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OER Workshop Questionnaire for the University of Exeter

Introduction Open Educational Resources (OER) form a part of the University's new Education Strategy aiming to provide free course materials which can be used in learning and teaching. The University of Exeter is currently engaged in an externally-funded project to develop an OER institutional infrastructure.

(http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/educationenhancementprojects/openexeter/)

An aim of the project is to assist staff, whether involved in learning and teaching directly or indirectly, in knowing how to take full advantage of such resources. The Open University which has considerable experience in this field agreed to lead a workshop at Exeter Streatham campus on 6/11/2009. The themes involved where:-

a) Reusing OER in teaching practice (techniques and tools).

b) The design of teaching materials to accommodate OER (students' reactions to material).

c) Exploration of steps involved in reusing OER (presentations and group work).

d) Benefits, limitations and issues (discussion).

By the end of the workshop it was hoped that staff would be able to plan and use OER within their teaching practices, having gained hands-on experience of tools and guidelines. The OU facilitators wished to make considerable use of Cloudworks.

“Cloudworks is a social networking site for finding, sharing and discussing learning and teaching ideas and designs”. (Cloudworks,2009)

Following on from the workshop, the University of Exeter needed to gather views together to evaluate the potential for OER development within the University.

Methodology The workshop was targeted (via email) to all people named in the project, all contributors of material and an email was sent to all School Directors of Education to cascade within their Schools.

The initial invite for workshop participants went out from Olivia Dunn (who was the project administrator) on 07/10/2009, advertising a whole day on 16/11/2009. Subsequently, due to the limited availability of people who wished to attend, this was altered via a follow up email from Tom Browne (06/11/2009) to two half day sessions with the potential for staff to extend their activities as a whole day (two staff did this). ~30 staff attended each session along with the three Open University staff and they were from various backgrounds with differing levels of knowledge, motivation and expectations. 3 support staff attended from the GEES (2) and Economics (1) Subject Centre OER HEA-funded projects. (Exeter is involved with both these consortiums: http://c-changeproject.org.uk/ and http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/projects/oer). Given the limited

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time available, the workshop encouraged some pre-workshop activity. This was outlined at: http://Cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/1921.

Following the workshop a PDF questionnaire was developed which staff could complete electronically and submit or print off and send back by mail, with anonymity of results guaranteed. The questionnaire was first emailed on 20/11/2009 to all participants, with a follow up email reminder on 01/12/2009. The questionnaire (Appendix 1) included open ended (qualitative) and closed (quantitative) questions aimed to gain an insight into staff views on the ideas behind the workshop, OER, Cloudworks and general questions which allowed participants to expand on any points. Staff were specifically asked to give as much detail as possible in their answers, whether good or bad.

Results 15 (43%) respondents completed the questionnaire. Eight of these classed themselves in an academic role, 6 were in a support role and one person classed themselves as half and half.

Questions on the workshop: The first question asked if the introductory email (Appendix 2) which contained details on OER and Cloudworks with links to materials had been useful and if so how. 2 respondents said ‘no’ and 2 made comments, such as ‘didn’t really know what was involved’ whilst 11 respondents said that it was useful to varying degrees, such as ‘yes it was very detailed’, ‘got the general idea’ and it was ‘good to have the link to the Cloudworks site before the meeting to get an understanding of it’ .

One respondent who said ‘no’ explained why in detail: ‘No - for multiple reasons. It came through quite late (just before 5pm the day before) so few will have seen it before the workshop. Recipients were asked to log into Cloudworks and have a go at the pre-workshop activity. This would have been fine except that Cloudworks is not an easy resource to use - it's not very intuitive and the interface is muddled so it needed quite a strong sell; introducing it in this way (throwing people in at the deep end without immediate support) didn't help its marketing. The pre-workshop activity asked users to 'Find an OER which you have used in the past or thinking about using in a teaching or training context'. It didn't consider those who a) weren't academics or b) those who *were* academics but who were new to OER and have never used it. I thought the day was in fact aimed at these people in particular but this very first activity 'What is an OER?' assumed people doing the exercise already knew the answer to that question. I think it would have been better to invite people to say what (if anything) they knew about Open Educational Resources and what they would like to know (this would have been useful for the day itself). It might have been good to look at preconceptions and to perhaps have a go at myth busting and calming concerns. Very few people did the exercise.’

