Using Learning Objects Meta-Data in Education: An Introduction to MERLOT Barbra Bied Sperling Manager of Technical Development, MERLOT California State University, Office of the Chancellor MEITAL 2009: The Open Knowledge World 7 th Annual MEITAL National Conference

Presentation Outline Introduction to MERLOT Joining MERLOT Contributing Material Other services

MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

Structure of MERLOT Staff (Cal State University) 3 Full time (2 of these are Tech Team) 3 Part time (including Executive Director) Project Directors (10% of time) Represent Partners Set direction of MERLOT Editors of Disciplines (25% of time) Communities Peer Review Editorial Board Members (10% of time) Peer Review MERLOT Projects Volunteers

MERLOT Supports Creative Commons MERLOT strongly endorses and recommends Creative Commons licensing to encourage the sharing and reuse of online learning materials while protecting Members’ work from misuse and abuse.

MERLOT gives faculty… A vision, direction and a process for the integration of instructional materials in hybrid, online and f2f courses A formidable resource for professional development A mature collection of ready to use materials Opportunities for collaboration with MERLOT users and authors worldwide.

MERLOT Makes Faculty Work Easier One stop shopping to good material An easy way to get hybrid and online courses off and running A great way to reach students where they are at - online!! A way to provide real-world, classroom-tested materials just in time

MERLOT Repository * October 1, 2009  Registered Members* –74,468+ 1,000/month  Materials –21,220 – 2,798 ~ Peer Reviewed – 9,269 materials in “Personal Collections” – 3,292 materials with member comments  Usage ~ 150,000 average unique visits per month

Always find what’s new

© MERLOT 2008 Barbra Bied Sperling

Who Are You? How Many First Timers in MERLOT? Who Knows What MERLOT Stands For? Who Has Used MERLOT to Find Online Learning Materials? Who Has Included MERLOT in Course Instruction?

Are you a member of MERLOT?

MERLOT Is Here For You To Use  Become a member (its free)  Discover and Contribute learning materials  Create Personal Collections  Add Assignments  Write Comments

Why should you join MERLOT?  Create personal collections  Contribute materials, comments, learning exercises  Develop a personal profile and create a CV  Share online expertise with others  Receive peer recognition  Become a guest speaker  Join an Editorial Board - Become a Peer Reviewer  Find others in a discipline

How do I join MERLOT?

We don’t require much information

 All members identify affiliation when registering in MERLOT  Identify professional affiliation  Current Use - Partner “Dashboard” analyses  Future Use – customized, institutional MERLOT home page Affiliations Identification

Specify your affiliation when joining

Edit your affiliation in your profile

View partner affiliation participation

Once you join, you have a profile

I’m logged in, now what?

Updating your profile

Update your profile Want to change what you just added? We will save these for a future presentation.

Update your profile

Find materials and members in MERLOT

Search and browse MERLOT

Search MERLOT Members

Federated Search

Federated Search - results

RSS Feeds in MERLOT Any search can become an RSS feed

MERLOT Web Services  Simple Search  Advanced Search  Contribute material  Register (Join)

LMS Partnerships Blackboard WebCT ANGEL Learning Desire2Learn

- Web services are server functions - not end-user functions - A “client application” must be written as an end user front end -Simple Search web service MERLOT Web Services

- Advanced Search web service available to Partners, and for a fee - Contribute web service and Join web service in Beta MERLOT Advanced Search

It’s important to share: Contribute to MERLOT

Contribute learning materials

All you need are a few details:  Enter a title and URL for the material  Describe the material, material type, audience and keywords (even include formatting with the text editor)  Identify the subject category and language(s)  Add author information  Any extra information to help a user including creative commons

The finished product! Detail view

Member comments and Learning Exercises

Add a comment or learning exercise

Member Comments

Learning Exercises (previously known as assignments)

Organize your materials: Personal Collections

How do I create a collection?

Where can I find personal collections?

Do you like someone else's collection?

