Tag: policy

lecture recording policy-have your say

Picture taken by me in the street. No rights reserved by me.

The University has offered lecture recording on an opt-in basis for around ten years and recently made significant investment to provide a new central lecture recording service, Media Hopper Replay, in September 2017.  The new service is running successfully so far with a good many colleagues using it to deliver recordings of their lectures for their students to review.

Beginning the second semester of our new service we have more than 60,000 recordings made to the end of December.  It is very popular with students with around 190,000 student views.  December was the top month for replaying content – over 70,000 hours.

 We are consulting, on behalf of Senate Learning and Teaching Committee,  on a proposed new lecture recording policy to support us in consistently delivering the benefits of the service both to students and to staff. .   Please submit your responses or questions by 19 February 2018.  

The new policy seeks to maximise the number of lectures recorded, and hence the consistency of the student experience, while retaining appropriate scope for a lecturer to opt out of recording a lecture where the interests in not recording outweigh the interests in recording.  It is intended that the lecture recording policy will provide the necessary clarity and reassurance to lecturers and students on data use, data security and data protection; intellectual property rights within the recordings; avoidance of copyright infringement; and equality of access to lectures and recordings. 

Assuming the new policy comes into force in Summer 2018, it will dovetail with an integration of the lecture recording service and the timetabling system and with an expansion of the service to cover nearly 300 rooms.  Indeed, given the ongoing expansion of the service, the availability of comprehensive training, and continued demand from students, I would encourage colleagues in all Schools to consider initiating or expanding their use of the service this semester. 

For the text of the proposed policy and full supporting information, please review the consultation website that is now available to all staff and students.  (EASE authentication required.)  While the consultation encourages colleagues and students to contribute to aggregate responses, it also leaves open the option for them to respond individually. 

In addition to responses from Heads of Schools, Colleges and Support Groups, we are also seeking the views of the trade unions, of students via the Students’ Association and of conveners of the Knowledge Strategy Committee, Library Committee, the Directors of Teaching network, the Lecture Recording Programme Board, Academic User Group and Engagement and Evaluation Group.

We’d like to hear from you.

OER Case study: Creating a Culture of Open

A recently published OEPS Case study by Beck Pitt

Creating a Culture of Open: University of Edinburgh describes our approach to developing an open culture at University of Edinburgh. I wrote a similar one my self a few years ago: Open Aproaches at University of Oxford.

…I would always suggest a vision should be supported by a policy, and a policy should be supported by a service and a service should be supported by recurrent funding…

Melissa Highton is Assistant Principal for Online Learning and Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services at University of Edinburgh.  Melissa and her colleagues support all of the learning technology activity in the institution including the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), open educational resources (OER), the open education portal Open.ed which was launched in early 2016, online and blended learning technologies and courses, digital skills development and audio visual support at the institution.  Melissa regularly blogs in an institutional capacity, sharing ideas and what is happening at Edinburgh:

…I think it’s important to let people see how the people who are shaping activity at the institution think and to be transparent about that.

The Centrality of Openness

Since joining The University of Edinburgh two years ago Melissa described how the team had furthered the openness agenda that is central to “high-level strategy” at the institution:

…what we’ve done in the last two years is really to tighten up the thinking about OER and what those various different definitions of OER mean.  Edinburgh has a lot of MOOCs activity which is open in some ways but not in others.

We are looking at how the material in the MOOCs and other learning material, our day-to-day learning materials, and the content of our collections and various assets of the institution can be supported in making sure that the licenses on them are open licenses and that they are available for reuse.        

