1 MERLOT Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching Patrick Paulson, Assistant Professor MIS, Winona State University D.W. Proctor, Ph. D., e-Curriculum Director for Minnesota Online

2 Presentation Goals What is MERLOT? How can MERLOT help you succeed in your initiatives? Tenure & Promotion with MERLOT Discussion-Q & A

3 MERLOT: What is it? Anyone can browse, select and even use learning content, but Content posted to MERLOT is placed there by those who apply for membershipmembership Individual membership is free, but there are costs for other levels of membership

4 MERLOT: Priorities and goals Community and collaboration Professional Development and outreach Digital library connection and services Enabling technologies Sharing materials and ideas

5 Who uses it? Current Facts & Figures: Usage People Collections

6 Membership Type of Member Students1,9943,0874,161 Faculty6,62110,05812,710 Staff1,6772,2752,731 AdminNA LibrariansNA41196 Other1,0691,6452,057 TOTAL Members11,56117,22922,306

7 Growth in Materials & Members MaterialsMembers W/ Editorial Boards 8,48210,54412,30416,083 No Editorial Boards 1,5021,6175,0176,330 TOTAL in MERLOT 9,98412,16117,32122,413 % Total from Community with Ed Bds 85%87%71%72%

8 System Partner Use “MERLOT has been an excellent faculty development initiative for a state system, since it promotes collaboration and efficiency. It is a unique organization, approaching common issues and challenges in a way no others do. MERLOT extends our reach and resources by partnering with other systems, organizations, and agencies. I don’t think we could accomplish nearly as much if we tried to do these things by ourselves.” Phillip K. (Phil) Moss, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

9 Faculty Use of MERLOT “MERLOT is transforming the face of higher education as we know it. Being a part of this project is stimulating and every bit worth the time and effort. We are building a first class digital library and a strong community of practice at the same time. MERLOT puts the focus on teaching and learning.” Laura Franklin, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Northern Virginia Community College

10 Student Use of MERLOT 18% of members are students “I was instructed by my college professor to join merlot and to review three websites and pick my favorite. The webpages were setup in such a way that you don't realize how much you are learning until you have completed the "lesson"….. I found it much more effective to "view" the experiments rather than merely hear about them. The videos and sound were excellent and I appreciated the animation allowing me to move at my own pace. I was not forced to move through too quickly…” Angela Landsman

11 Federated Search Important and useful technology for MERLOT users. Allows searches for materials from multiple partner collections, instead of having to search each one separately. Results are combined and sorted by relevance, title, or originating collection. Two forms of FS, general federated search discipline-based federated search (corresponds to MERLOT editorial boards).

12 Digital Libraries Increasing access to collections with other Digital Libraries – Federated Search Edna (Australia)- ARIADNE (EU) CAUSE (statistics)- COMPadre (physics) SMETE (sciences) In the works: BEN/AAAS (biology)- HEAL (health sciences) CLOE/EduSourceCanada- LOLA (Wesleyan) ATHE (theatre – to build collection within MERLOT) Corporate library Services into MERLOT and integrates with your INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS Exlibrus- Metalib- Sentient Discover RSS Feeds: 220 unique requesters; WebCT, Bb, D2L

13 Consortium of online services

14 Locating Suitable Materials “Search engines tend to return a staggering number of links, and evaluating search results for suitability and quality can be extremely time consuming - often more so than authoring a new Web page would have been. Not to mention the fact that high- quality sites that are not highly used or attuned to the search engine's way of seeing the Web often fall through the cracks entirely. It's sometimes quicker to reinvent the wheel than to find its schematics online. Wouldn't it be nice to have a mechanism to quickly find the best teaching materials for a given subject, in a given discipline? “  B. Knauff

15 3 Rs-Results, Relevant, and Reviewed

16 Subject Based Content Browse by Subject Arts Business Education Humanities Mathematics & Statistics Science & Technology Social Sciences

