v rolfe oer12 conference search engine optimisation 17april2012

Using Open Technologies to Support a Healthy OER Life Cycle

Dr Vivien Rolfe, De Montfort University, vrolfe@dmu.ac.ukDr Simon Griffin, Griffin Internet Marketing, griffin.simon@gmail.com

CC BY-SA 2.0 (with the exception of the JISC and DMU logo)

Using Open Technologies to Support a Healthy OER Life Cycle

Presentation for OER12 & OCWC12 Global combined conferenceCambridge UK, 16-18 April 2012

Background

• The Health and Life Science Open Educational Resource (HALSOER) project is releasing OER for STEM subjects including Forensic, Biomedical and Medical Science.

• Funded by UKOER Phase 3.

OER@DMU

• 2009 Virtual Analytical Laboratory (VAL)(UKOER Pilot)

• 2010 Sickle Cell Open (SCOOTER)(UKOER 2)

• 2010 TIGER (UKOER 2)• 2011 SCORE Fellowships – Jacqui Williams, Viv

Rolfe

OER Lifecycle

Discovery

ImprovementPublication

Nathan Yergler 2010

OER Lifecycle

Discovery

ImprovementPublication

Nathan Yergler 2010

Use (unchanged)

OER Lifecycle

Discovery

ImprovementPublication

Nathan Yergler 2010

Where to search?Repositories?Google?

Multiple file formatsTechnology barriers

How / where to share?

OER Lifecycle

• Creating a healthy OER life cycle is a challenge and hurdles include discovery, driving reuse / repurposing and encouraging publication.

• These activities need to be part of everyday work to sustain and grow open education. (Atkins, Brown, and Hammond 2007; D'Antoni 2008).

CC BY ND Tambako the Jaguarhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/

Using open technologies

Web 2.0

Open source

Open collaboration

Open standards

Our approach to promote discovery

• For SCOOTER (UKOER2) and HALS (UKOER3):

– OER housed on search engine optimised sites (SEO).

Discovery…….

Rolfe & Griffin 2011

SummarySCOOTER UKOER2 HALS UKOER3

Wordpress Direct Blog Wordpress Direct Blog

Static OER HTML pages OER Blog articles with RSS feed

Basic SEO Enhanced SEO (eZine submissions, press releases)

Posterous (Facebook/Twitter/Blogs)

Posterous(Facebook/Twitter/Blogs)

Google Analytics for basic tracking of site performance

Enhanced monitoring of site performance

£ Pragmatic and time realistic ££ Enhanced SEO campaign

Discovery…….

Our approach to promote reuse / improvement

• OER published in multiple file formats.

• Production of different modalities from one OER in systematic way for content leverage (Williams 2011).

• Clear © licensing instructions on websites and each OER.

Reuse / improvement…

Reuse / improvement…

Reach and Impact (1st 3 months)(Both on Page 1 of Google)

Analytics SCOOTER UKOER2

HALS UKOER3

Unique Visits 645 905

Countries 24 33

Mobile 3% 10%

Most Popular OER Education and young people with sickle cell45 views

Microbiology zone of inhibition57 views

SCOOTER UKOER2 HALS UKOER3

en.wikipedia.org youtube.com

sicklecellanaemia.posterous.com medev.ac.uk

heacademy.ac.uk prod.cetis.ac.uk

dmuscooter.wikispaces.com bestsciencedirectory.com

prod.cetis.ac.uk biology-courses.posterous.com

dmu.ac.uk directorymaximizer.com

ezinearticles.com education.ezinemark.com

google.co.uk ezinearticles.com

google.com facebook.com

facebook.com newswiretoday.com

pr-inside.com

scoop.it

Referrals (Backlinks)

Community DataViews / Comments / Follows

SCOOTER UKOER2

HALS UKOER3

Youtube Channel To date: 3177(Genetics animation 285 views)

To date: 567(Queen’s visit talk157 views)

SlideShare Simon Dyson Sickle Presentations479 views

Facebook “Insights”LikesFriends of Fans

5029,000

7421,500

Feedback via Email, Twitter, Facebook, SurveyMonkey

Have we promoted discovery?

• Use of open technology enhances OER discovery globally and non-selectively.

• We can target users through Twitter and Facebook (subject specialists, students etc).

• You get what you pay for! The more time spent, the greater the rewards.

Have we promoted reuse / improvements?

• Publishing multiple file formats and distributing to other sharing sites should assist reuse.

• To early to say which file formats are most popular and flexible.

• This makes our OER OPEN, INTEROPERABLE and ACCESSIBLE.

OER Lifecycle

Discovery

ImprovementPublication

Nathan Yergler 2010

SEO boosts Google rankingRSS feeds distribute OERPosterous network

Multiple file formatsClear © signposting

Evidence?

Conclusion• Open technologies can support a healthy

OER lifecycle and evaluation of these strategies is the next step.

• Evolving pragmatic time realistic strategies relevant to our work setting is essential.

• The results will be disseminated in the UKOER 3 final report.

Contact us!

vrolfe@dmu.ac.ukTwitter @DMUViv

CC BY SA Jacob Escott, HALS Project, DMU.

Resources• Yergler NR (2010). http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/handle/10609/4852

• Atkins DE, Brown JS and Hammond AL (2007). http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/Hewlett_OER_report.pdf

• D'Antoni S (2008). http://learn.creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/oer-way-forward-final-version.pdf

• Williams P (2011). Content Leverage System. Available: http://download.marketsamurai.com/AS_AT110823TS01AS_Leveraged_Content_Creation.pdf

• HALS Project Website: http://www.biologycourses.co.uk

• Rolfe V and Griffin SJ (2011b). A Guide to SEO http://www.sicklecellanaemia.org/teaching-resources/resources/scooter80/SCOOTER80a_SEO_Guidelines.pdf