Another respondent who had said ‘yes’ because it provided information about logging on also expressed concerns: ‘However, and more importantly, I felt there was a big disconnection between the information in Olivia Dunn's email (upon which I based my decision to attend the workshop) and Tom's subsequent message and workshop agenda. Olivia's email suggested a much more practical workshop than it turned out to be and than was subsequently suggested by Tom's follow-up email and agenda (which focussed on Cloudworks and on a seemingly much more abstract and theoretical approach to the issue of OER). Here's a section of Olivia's email to show you what I mean:

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"The Open University have considerable experience in this field [OER] and have agreed to lead a workshop at Exeter Streatham campus involving:-

a) Reusing OER in your own teaching practice in terms of techniques and tools.

b) Changing the design of teaching materials to accommodate OER and students' reactions to this material.

c) Through presentations and group work, you will explore steps involved in reusing and OER and accommodating OER in your teaching practice.

d) Concluding with a discussion of benefits, limitations and issues.

By the end of the workshop you will:

1) Be able to plan and use OER within your teaching practice.

2) Have gained hands-on experience of tools and guidelines".

So Tom's email was useful for preliminary information in that it did accurately reflect the workshop's content.’

Four questions were designed to see if attendees had become engaged with the pre-workshop activities and expectations (Table 1):

Question Yes No Did not respond

Did you manage to look at the Cloudworks site before the workshop? 8 7

Did you register prior to the workshop? 9 6

Did you engage with the pre-workshop activities in Cloudworks? 4 11

Did the workshop match your preconceptions following the email? 3 11 1

Table 1: Pre-workshop activities and expectations

People’s motives for attending the workshop focussed on wanting to learn about Open Exeter and resources for learning and teaching. This included how to develop resources, providing resources and finding out what resources are available, for example on the Internet.

One respondent stated: “To learn about OER in context; we already provide open resources and wanted to hear about how the community can use them”.

Another respondent commented: “I hoped to get a feel of how we could integrate the principles of OER into the LTHE course so that new lecturers and PGRs who teach can see the real benefits”.

Two respondents felt that the workshop had met their expectations and objectives, whilst three felt that it had to some extent but a total of nine respondents said that the workshop did not meet their expectations. Eight of the respondents highlighted issues regarding the fact that the workshop was based around the use of Cloudworks rather than OERs within the University of Exeter.

One respondent noted: “Yes, but all that Cloudworks represents now to me is that it is a networking forum which I can dip into when I need some help / inspiration”.

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One respondent who stated ‘No’ went on to say: “The discussion of the OER was interesting tho'. I was looking at it from the point of view of having a repository of teaching materials I could use. I do think the OER should be looking at a greater range of input materials beyond lecture notes and .ppts.”

One respondent summed up many of the views regarding the focus of the workshop: “I think the workshop met some of my expectations, in that we did discuss in mixed discipline groups important aspects of OER. However, it also struggled a little in identifying what the important theme was: OERs or Cloudworks. It seemed that Cloudworks as a pedagogical aid started to overshadow what was being discussed - the technology became more important than the discussion it was trying to facilitate.”

Questions on OER Six of the fifteen respondents said that they would use OER in their teaching or academic support role but two respondents were not sure how they would be able to achieve this. Four respondents were definitely not going to use OER and the other respondents were not sure for various reasons, such as their subject area or confidentiality and copyright issues.

When asked if respondents thought that if OER would assist with their career aspirations the majority said ‘No’ (9) or that they were ‘Not Sure’ (4), only two respondents said yes. In support of their answers respondents added comments such as:

“No - as it stands, apart from it being a pure philanthropic exercise, spending time putting my work on to OER is not going to help me in my career at Exeter. Time would be spent better doing other things that are valued by the Uni.”