17 Growth of Pedagogical Annotations # of Peer Reviews7891,1021,535 # Materials with 1 or More User Comments 1,7151,9142,067 # of Personal CollectionsN/A5722,336 # of Members with a Personal Collection N/A5721,260 # of Carnegie-MERLOT Snapshots N/A 8

18 MERLOT: Levels of interaction User and Contributor Students and faculty Peer Reviewer and Editorial Board Faculty and administrators International consortium of partners and affiliates Project directors from MERLOT partners

19 User Interaction Browse/use content Contribute content Author content Comment on content Create related content for use as a Teacher Learner Practitioner Scholar

20 Peer Review and Editorial Boards Follows the Peer Review model of scholarship Stringent process Peer Reviewers and Editorial Boards are supported by system and campus partners

21 International Consortium Promotes: Collaboration, community building, faculty development and scholarship Provides: Access to digital libraries, expertise of and interaction with discipline experts, and education technology expertise from around the world

22

23 Why Work with MERLOT? To create common means to individual ends. To get more than we will give. To have a fair share in decision making and participation. To support and hold true to academic values. As a means to provide visibility, accountability and sustainability. To promote quality of content and scholarship in our system.

24 MERLOT: Special Initiatives Just to name a few: Digital libraries Virtual Speakers Faculty Development

25 MERLOT & IMS Platforms D2L,WebCT, Bb are working on projects that will bring MERLOT right into the IMS where faculty design courses D2L partnership focused on RSS feeds Search services Showcase online courses using MERLOT materials

26 Virtual Speakers Bureau Through the MERLOT Virtual Speakers Bureau, you can search for, locate, and invite guest speakers to your courses, professional development workshops, and special online events. You can even use it to invite content experts to visit your classes face-to-face.MERLOT Virtual Speakers Bureau

27 How will this help faculty? Faculty members—including adjuncts—in fourteen disciplines contribute lesson plans, which are then peer reviewed and rated. Especially helpful for adjunct faculty hired three weeks before classes starts and is asked to include technology in their teaching. Allows them to find good materials quickly and use it with confidence, because they can rely on the evaluations that peers have made. MERLOT can showcase faculty research and work.

28 MERLOT: Faculty Development for Partners Annual train-the-trainer workshop. Consultation services. Participation in regional or individual campus workshops. MERLOT International conference session devoted to faculty development. Online course for faculty developers.

29 Coming Soon RSS Feeds to D2L ITeach Online Professional Development Center Minnesota Online

30 Influencing Tenure and Promotion If you don’t get recognized by your peers for high quality work in teaching and learning with technology, it doesn’t matter how effective or efficient you are.

31 Tenure & Promotion with MERLOT MERLOT provides QUALITY REVIEWS Standards-based evaluation Independent panel of experts Training for the reliable application of standards MERLOT provides DOCUMENTATION Documentation for Authors, Contributors, Reviewers, and Users Electronic “portfolio” can be created within MERLOT

32 MERLOT: Peer Review & Tenure Quick list of related articles from a last minute Google Search MERLOT’s Peer Review process and tenure by Dr. G. L. Hanley, MERLOT/California State University MERLOT’s Peer Review process and tenure The Chronicle of Higher Education: Working with Technology and Winning Tenure Web Contributions and Tenure Decisions by Marylaine Brock Faculty Rewards in Digital Environments by Syllabus Institute (In Press) Stakeholder Needs Assessment by eduSource Canada MERLOT: A Model for User Involvement in Digital Library Design and Implementation by Dr. F. McMartin MERLOT Promises Effeciency and Quality Control by B. Knauff Engaging the Faculty by P.R. Hagner and C.A. Schneebeck

33 Intellectual Property Concerns? Creative Commons Flexible range of protections & freedoms for authors and artists. Built upon "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright. Nonprofit, A Crash Course in Copyright is located at this site.A Crash Course in Copyright

34 Questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions? Presenter Information: Patrick Paulson, Assistant Professor MIS, Winona State University neat Merlot tutorials/exercises at: Deborah W. Proctor, Ph.D. E-Curriculum Director for Minnesota Online Office of the Chancellor, Academic Innovations Find out more about Minnesota Online:  