1. Is there a role for online repositories in e-Learning? Sarah Hayes Andrew Rothery University of Worcester

2. Why are tutors reluctant to use online repositories for learning resources? Tutors in universities in Britain do not yet actively upload teaching resources to e-repositories to share with others This has been our experience at Worcester Staff are still willing to upload and share resources Many teachers already do share resources with each other  Usually with close colleagues  Usually by informal means

3. Reasons for the poor uptake in use of learning materials repositories Cultural, legal and organisational issues But, we go further than this and propose that the design of the repository itself needs to change to meet users’ needs Yes, there is a role for repositories in e- learning, but universities need to re- think their design and how they are used

4. The value of managing and sharing resources Saving time and cost by re-use Better quality resources available to tutors Supporting collaborative course development both within and across institutions Access to outputs of development projects Supporting the transfer of institutional research and enterprise knowledge Coping with situations where staff leave Developing good professional reputations

5. Briefing paper: ‘Managing and Sharing e-Learning Resources’ The strategic vision: publishing and implementing agreed institutional policy and approach to sharing and re-using online resources, both locally and externally The legal framework: defining ownership, copyright and IPR in a way which protects the organisation’s assets yet allows open sharing within the educational community The online systems: developing the use of institutional systems and repositories which meet tutors’ immediate practical needs

6. Difference between research and learning materials repositories Success of online repositories for research publications Universities use similar systems to store and access teaching materials Tutors reluctant to use such systems What are these differences?

7. Differences Making material public  few incentives to publish teaching materials  wish to restrict access Metadata  practising teachers might need different metadata Versions  research papers are usually discrete entities  different versions of a learning resource may exist Audience  academic publications read by other academic staff/researchers  materials generally delivered to students differently e.g. via another online system/VLE/web pages

8. IPR, re-use, citation  many tutors are uncertain about IPR Types of material  considerable variety both in the source of the material, its ownership, how it is used and its format. Retention  there is a tradition of preservation of academic publications but little awareness of any need to retain teaching materials Peer review  scholarly works are often subject to peer review  this is not the case with learning resources More Differences

9. Our Survey What types of teaching resources would staff would find useful? Copyright-free images, videos, other people’s PowerPoint slides and teaching activities to adapt Would staff be likely to search such collections? 97% said yes Would staff submit resources for others to share? 89% said yes

10. Changing repository functionality Staff can now choose the individuals they wish to allow access to their resources

11. Collections Undergraduate student dissertations Course handbooks Media files and podcasts External collections

12. Recipe for success Distinguish between material created by lecturers themselves and collections of materials Develop useful collections separately - a traditional repositories approach may be acceptable here Re-think the approach to metadata for lecturer's own material and adopt a Web 2.0 type of approach Develop suitable Web 2.0 style sharing systems, so tutors decide who should access their resources Ensure staff can easily transfer or link between material in the VLE and the repository Develop institutional strategy for IPR and copyright So yes, there is a role for repositories in e- learning, …but universities need to re-think their design and how they are used