And there’s still so much more to MERLOT…

Recognizing Your Efforts  Ribbons of recognition  Provides recognition for faculty capabilities and performance  Provides accountability for institutions  Provides academically acceptable mechanism/process that is motivational

How you get recognized in MERLOT Contribute materials Add comments Submit assignments Create personal collections Join the VSB Become a peer reviewer Author materials

Differences - MERLOT vs. Journal Evaluate teaching materials, not research articles. MERLOT has Peer Review Training Actual Peer Review appears on MERLOT site, so can read what has been evaluated Write an appreciation letter at end of year Invitation to join Board with 5 reviews. Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire

MERLOT Editorial Discipline Boards Organized like journal editorial board Editor (may be co-editor Board Members Associate Editors Peer Reviewers

MERLOT Editorial Boards Biology Business Chemistry Criminal Justice Engineering English Faculty Development Fire Safety Health Sciences History Information Technology Library and Information Services Math Music Physics Psychology Statistics Teacher Education Technical Allied Health World Languages Agriculture Communication Sciences Professional Coaching

2 Stage Peer Review Process Triage At least 2 Individual Reviewers complete the review Editor combines Review into Composite Review Composite Review is sent to Author for approval Once Author approves, post the Review

Current Editorial Boards Build the Collection Build the Community Peer Review (volunteers) Additional Services Personal Collections Virtual Speakers Bureau JOLT MERLOT Voices

MERLOT Editorial Boards Editor Associate Editor Ad Hoc Reviewer

GRAPE Camp 3 weeks Online Homework Workspace Assign to Editorial Board Mentored on first review

There is so much more to MERLOT …

Share a material with a friend

Report a broken link to us

MERLOT Communities

Discipline Community Portal

Teaching Commons – Partner Portal

MERLOT Online Journal: J O L T

© MERLOT 2009 TechEd Sorel Reisman 67 RIDING THE WAVES OF INNOVATION cenic09.cenic.org

MERLOT Online Newsletter: The Grapevine

© MERLOT 2009 TechEd Sorel Reisman

Need Guest Experts? Virtual Speakers Bureau can help

Find other Guest Experts that can help you or become a VSB member yourself Virtual Speakers Bureau

Virtual Speakers Bureau profile

MERLOT’s New Authoring Tool: Content Builder

MERLOT and Carnegie Carnegie Foundation KEEP Toolkit Previous Use: MERLOT Snapshots Snapshots are a type of learning material Offered Toolkit as open source software Carnegie service to end in October MERLOT and Carnegie announce MERLOT support of KEEP users MERLOT to integrate/customize KEEP software

MERLOT Content Builder

There is so much more to MERLOT …

Directly Search  Quickly search MERLOT’s 20,000+ higher education learning material repository  Simplifies learning material review for mobile users Display  Hit list titles with abbreviated descriptions  Easy to view materials without mobile browser Review  Full MERLOT description in browser  Quickly select important learning materials  Directly send learning material information to yourself and/or colleagues for later use in teaching and learning MERLOT Mobile Search

Totally independent application “Cosmetically” integrated w/MERLOT application Hosted on commercial server site Terms of Service usage are a supplement to MERLOT Acceptable Use Agreement (AUP) All forum posts fall under Creative Commons License described in MERLOT AUP – non commercial, attribution, non derivative, share-alike Joining Voices requires separate “join” Not required to be MERLOT registered member MERLOT Voices

 Proprietary channel and URL  No ads  MERLOT-created playlists  MERLOT’s video repository  Visit MERLOTPlace at MERLOT YouTube Channel

3-D MERLOT in Second Life

MERLOT 3-D Campus  2008 –MERLOT released CLIVE - Center for Learning in Virtual Environments - Partner Community Teaching Commons  Collaboration between MERLOT, U of Oregon Center for Advanced Technology in Education

CLIVE Portal

 To put into practice, in VEs, what we preach  Chose Second Life as exemplar  Partnered in development with MERLOT Corporate Partner, Sify Technologies  Announced MERLOT 3-D Campus at MIC 09 MERLOT 3-D Campus

The 3-D Campus

MERLOT Isn’t just about wine. We have a huge harvest in our vineyard. Come and taste!

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