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Presenter

Simon Thomson

Simon Thomson is a Principal Lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University, specialising in visual effects compositing & broadcast media technologies.

He is a member of the institutions Teacher Fellow network and also the institutions Technology Enhanced Learning team. He was nominated for a National Teaching Fellow Award in 2004. Simon has published a number of papers focusing on strategies and techniques to enhance the student experience through technology and in 2006 Simon was awarded Apple Distinguished Educator status for his work in supporting home and distance learning students with audio & video podcasts.

In 2008 he co-managed an institutional wide JISC funded project on audio feedback (SoundsGood) and has recently managed a JISC/HEA funded project to implement an Open Educational Resource (OER) strategy at Leeds Met, as part of the JISC/HEA funded OER phase one pilot projects (institutional). The outputs from these projects have been presented at a number of national and international conferences on Open Education.

 

Andy Beggan

Andy Beggan is Head of Learning Technology at the University of Nottingham. Learning Technology provides the central e-learning support for the University, supporting both operational and strategic activities. This includes amongst others, Open Nottingham, a University strategic initiative providing support for all of Nottingham’s open learning activities such as U-Now/BERLiN project, Xerte Online Toolkits (winner of the ALT-C Learning Technologist team of the year award 2009 and the IMS Global Learning Impact Platinum award 2010), Xpert, an oer aggregating and automatic attribution tool (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/), and collaborations with University Marketing and Communications for iTunesU and YouTubeEdu sites. Before joining The University of Nottingham, Andy managed and worked within e-learning development teams across a wide range of sectors for over 17 years, including international e-learning publishing company, HE and Finance sectors.

 

Abstract

The implementation of innovative practice in educational institutions is often led by a few enthusiasts or champions. To ensure sustainability these champions have to engage a range of stakeholders, articulate the benefits of their activities and support transformations in the practice of the different stakeholder groups. This may result in the development of new partnerships within and across institutions requiring different communication mechanisms and highlighting a need for a common understanding of the benefits at an institution-wide level.

Two projects from the recent JISC/HE Academy Open Educational Resources (OER) Pilot Programme will outline their own experiences by looking at some of the challenges in creating successful collaborations & partnerships both within and outside their institutions. The BERLiN Project (Nottingham University) and the Unicycle Project (Leeds Metropolitan University) both developed new partnerships, processes and practices to enhance sustainability of their approaches to OER release and re-use. The session aims to consider the barriers and enablers to effective collaborations & partnership working. It is anticipated that delegates will be requested to participate in this discussion.

 

Facilitator

Peter Bullen

Prof. Peter Bullen is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and a Critical Friend to a number of Universities involved in JISC and HEA supported projects. Until very recently Peter was the Director of the Blended Learning Unit, CETL and Ford Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire, having previously been Head of the School of Aerospace, Automotive and Design Engineering. Peter first became involved with e-learning in the mid nineties, when developing and running a masters programme for employees of the automotive industry. This led to a University wide appointment concerned with the development of learning and teaching using the University’s managed learning environment.  In recent years he has been involved in the HEA E-learning benchmarking and Pathfinder projects and JISC projects on technology enhanced learning and learner experiences, jointly editing and contributing to the recent book; ‘Transforming Higher Education Through Technology-Enhanced Learning’. Peter has published widely in the areas of blended learning, engineering education and engineering and was made an Elluminate hero in 2009.