http:// from probe to prowe and back again … chris pegler iet, open university prowe evaluator
TRANSCRIPT
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
From PROBE to PROWE and back again …
Chris PeglerIET, Open UniversityPROWE evaluator
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
Acronyms, acronyms …
• JISC• PROWE – Personal Repositories Online: Wiki
Environment• PROBE – Personal Repositories Online: Bliki
Environment• OU – The Open University• IET – The Institute of Educational Technology• UoL – University of Leicester (Beyond Distance
Learning Alliance)
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
Greetings from
Anne Hewling
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
The partners
Open University:Includes:
Anne Hewling (PO)
Anne Ramsden
Gill Needham
Janet MacDonald
Chris Pegler (Evaluator)
University of Leicester:Includes:
Gilly Salmon
Tony Churchill
Richard Mobbs
Selina Lock
Roger Dence*
* Roger tutors for the OU and UoL. He’s UoL consultant to the project
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
The projectFunded under the JISC Digital Repositories Programme.
Start and end dates: 01 June 2005 to 31 May 2007
“To investigate the use of informal repositories within Wiki and Blogs by part-time tutors on distance education programmes in the partner institutions. The focus is on the use of wiki-type environments as personal and informal repositories for sharing and storing resources in the context of their own professional development needs.”
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
The research question
"In what ways could wiki and wiki-type environments be useful and usable as personal and informal repositories to support professional development within part-time tutor communities of practice?”
• Environment may be a blog, wiki or bliki …• Methods used will vary in line with the context
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Why? (The need)• The OU and UoL have large numbers of part-time
tutoring staff – in the OU there are >7000 linked to 12 regional centres!
• Many tutors work on more than one course and may blend OU/UoL work with other teaching
• Current information exchange between tutors is course rather than community focussed. The tutor cannot access or easily share or use it beyond that course/presentation.
• We don’t know much at all about personal and informal sharing between part-time staff
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
How?• Focus group meetings at OU and UoL in December (this
week!) will inform choices of tools and direct relevance to tasks that tutors are already involved in.
• Tools will be used by tutors working with courses ranging from Business to Museum studies, in online, distance and blended teaching environments
• Personal and informal repositories will be supported through one full presentation and evaluated during and afterwards
• This builds on Janet MacDonald’s work with OU tutors on sharing information online and Tony Churchill’s experience with staff development at UoL
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Community users and wikis • Conventionally wikis are not WYSIWYG – will our users
use them if they are not?• They’re often not moderated either – what style of
moderation do we need/want?• Personal spaces within PROWE – choosing to share or
not. Reuse can be personal. • Shared spaces for part-timers cause a challenge. What
have we learnt from students?• Blog/Wiki balance?
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
The first 14 OU users look like …
• At little as 6 months experience and as much as 15 years• Teaching on Technology; Education, Maths, Social Sci, Arts and
Openings• Work environments are a mix, several work outside the OU• Only 1 on dial up• Only 1 had had any previous contact with repositories• Currently organising digital teaching resources on personal web
pages, hard disks • Transfer resources across teaching contexts using FirstClass and
USB pen drives. One uses bookmarks and four use chiefly paper copies of handouts. One uses blog for storage/transfer
• Mostly recycling own material only, perhaps from more than one job
http://www.prowe.ac.uk
Answers sought:
1. How can we create a sustainable repository and support sharing for remote part-time teaching staff?
2. How will users respond to ‘lighter touch’ sharing based on wiki/blogs?
3. How might these tools contribute to enhancing/building an information sharing culture?
4. How do informal personal repositories work with institutional repositories (or not)?
5. What transferable lessons are there?
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Outcomes (User benefits)
• Enhanced peer to peer community for sharing ideas and experience
• Quicker access to material to support teaching• Time saving (easy to access materials and
value of the outputs obtained)• Easy to use tools suitable for inexperienced
users of ICT • Portable and accessible
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Outcomes (Transferable)
• Will inform about the role of personal digital repositories within a social network supporting teaching and learning
• Will identify related cultural issues and impediments • Enhanced quality of teaching and learning through better
prepared teaching staff• Improved uptake of shared resources• Transferable Toolkit ‘product’ with relevance to other
communities of practice, for instance, those currently using discussion lists
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Mapping PROWE (or PROBE)
Personal
Controlled access
Unmoderated (informal)- we think