“No. I can't spend the time surfing OER for resources that might exist. Far easier to create my own resources and then feel confident I understand the material. It could help beleaguered teaching fellows who have multiple courses in subjects they are not experts in.”

On a more positive note, one respondent said: “Perhaps. It might be an advantage to be a contributor to an OER project as a showcase of my work, for example. But all I'm really interested in as a contributor is making my resources more freely available to other educators to use as they see fit - I think there is some value in my resources that I'm happy to see others take advantage of if they wish.”

Respondents were asked if OER would assist with the future development of the University of Exeter and if so how. The majority said ‘Yes’ (9) and stated reasons such as: “more international students”, “more joined up with the wider academic community” and “enhancing an international reputation”. However, it was felt that it would only be of use if: “the academics are willing to use it and share ideas”, “the copyright laws allow greater freedom of use within an education context” and that it is “not fundamental to the future of the university”. Detailed responses stated:

“There needs to be much more consideration for lecturers work loads if UoE is going to push this. I have taught 5 modules in the last 6 months - free content would be useful, but there is no satisfaction in using this off the shelf material. Unless I have invested in creating course content I feel I lack the authority to teach a course. I think OER will be used as a marketing tool for the University - just as Harvard provides high quality open access material that is labelled with their logo, Exeter could go down this route. But.. it is all about resources.”

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“I think the University has to decide whether it is going to try to rival the Open University. If it does try to rival the Open University it will have to invest massive amounts of resources in supporting teachers to deliver OER material. At the moment teaching is not rewarded by the system and therefore what incentive is there to develop materials?”

The following factors were stated as reasons as could inhibit a person’s use of OER (Table 2):

Reason Number of respondents

Time 9

Technology and resources (incl. funds) 7

Confidentiality / Copyright 6

Academic inertia 2

Criticism of work 1

Loss of ownership 1

Quality of materials 1

Table 2: Reasons inhibiting use of OER

One detailed response highlighted the issues of technology and resources in the use and provision of OERs: “I won't use an OER if it's difficult to navigate, requires a log-in, won't print very well, isn't easy to download, displays in an awkward format or is of obvious poor quality (missing bits, spelling errors etc). Maybe to an OER producer this seems rather picky. The fact is that as a user I can be this picky because there are plenty of other resources available - rules of the market place apply. I would add that an OER repository definitely does give an impression of the institution and the staff (team) that produces it - in some cases the only impression. Exeter should be very aware of this - OER materials will reflect schools.”

The majority of respondents did not have any ideas on how to evaluate the material. The only ideas that were suggested were student questionnaires, download counts, checklists, peer review, feedback and in-house comparison. For example, one respondent suggested: “Tracking what and where material is being downloaded. Requesting (not demanding) feedback as to quality and use. In-house comparison of material to that produced by other institutions. Asking prospective students to compare quality of material to that of other institutions. Academic (in house) review. Star rating from users (the OU already do this).”

Questions on Cloudworks: When asked whether the general presentation on Cloudworks was useful eight respondents stated ‘Yes’ and seven respondents stated ‘No’.

Cloudworks was presented as a ‘Pedagogic wrapper’ and respondents were asked whether they believed it to be effective for purpose. Only three respondents stated ‘Yes’ whilst ‘No’s (4) and ‘Not sure’ (7) made up the majority. The question evoked comments such as:

“I still don't see the point in it. I'm not sure I know what a 'pedagogic wrapper' is”, “the major difficulty I see is that none of us has time to use another forum”, “more of a back patting website than a real learning resource”

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and even ”a Facebook for educators is a more appropriate term”. Alternatives were suggested such as NVivo, Pageflakes and Ning.

General questions: Two general questions asked for peoples most positive and negative thought on the workshop (Table 3).

