A research-intensive University, Exeter is revising its Education Strategy, placing greater emphasis on promoting active learning and in which students and staff can ‘range’ across disciplinary boundaries. This will be supported by the use of appropriate new technologies and contextually located within a rich array of learning materials. In addition, we are increasing our international intake and the availability of OER will be key to marketing Exeter’s education ‘brand’. This enhanced educational focus will impact upon the character of the developmental support that staff will require in order to promote appropriate student engagement.

Open Exeter

Overview

A research-intensive University, Exeter is revising its Education Strategy, placing greater emphasis on promoting active learning and in which students and staff can ‘range’ across disciplinary boundaries.  This will be supported by the use of appropriate new technologies and contextually located within a rich array of learning materials.  In addition, we are increasing our international intake and the availability of OER will be key to marketing Exeter’s education ‘brand’.  This enhanced educational focus will impact upon the character of the developmental support that staff will require in order to promote appropriate student engagement.

Aims and objectives

  • Exeter is committed to encouraging open educational practice and believes that Open Exeter will inform and support widespread transformations in learning and teaching.
  • We embrace the ambition of creating a virtuous circle whereby staff and students, through sharing and reusing, will leverage a more communicative, active and independent learning style appropriate to our mission of developing a teaching research nexus. OER will thereby become an integral component of curriculum design and delivery.  
  • Open Exeter will provide a testbed for the challenges involved and enable others to draw on the project’s experiences.

Project methodology

We have many of the essential building blocks in place - technical, procedural and staff expertise throughout the University, including numerous academics and also professional support staff with expertise in IT, databases, education, and IPR.  We will harness these resources to create sustainable working practices.  The methodology consists of an array of overlapping workplans, overseen by a Steering Group and with reflective evaluation weaved throughout.  The workplan foci are :
•    Reviewing current practices/challenges
•    Quality validation of resources
•    Identifying the provenance of resources
•    Licencing and clearing
•    Interoperability
•    Metadata, Delivery Platforms
•    Tracking
•    Training and Dissemination.


Anticipated outputs and outcomes

Open Exeter will:
  • Evaluate current roadmaps and modify them in the light of our experiences as a campus-based, research intensive university.
  • Create our own roadmaps, templates and institutional policies and procedures for repositories, metadata, searching tools, IPR, dissemination, educational practice and training and outreach documentation.
  • Release material, for different levels of study and for a range of subjects.  These will be made available through creative commons licensing.
  • Publish ongoing reports and a final evaluative report which will provide a narrative and a suite of case studies, identifying the challenges encountered and the solutions identified.

Technology / Standards used

  • WORD2003
  • PDF
  • XHTML 1.1 Conforming to WC3
  • CSS 2.1 Conforming to WC3
  • JPEG
  • IMS Content Packaging 1.1.2 minimum
  • Dublin Core / Qualified Dublin Core
  • UK LoM
  • MP3

Project Staff

Project Manager
Dr Tom Browne
University of Exeter, Education Enhancement, Academic Services.
Tel: 01392 72 3232 ; Email: t.j.browne@exeter.ac.uk

Project Team    Institution = University of Exeter
BISS Integration & Web Services Team, Academic Services
Sue Milward :  01392 72 5539 ; S.A.Milward@exeter.ac.uk

Collections & Research Support; Academic Services
Ahmed Abu-Zayed : 01392 26 4016 ; Ahmed.Zayed@exeter.ac.uk
Martin Myhill : 01392 26 3870 ;  M.R.Myhill@exeter.ac.uk

Education Enhancement, Academic Services
Nick Birbeck  : 01392 72 3927 ; N.Birbeck@exeter.ac.uk
Tom Browne (details above)
Sue Burkill : 01392 72 4462 ; Sue.Burkill@exeter.ac.uk
Margery Clarke : 01392 72 5715 ; M.L.Clarke@exeter.ac.uk
Liz Dunne : 01392 72 4510 ; E.J.Dunne@exeter.ac.uk
Dilly Fung : 01392 72 4505 ; D.Fung@exeter.ac.uk
Matt Newcombe : 01392 72 3989 ; M.J.Newcombe@exeter.ac.uk

Employed/seconded to Education Enhancement, Academic Services
Anna Howell : 01392 26 2853 ; A.M.S.Howell@exeter.ac.uk
Ian Wellaway : 01392 26 2852 ; I.J.Wellaway@exeter.ac.uk
Ian Holding : 01392 26 2855 ; R.J.Holding@exeter.ac.uk
Olivia Dunne. (tel: to be determined) ; o.dunn@ex.ac.uk

Infrastructure Services, Academic Services
Bill Edmunds : 01392 26 3943 ; W.Edmunds@exeter.ac.uk

Corporate Services
Paul Hirst : 01392 26 3930 ; P.S.Hirst@exeter.ac.uk
Rachael Morgan : 01392 72 5560 ; R.E.Morgan@exeter.ac.uk
Paul Tiltman : 01392 26 3180 ; P.Tiltman@exeter.ac.uk
Claire Turner : 01392 26 4202 ; C.L.Turner@exeter.ac.uk

University of Exeter Business School
Richard Lamming : 01392 26 2549 ; R.C.Lamming@exeter.ac.uk
Roz Pardee : 01392 26 4802 ; R.L.Pardee@exeter.ac.uk
Alison Wride : 01392 26 3207 ; A.E.C.Wride@exeter.ac.uk

School of Education and Lifelong Learning
Mike Jeffries : 01392 26 2854 ; M.J.Jeffries@exeter.ac.uk

School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources
Richard Jones : R.T.Jones@exeter.ac.uk

Documents & Multimedia

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Summary
Start date
1 May 2009
End date
30 April 2010
Funding programme
e-Learning programme
Strand
Open educational resources programme - phase 1
Project website
Topic