content distribution flow and tracking for the african health open educational resources network...
TRANSCRIPT
Content Distribution Flow and Trackingfor the African Health Open Educational
Resources Network
Kathleen Ludewig OmolloUniversity of Michigan
September 29, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, this work is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. 1
One of the goals of Open Educational Resources (often referred to by the acronym OER) is to increase the visibility and use of educational materials.
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In order to meet that goal, OER must:
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Have low barriers to access,
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Be findable through a variety of pathways,
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Be available in common file format(s), and
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Be traceable so that you know when, how, and how many people are accessing them. (This last one is the most difficult.)
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For this reason, the African Health OER Network (“the Network”) pursues multiple distribution methods for the widespread availability of OER across the continent and the world.
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The OER produced through the Network is distributed through multiple offline and online methods by:
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The authoring institution,
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OER Africa (Network co-facilitator), and
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University of Michigan (Network co-facilitator).
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This distribution workflow diagram shows the whole ecosystem.
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Now I will explore this chart more in depth, looking at the distribution outlets and tracking methods for each of the organizations.
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Authoring Institutions
Let’s begin with the authoring institutions.
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Server icon public domain, http://clker.com/. All other icons are public domain or CC BY from http://thenounproject.com/
Authoring Institutions
African institutions often encounter challenges with Internet access due to high cost of bandwidth and power outages. This is why offline access is extremely important.
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Authoring Institutions: Computer Lab
At least one of the institutions installs copies of OER on the hard drives of desktop computers in student computer labs.
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Authoring Institutions: Computer Lab > Example
Mr. Tom Ndanu, a lecturer from the University of Ghana Dental School loaded several dental OER videos from University of Michigan onto the computers in the Dental School student computer lab.
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Authoring Institutions: Computer Lab > Tracking
Currently the only measurement we have of computer lab use is anecdotal and incomplete.
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Authoring Institutions: CD/DVD
At least one of the institutions distributes CD or DVD copies of individual OER to students enrolled in particular classes.
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Authoring Institutions: CD/DVD > Example
Example 1:In 2009, Prof. Richard Adanu at University of Ghana Medical School distributed a CD with the total abdominal hysterectomy OER module to 19 fifth-year medical students.
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Authoring Institutions: CD/DVD > Example
Prof. Adanu distributed the OER to students in two batches. He distributed to the first batch of students one week and to other the following week. By the time Prof. Adanu distributed it to the second batch, some of those students had already received copies of the CD from their classmates in the first class.
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Authoring Institutions: CD/DVD > Example
Example 2:In 2010, Prof. Adanu distributed a DVD with 4 OER gynecology learning modules to all 80 second-year medical students. The DVD contained 3 modules that were created by him and 1 that was created by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
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Authoring Institutions: CD/DVD > Tracking
Currently the only measurement we have of CD/DVD distribution at the institutions is anecdotal and incomplete.
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Authoring Institutions: Server
Some of the authoring institutions have their own OER servers that host content developed by their instructors, staff, and students.
Some of these are publicly available and others are available only through the local area network due to bandwidth constraints.
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Examples
Here are some examples of institutional websites:
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Examples
University of Cape Town Open Contenthttp://opencontent.uct.ac.za/
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Examples
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology OERhttp://web.knust.edu.gh/oer/
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Examples
University of the Western Cape Free CourseWarehttp://freecourseware.uwc.ac.za/
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Analytics
Some of the authoring institutions track the number of views or downloads of OER through their content management system or by using Google Analytics.
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Authoring Institutions: Server > Tracking
For the most part, this information is currently shared and monitored only within the institutions. One exception is the University of Cape Town Open Content website, which displays the number of views and a 5-star rating on each resource page.
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OER Africa
The authoring institution transfers a copy to OER Africa, who publishes it to additional channels.
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Server icon public domain,http://clker.com/. All other icons are public domain or CC BY from http://thenounproject.com/
OER Africa:Server
OER Africa links to all and hosts much of the OER developed by Network participants on their server located in South Africa.(http://www.oerafrica.org/healthoer)
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OER Africa:Server > Tracking
OER Africa monitors online visitors to their website through two platforms: AWStats and Google Analytics.
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OER Africa:Server > Tracking
AWStats, which is built-in to the web platform, tracks the number of visitors, unique visitors, page views, and bandwidth used. This is recorded for whole Health space as well as individual resources.
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OER Africa:Server > Tracking
Google Analytics tracks much of the same information as AWStats, as well as the geographic information for visits, downloads and referrals to the site.
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OER Africa:Server > Tracking
Every month, OER Africa prepares an internal report summarizing statistics for both analytic services. OER Africa shares this report with several partner organizations, including University of Michigan.
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OER Africa:OER Commons
Using RSS feeds from the website, OER Africa team sends descriptive information (such as title, description, authors, link, license, keywords) for the OER it hosts to OER Commons.
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OER Africa: OER Commons
OER Commons (http://www.oercommons.org) is a website that people can use to search OER from many sources across a wide variety of disciplines. It doesn’t host any content, but points to resources hosted on other websites.
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OER Africa: OER Commons
On OER Commons, you can search by keyword and tailor your search by grade level, material type, media format, and conditions of use.
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OER Africa: OER Commons
People can rate or comment on each resource.
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OER Africa: OER Commons > Tracking
OER Commons uses Google Analytics to monitor site traffic and search patterns. OER Commons shares those statistics with some content providers, including University of Michigan.