Positive Negative

Networking/discussion (5) Cloudworks pitch doesn’t address OER (8)

Innovative (2) Hard to read displays

Ideas for uses of Cloudworks/OER (5) Narrow mindedness

Learnt about OER Presenters seemed ill-at-ease

Lack of structure

Table 3: Positive and negative thoughts

Additional comments focussed around the idea that it would have been more useful to have had a workshop about Open Exeter concentrating on contributions, quality control and addressing academic concerns. Issues on time availability were reiterated in addition to funding issues. A detailed response highlighted concerns regarding the fact that the University needs to be clear about the direction that it wants to go in with OERs with clear guidance to academic staff regarding expectations. It was felt that a few high quality resources would better reflect excellence in research and a high international profile via a potential interdisciplinary approach would require funding, “dedicated and proactive support, hands on guidance” as well as guidance and support on intellectual property rights.

Appendix 3 contains a reflective discussion about the OER workshop between Tom Browne (Exeter) and Giota Alevizou (Open University). Tom Browne was also disappointed at the unfortunate confusion of mixed messages that arose from so overtly conflating the OU’s Cloudworks agenda and Exeter’s OER agenda. It was deemed that there was a prior need for much greater ‘sensitisation’ of staff to what OER is all about.

Conclusions In summary the following points were highlighted by the responses from the questionnaire on ‘OER at the University of Exeter’. Prominent concerns were:

• The focus of the workshop, with conflicts between peoples OER expectations and the focus on Cloudworks.

• Longevity of Cloudworks as a platform

• The time required to produce OERs

• No obvious personal benefit

• Copyright protection/infringement

• Quality of materials produced/available

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Staff were, on the whole, interested in OER and happy to take on board the future of OER with guidance, a clear strategy and time.

References Cloudworks Introduction (Accessed 11/01/2010) http://Cloudworks.ac.uk/

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Appendices

Appendix 1: OER Questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Email from Tom Browne To: Participants at the OER workshop, 17th November 2009 Please find enclosed below the full details regarding the OER workshop. Locations and times : Because of the current pressure on rooms, the workshop has been split between an a.m. and a p.m. location: a.m. 9:30 - 14:00, XFI Conference Room 1/2 p.m. 14:00 - 16:05 Amory B105 An agenda is attached. Refreshment breaks and lunch time is noted on the agenda. Both our a.m. and p.m. rooms will have wireless capability. If you have a laptop then please bring it along as we will have various group online activities. I have guest authentication access for our external participants. N.B. It is not a problem if you are unable to bring a laptop. The workshop is highly participatory. We will be using some social networking software called Cloudworks, which has been written by the OU. See: http://Cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1921.html We will be interactively engaging with this site on the day. Please do not be alarmed or put off by this site if (as is highly likely) you have not used this social networking software before – all will become clear on the day. However, although it is not essential, it will greatly enhance your experience of the workshop if you are able to take part in just a little preparatory work. 1. Scroll to near the bottom of the URL above and you will see a link: Introduction: Creating an account and profile (link also available here : http://Cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2521). Click on the ‘Sign up’ link and complete the few items of details it requires. Thereafter you will merely need to login. Signing up is only necessary if you wish to ‘participate’ (which you will on the 17th) as opposed to merely browsing, so it would be useful to get this stage out of the way. 2. If I have not yet lost you, then scroll down a little further on the 1st URL above to the link: Pre-workshop activity – What is an OER? – Share an OER! (link also available here: http://Cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2521) and contribute to the discussion (for which, you will need to be logged in). Finally, for those of you who are only coming a.m. or p.m., please do make sure you build our OER lunch into your itinerary! Please do not hesitate to raise any queries of any nature with me between now and the 17th. With regards, Tom OER Project Manager / Principle Investigator Dr Tom Browne FHEA Education Research and Evaluation Advisor Educational Enhancement, Academic Services Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE email: t.j.browne@exeter.ac.uk, tel: 01392 72 3232

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Appendix 3: Google Docs Discussion