright and IPR• ‘Ownership’ status• Module provenance and history• ‘Normal’ review prior to open release• Relation of original programmes

• Community of practice• Collaborative wiki workspace• Peer supported review exercises• ‘Mapping’ of module outline and contents to facilitate re-use• Copyright audits of materials

• Project toolkit - ‘mapping’ materials, ‘diagnostic’ editing• Source ‘content’ deposited in JORUM and other platforms• Module mappings in project website

C-SAP OER project toolkit: mapping

• Mapping for OER• Overview • Pedagogy• Subject benchmarks• Outcomes and

assessment• Content• Comments

C-SAP OER project toolkit: diagnose/review

• Possibility of re-using OER descriptions created with the mapping tool

• Guidance on creating new OERs from existing module content

Project case studies Partners’ reflections on the

process: before, during, after – examination of assumptions, challenges involved in “opening up” the materials

Focused around one module - but reflect across the scope of the project

Video overview and module ‘map’ link

Supporting materials

Deposit into JORUMOpen

Search terms:•Collections •Author•title• keywords

Granularity: mostly single items

Tacit elements of resource provided in the description field

http://resources.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/2829

Deposit into MERLOT

Search terms:•Materials•Members•Learning exercises•Subject Categories

Additional features:Peer reviewComments

Description field as a space to explore tacit practice

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=446078

Questions? Comments?• For more information about the C-SAP OER pilot project or to

download the toolkit please visit http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/oer/

• To find out more about the involvement of C-SAP in the OER programme, have a look at OER-related resources on our slideshare account http://www.slideshare.net/CSAPSubjectCentre/tag/ukoer

• If you have any queries related to this presentation or work undertaken by C-SAP, feel free to contact Anna Gruszczynska, a.gruszczynska@bham.ac.uk.