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OER Africa: GLOBE
Also using RSS feeds, OER Africa sends descriptive information for all the OER it hosts to the Global Learning Objects Brokering Exchange, known as GLOBE for short.
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OER Africa:GLOBE
Similar to OER Commons, GLOBE (http://www.globe-info.org/) is a website that people can use to search OER. It doesn’t host content but links to content hosted someplace else.
OER Commons also pushes its records to GLOBE.
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OER Africa: GLOBE > Tracking
GLOBE does not make its analytics public.
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OER Africa: YouTube
OER Africa uploads many of the video-based resources from the Network to YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/user/oerafrica)
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OER Africa: YouTube
YouTube is the most popular video streaming service for user-contributed content.
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OER Africa: YouTube > Tracking
YouTube displays the number of views on each video.
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University of Michigan
OER Africa transfers the OER to University of Michigan, who publishes it to additional channels.
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Server icon public domain, http://clker.com/. All other icons are public domain or CC BY from http://thenounproject.com/
University of Michigan:Server
In order to address bandwidth limitations, geographically-dispersed users and long-term preservation, University of Michigan (also known as U-M) hosts duplicate copies of the health OER from the OER Africa website on the Open.Michigan website.(http://open.umich.edu/education/med/oernetwork/)
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University of Michigan:Server > Tracking
U-M uses Google Analytics to monitor website traffic and search patterns. Most of those analytics are currently private, but U-M is exploring methods to make some of this data public.
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University of Michigan:OER Commons and GLOBE
Through RSS feeds, U-M sends descriptive information for the resources to OER Commons, who then sends it to GLOBE.
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University of Michigan:Learning Registry
Learning Registry (http://www.learningregistry.org) is a project in progress, led by the U.S. Federal Government. Like OER Commons and GLOBE, its goal is also to make it easier to find educational materials across institutions and repositories.
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University of Michigan:Learning Registry
U-M is working on a plug-in for the Open.Michigan website that supports the Learning Registry framework.
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University of Michigan:Blip.tv
U-M uploads any video resources from the Network that have a U-M author or co-author to Blip.TV.(http://openmichigan.blip.tv.)
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University of Michigan:Blip.tv
Similar to YouTube, Blip.tv is an online streaming video service. In addition to hosting content, it can also push content to other video hosting services.
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University of Michigan:Blip.tv > Stats
Blip.tv tracks the number of views per video by distribution channel.
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University of Michigan:YouTube
Blip.tv pushes videos to YouTube. YouTube tracks the number of visits, likes, dislikes and comments.
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University of Michigan:YouTube
YouTube also tracks the geographic distribution of visits.
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University of Michigan:Roku and Boxee
Blip.tv also distributes video to two Internet television services: Roku and Boxee.(http://www.roku.com)(http://www.boxee.tv)
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University of Michigan:Internet Archive
The videos, audio files, and textbooks are also added to Internet Archive. Internet Archive automatically creates streaming versions and downloadable versions in multiple formats. (http://www.archive.org).
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University of Michigan:Internet Archive > Tracking
Internet Archive provides the number of downloads and user reviews for each resource.
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University of Michigan:Espresso Book Machine
The Espresso Book Machine is a print-on-demand book machine. It prints 300 page books in 7 minutes at low cost. (http://www.lib.umich.edu/espresso-book-machine)
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University of Michigan:Espresso Book Machine
The textbooks from the Network are added to U-M Espresso Book Machine catalog.
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University of Michigan:Espresso Book Machine > Tracking
U-M library internally tracks the number of books printed.
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University of Michigan:Slideshare
U-M is experimenting with adding the presentation slides and text documents from the Network to SlideShare.(http://slideshare.net.)
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University of Michigan:Slideshare
Slideshare enables individuals to easily browse or embed documents.
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University of Michigan:Slideshare > Tracking
Slideshare tracks favorites, comments, downloads, views, and embedded access.
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University of Michigan:DVD
Occasionally U-M prepares sampler DVDs with content from the Network to distribute to people who may not be able to download large files online.
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University of Michigan:CD/DVD > Tracking
U-M has created 245 disks to date•200 PEPFAR Annual meeting in May 2011•30 OER Africa Convening meeting in May 2011•15 across U-M since April 2011
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University of Michigan:CD/DVD > Tracking
Aside from the number of disks created, it is difficult to tell how many people and how often the disc has been accessed. U-M plans to add a tracking pixel to partially measure access.
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University of Michigan:Mobile
U-M is currently working on an initial prototype to convert some of HTML-based learning modules for mobile distribution.
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University of Michigan:eGranary
Lastly, U-M has initiated a partnership to distribute offline versions of the OER through eGranary.
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University of Michigan:eGranary
eGranary collects offline versions of electronic collections through a web crawler or removeable media. eGranary then aggregates the collections and distributes them to servers to over 300 academic institutions in developing countries for access on their local area networks.(http://www.widernet.org/egranary/)
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University of Michigan:General > Tracking
As part of an effort make our analytics transparent, U-M recently began to develop public dashboards with stats from a variety of distribution outlets.
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http://openmichigan.geckoboard.com/dashboard/B015055A8C1C1E43/
University of Michigan:General > Tracking
There is a dashboard for Open.Michigan overall and one for the African Health OER Network is in progress.
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Closing Remarks
The authoring institutions, OER Africa, and U-M continue to explore innovative methods to distribute and track usage of OER.
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