…to the HumBox

www.humbox.ac.uk

Welcome…

The OER programme

HumBox was a project in the JISC and Higher Education Academy’s Open Educational Resources (OER) Programme* funded by HEFCE.

The OER Programme aimed to make a wide range of learning resources created by academics freely available, easily discoverable and routinely re-used by teachersand learners.

Who was involved?

4 Subject Centres

11 institutional partners

In the beginning……there was the community

• 4 Subject Centres with strong links to our communities• a desire to share resources• potential for cross-disciplinary sharing but little going on

…and the repository

• ready for use• could be customised

The story so far…

• 1000+ resources deposited • bespoke operational repository • wide range of media represented• 150+ registered users

A fledgling community of humanities lecturers who are actively involved in publishing learning resources.

• peer review process initiated and ongoing• active community-building• awareness raising about OERs

Partner dissemination: local & national

• 4 Subject Centres with strong links to our communities• a desire to share resources• potential for cross-disciplinary sharing but little going on

…and the repository

• ready for use• could be customised

Project tools for community building

• 4 Subject Centres with strong links to our communities• a desire to share resources• potential for cross-disciplinary sharing but little going on

…and the repository

• ready for use• could be customised

Partner dissemination: local & national

• 4 Subject Centres with strong links to our communities• a desire to share resources• potential for cross-disciplinary sharing but little going on

…and the repository

• ready for use• could be customised

Community-building: make it easy…

Identities: profile page• customisable

• see most viewed/downloaded

• see when someone else downloads, remixes or comments on your resources

• manage your own resources

• see bookmarked items

Community-building: resource page…

• preview screen• description• keywords/tags• date of deposit• depositor• languages• attribution• number of downloads• CC licence

And…

• Comments and notes• File download

Toolbox:• Download as zip• bookmark• edit• remix

And…

• Margaret Tejerizo (Glasgow):• “…it’s all too sad in today’s academic world…

academics are often very isolated working alone in their offices. For us [at CRCEES], HumBox has been a breath of fresh air….it’s really brought people together and brought for us a tremendous spirit of enjoying what we do.”

•

And…

• Billy Brick (Coventry): • “I’ve integrated it into my teaching already.

I’ve done some sessions on Web 2.0 and open educational resources, so my knowledge has been passed on both at undergraduate and Masters level in my teaching.”

And…

• Emmanuel Godin (Portsmouth):

• “It’s very pleasant to be able to exchange ideas with people you’ve never met before [in your subject area]”

And…

• Sarah Hayes (Aston): • “We feel a certain ownership over it

[HumBox] already…” • • “I think we’ve proved as a group that OER

sharing is possible – and I’m delighted with that”

HumBox: A Perspective from Project Partners at the

University of Southampton

Julie Watson 15th June 2010

Our involvement• Colleagues from English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics, English literature,

Archaeology and Postgraduate Research Skills • c. 150 teaching and learning resources in a range of formats: images, lesson plans

and worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, podcasts and videos• For example:

– A video on excavating and processing archaeological objects at ancient Roman site of Portus

– Images of Jane Austen’s family homes with commentary– Classroom activities on culture and discourse (Applied Linguistics for Language

Teaching and Intercultural Studies)– Study skills guides and checklists: preparing for a viva; giving an oral

presentation

On sharing

“I am happy to share fairly formal handouts that I have prepared for students, and I don’t mind anybody adapting these. I feel more hesitant about sharing many of my PowerPoints …because they may strike colleagues as over simplified and not suitable…” (Perceived barrier to sharing : fear of resources not being comprehensive enough for use in other contexts)

Rethinking reusabilityA downloaded resource might not fit the bill exactly but …“I could use the original presentation as a basic framework and … extract part of it”.“Some of (the content) will need adapting to suit my own purposes - I think the enormous scope of HumBox means that most is interesting…”“I think the resource-sharing is not so much the issue because realistically it won't be the stuff that is incredibly particular to you that will be of much interest to anyone else. In many senses, the more general the better, to make it more (re)usable.” “I realise that I don't have many teaching resources ready to put up "off the shelf" - which may be something I should work on as it’s actually quite useful to have.”

On the benefits for academic profile

“It’s a good opportunity to put your academic profile out to a wider audience.”“Important, yes … I think the 'individual' touch is important to ensure that others know the credentials of the learning materials provided.”“I was happy to put some details on the profile page, and for others it helps to give an idea of what level and scope the material is likely to have. However, actually I rather deprecate the personality cult approach and I think this should be kept to a minimum!”

On culture change

“I certainly think such shared resources are going to increase and I would hope it leads to more sharing of academic resources. In the end this benefits all of us as we have a wider peer group to share ideas with. How universities might feel about having their course contents available to others for free may be another matter!” “The incentive of using the potential of other shared resources has certainly played a big factor in our participation. The 'quid pro quo' needs to be right. Sometimes it is more time and resource effective to create anew than to adapt someone else's existing resources and would very much be done on an individual basis of supply and need. Once a critical mass of content has been achieved, I can envisage HumBox becoming a 'first port of call'.”

A quick tour

www.humbox.ac.uk

The HumBox ProjectLaunch Event

University of Sheffield26th February 2010

www.humbox.ac.ukwww.humbox.ac.uk