JISC

Developing learning resources

The development of learning resources initially appears to be a fairly mature area. However, there are many practical issues yet to be solved around content creation and the existing software tools needed to support this. Many JISC funded projects have investigated issues around workflows, copyright issues, standards and interoperability. This work has highlighted several broader strategic issues around the roles and responsibilities of staff, the need for multidisciplinary teams to support and sustain this work, continuing issues in sector and institutional cultures, and levels of transformation required to embed changes at an institution-wide level.

As institutions have continued to invest in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) there has been a significant parallel drive to upscale institutional e-content development.  Given the many pressures on academic teams to upload large amounts of content there can be a tendency for this to be fairly informational in nature rather than interactive. The increasing potential offered by Web 2.0 and social software has led to a shift both in focus and student expectations, and many institutions are now considering how best to integrate institutional technologies with user-owned/preferred technologies.

Many institutions are now developing collections of content created by students during their learning and teaching activities. This may take the form of formal repositories but can often be stored in wikis, blogs, VLEs and e-portfolio systems. Issues in this area include staff and student education around digital content creation, copyright and intellectual property, data protection, and ownership once the student leaves the institution.

Session Facilitator: Ian Butchart (x4L Advisory Board Chair)

1. What is the value of adopting cross institutional collaborative approaches to developing learning resources? Wendy Nightingale (CeLLS project, SFC e-Learning Transformation Programme)
2. Should we develop tools and resources to support a particular pedagogical approach or should appropriate pedagogical approaches be applied when they are used? Steve Ryan (DART project - DLiC programme)
3. What ways can we approach the integration of institutional and user owned technologies to enhance the learning experience? Miles Metcalf (Designs on Learning, D4L programme)