This work hasbeen significant for Edinburgh University because it aligns very well with the University mission, as a civic university, to make knowledge open not just within the University but also within the city, Scotland and for the rest of the world…

University of Edinburgh’s mission develops the aims of the Edinburgh Settlement which encouraged university students and professors to work together with local communities to improve life and opportunities for all: “The OER vision for University of Edinburgh has three strands, each building on our history of the Edinburgh Settlement, excellent education, research collections, enlightenment and civic mission.” [REF]

These three areas are central to informing policy and practice at Edinburgh.  As Melissa described it, the focus is very much on creating an “open culture” where open practices can thrive.  Simultaneously there was also a clear drive for a more open approach from both staff and students. The Edinburgh University Students Association were “very clear that they wanted a lot of the material to be open” whilst educators were keen to be more open in their practice but needed support to do so.

Enabling Openness

University of Edinburgh developed a policy for all staff and students regarding the sharing, use and creation of OER.  This policy is grounded in the University’s mission and was described by Melissa “enabling” as well as highlighting the “…value in sharing.”  It provides guidance on attribution, encourages use of the CC BY license and advises where to share materials.  You can read more about the development of Edinburgh’s policy in this complementary case study Active Evolution: Enabling Cultural Change at Edinburgh University (forthcoming)

To facilitate both the policy and open practice, it was also critical to provide support for staff and students so that they could ask questions about creating, sharing and using OER.  It was similarly important to bring together expertise from library services, IT and other areas of the university. Melissa talked of the positivity that staff had regarding OER and open practice but noted that there had been an “open literacy barrier” previously with uncertainty from staff and students as to what license they should use, where OER should be shared etc. This is where the support service has a vital role to play:

I think what we’ve done at Edinburgh is to plan right from the beginning that any vision and policies will be supported by a support service which is available to all the members of the university.

In conjunction with this service, Edinburgh’s new open.ed portal [http://open.ed.ac.uk] also provides a go-to place for resources, information and advice on open education:

Open.ed has provided a focus for people to see all that activity together rather than it being disparate around the institution … it helps colleagues to feel part of something when they can see all the activity that’s going on from other people … has been very good for establishing an open knowledge network within the institution…

Sustainability through openness

Developing an “open culture” brings specific benefits to an institution in the long-term. Melissa described how creators of content at Edinburgh, by using an open license or providing information about how they would like their material to be used and attributed, facilitates both short and long-term reuse of the material both within but also without the institution:

…for the whole of the future now I know very clearly what we can do with that material … so in terms of sustainability having the material clearly licensed under an open culture license has significant benefits to the institution in terms of time and effort and ownership of our own content.

Clear licensing also avoids having to duplicate effort or avoid using a resource:

If we pay attention now to the licensing on our material, it saves us the time and effort of checking licenses of legacy material. And the time we would have to spend … is a cost and it’s people’s time…

The idea of an “open culture” is brought sharply into focus here: in order for openness to be sustainable it must be embedded into practice, not only that of content creators but also other members of staff such as IT experts who choose whether an open or proprietary system will be used. The importance of infrastructure and the need for everyone to ensure that open is a priority was the theme of OER16 and focus of Melissa’s keynote Open with Care…  As Melissa described it in our interview:

…not being open is a risk and not being open will cost us money in the future.

Where next for Edinburgh?

Edinburgh will be continuing to develop its existing open services, OER and offerings over the coming months, with a particular, continued emphasis on its students as “global citizens.” Reuse and adaptation of both colleagues and others materials from around the world facilitates this aim by:

…giving us an opportunity to diversify and internationalise our curriculum by taking some of the best examples from other places in the world and adapting them to our local context and including them in our curriculum…

open now

ticket
Promo picture for #OER16

Booking is now open for #OER16 . More than 100 papers accepted, some fine looking speakers, and some of the funnest people with whom you could ever care to discuss the minutae of copyright law.

Looking forward to it.

https://oer16.oerconf.org/

In this week we will also be launching our new Edinburgh University OER showcase website Open.ed, and celebrating the ratification of our OER policy by University of Edinburgh Learning and Teaching Committee.

A Vision for Open Educational Resources at University of Edinburgh

OPENED_A1vs2
Splendid poster made by Stuart for use at conferences.

