Developing the scholarship of teaching and learning amongst part-time distance instructors by building community resources: an introduction to the PROWE project Anne Hewling PROWE Project Officer Open University, UK
PROWE – what is it? a Joint Information Systems Committee- funded Digital Repositories Programme Project between the UK Open University and the University of Leicester
PROWE – what is involved? new communications tools e.g. wikis and blogs part-time distance instructors continuing professional development needs communities of practice repository theory and practice
What drives it? "In what ways could wiki and wiki-type environments be useful and useable as personal and informal repositories to support professional development within part-time instructor communities of practice?"
Institutional context - OU Distance only institution 180K distance students 25K outside the UK 7K associate instructors Moving from First Class to Moodle
Institutional context - UoL Blended institution 18K students 6K distance students 350 associate instructors Blackboard
Site foci OU – emphasis on building and supporting communities of practice by sharing and collaborating to build new knowledge UoL – emphasis on providing a core informational resource to underpin and solidify the institution/instructor relationship
The OU site -what has happened so far? user needs assessment tools assessment elgg 1 – testing a technology elgg 2 – testing practice
Issues Defining typical and usable System security - authentication Content security - rules and reuse Durability and transferability - FOAF
Some tentative conclusions Potential Limitations Tensions
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