 Open.ed

The University’s mission is the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge. As a world-leading centre of academic excellence we aim to: Enhance our position as one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and to measure our performance against the highest international standards; Provide the highest quality learning and teaching environment for the greater wellbeing of our students; Make a significant, sustainable and socially responsible contribution to Scotland, the UK and the world, promoting health and economic and cultural wellbeing.

As a great civic university, Edinburgh …. will continue to look to the widest international horizons, enriching both itself and Scotland. (University Mission)

‘Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.’ (Capetown Open Education Declaration)

  1. During academic year 2013-14 an OER Short-Life Task Group was established to explore possible ways to take forward an OER strategy for University of Edinburgh and to report findings and recommendations to Learning and Teaching Committee. This paper includes a proposed vision, policy, guidance and support level.
  1. The sharing of open educational materials is in line not only with University of Edinburgh’s mission but also with a global movement in which research- led institutions play a significant role. The proposed OER vision for University of Edinburgh has three strands, each building on our history of the Edinburgh Settlement, excellent education, research collections, enlightenment and civic mission.

‘For the common good’:

Teaching and learning materials exchange to enrich the University and the sector.

  • To put in place the support frameworks to enable any member of University of Edinburgh to publish and share online as OER teaching and learning materials they have created as a routine part of their work at the University (e.g handouts, teaching materials, lesson plans, recorded lectures, research seminar content, blended-learning content, datasets, problem sheets and tools).
  • To support members of University of Edinburgh to find and use high quality teaching materials developed within and without the University.

‘Edinburgh at its best’:

Showcasing openly the highest quality learning and teaching:

  • To identify collections of high quality learning materials within each school department and research institute to be published online for flexible use, to be made available to learners and teachers as open courseware (e.g. recorded high profile events, noteworthy lectures, MOOC and DEI course content).
  • To enable the discovery of these materials in a way that ensures that our University’s reputation is enhanced.

‘Edinburgh’s treasures’:

Making available online a significant collection of unique learning materials available openly to Scotland, the UK and the world, promoting health and economic and cultural well-being.

  • To identify a number of major collections of interdisciplinary materials, archives, treasures, museum resources to be digitised, curated and shared for the greater good and significant contribution to public engagement with learning, study and research (e.g. archive collections drawn from across disciplines, e.g. History of Medicine/Edinburgh as the birthplace of medicine/Scottish history/social change).
  • To put in place policy and infrastructure to ensure that these OER collections are sustainable and usable in the medium to longer term.

DISCUSSION

  1. The expertise to deliver each of these strands exists within the University through partnership between Schools and Information Services. This vision builds upon work, custom and practice already in place within the University but offers an opportunity to take a strategic approach to publishing open educational resources at scale.
  1. The delivery of this vision is contingent on several areas of activity. The University is well placed to adopt an open licencing approach to learning and teaching materials for which the copyright is already held within the University.
  1. Information Services currently offer a limited copyright advisory service to academic colleagues and students, with additional resourcing this service could be enriched to provide an OER service including training, staff development and guidance to support colleagues in making informed decisions about licencing options for their OER.
  1. It is proposed that the service is resourced by IS for 2 years in the first instance. Once the support service is in place the ‘Common Good’ activity will be supported as part of business as usual though guidance and training.
  1. A new short-life task group will be established to consider the resource needed to deliver the other two strands of the vision.

RISK ASSESSMENT

  1. Establishing a clear vision for OER at University of Edinburgh will mitigate the reputational risk which may follow as a result of colleagues referring to online learning materials as ‘open’ when they are available under closed or unclear licence.
  1. The new support service in IS will mitigate the risk that colleagues are unclear about the decisions they should make regard to the licencing, sharing and use of online materials.

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

  1. OER contribute to sector-wide initiatives on openness, access, equality and diversity by enriching the knowledge commons and promoting sharing and reuse.