SPIDER: The Halfway Point

I have officially reached the halfway point of the SPIDER project.  It has been fantastic getting the chance to meet with the iTunes U teams of the Open University, Oxford, and Nottingham, as well as to research issues related to open educational resource production, promotion, and impact along with supportive colleagues from each of the above institutions as well as my home University of Leicester. I especially appreciate the support of SCORE colleagues and staff; it is a privilege to work alongside them.

Photo courtesy of CameraEye on Flickr

If I were to consolidate what I have learned from each of the universities for whom I am studying their iTunes U implementation, I might say something like the following:

Open University: Over 34 million downloads, many files BBC quality, but as their Vice Chancellor Martin Bean said (this is my paraphrase), “It is not the slick presentation, but the great learning material which gets the most attention and encourages people to register.”

University of Oxford: Over 10 million downloads, mostly audio-only captured lectures and seminars. Much evidence of re-use by high school and secondary school teachers, as well as informal use by individuals.

University of Nottingham: Real commitment to open educational resource production and sharing, of which iTunes U is only a part. Their Xpert OER search tool is outstanding and their Xerte tool is equally amazing.

In general, I and many others have seen that iTunes U is a great place to begin the discussion about open educational resources, because it has a “cool factor” (for want of a better term) which encourages academics and institutions to see the sharing of such resources as advantageous to themselves. This is necessary for any such project to be sustainable.

In the second half of my project, there are case studies to be finished, comparisons and analyses to be made, and software to be tested. I plan to produce a basic quality-assurance workflow appropriate to iTunes U, as well as a “philosophical how-to” plan for institutions considering starting an iTunes U site in particular, and in the sharing of open educational resources in general.

Thanks for sharing the journey.

Terese Bird, Learning Technologist and SCORE Fellow

SPIDER at OER11 - Open Educational Resources 2011

Last week I joined the OER11 conference in Manchester - Open Educational Resources 2011. This year, the conference was hosted by SCORE, through whom I am doing the SPIDER project. Not only did I present my SPIDER findings to date in the form of "Is iTunes U a successful model of Open Educational Resource distribution?" but due to scheduling gymnastics I was able to present it twice. It was fascinating to meet colleagues from Sweden's Lund University, Holland's Delft University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all of which have iTunes U presences. I had previously heard a presentation about iTunes U at Delft, where it was stated that when a short video clip about a researcher's work was published on iTunes U or other OER channels, that researcher saw a noticeable rise in the number of PhD applicants and an improvement in applicants' quality. I also made a connection with another UK colleague, who described a more devolved use of iTunes U in which content creators at the university are able to upload content themselves to iTunes U-accessible server, rather than going through a 'gatekeeper.' It was a great chance to consolidate what I've learned so far and discuss OER implementations of all shapes and sizes with interesting and international OER folks.I hope I can attend OER12 in Cambridge next year.

Terese Bird
Learning Technologist, SCORE Fellow, and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo
Beyond Distance Research Alliance, University of Leicester

Open Educational Resources: the Slick and the Scruffy

My colleague Gabi Witthaus (who works on another Beyond Distance project having to do with Open Educational Resources - OSTRICH) recently showed me a chart she was trying to develop, of various repositories and channels of open educational resources (OER), placing them on a scale showing whether they are focused more on marketing of the institution or focused more on being a source of learning resources.

Who's scruffy-lookin?  (Photo courtesy of ChrisM70 on Flickr)

In the case of iTunes U sites, which I am researching in the SPIDER project, this tension is even more pronounced. There is no doubt that having an iTunes U site is great for marketing an institution. The combination of "Apple gloss" and being listed with the best institutions such as Harvard, Oxbridge, and the Open University makes for a great profile. Some institutions' iTunes U offerings are extremely slick and serve as excellent marketing tools. And yet, iTunes U should benefit the current students as well. Maybe recorded lectures are not favoured by everyone, but many students find them very helpful, and they don't have to be BBC-quality in order to facilitate learning. Other kinds of recordings and publications can be very nicely downloaded and kept organised on the learner's computer or handheld device by iTunes U -- this should be exploited for current students in the institution.


Of course, slick iTunes U offerings can also be very good for learning. Slick is good. If OER is too scruffy it may not be usable. But I would argue that too much "slick consciousness" can hold back the release of OER which may very well serve a variety of learners. The learning purpose should not be lost to the marketing purpose.

Terese Bird
SCORE Fellow, Learning Technologist, and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo

Positives and Negatives of iTunes U

In a recent presentation to partners working on another open educational resources (OER) project, TIGER, I presented my first draft of a list of positives and negatives of  iTunes U as a channel of free educational resources.This is a work in progress and I would like your opinion -- please comment.

iTunes U Positives
Excellent profile for institution
Standard formats (mp3, mp4, pdf, epub)
Downloading to Apple mobile devices is excellent
Constant internet unnecessary to use files
Very good search and keyword use
Reaches places YouTube cannot (China, Turkey, others)
Pushes OER agenda and brings university together in discussion
Run by a corporation - sustainable

iTunes U Negatives
Not browser-based
Issues with iTunes on public lab computers
Material not easily accessed on nonApple mobile devices
Not very good for conversation with learners
Run by a corporation - learning second to making money on tunes

What have I missed?

Terese Bird
Learning Technologist and SCORE Fellow
University of Leicester Beyond Distance Research Alliance

Use and Reuse of Open Educational Resources (OER)

In a recent meeting of SCORE fellows at the Open University, discussion arose about exactly what do we mean by reuse of OER. We agreed there are two issues: 1) is the OER being used, and 2) is the OER being adapted and then is the new version being used. Which of these two kinds of use consititutes 'reuse of OER' may be a question of semantics. To my mind, the real question is whether the OER is being used at all, adapted or otherwise.

I am therefore looking forward to a joint LORO-SCORE impact event on 23rd March 2011 at the Open University entitled, 'OER in learning and teaching: Does it make a difference?' I plan to present some of my early findings regarding the use of learning materials distributed via iTunes U. It seems that iTunes U-distributed material is much more likely to be used as-is rather than adapted and repurposed. Some would say this proves that iTunes U-distributed material is therefore not true OER. Personally, I would state that the point is whether the material is used at all, and I am hearing many great stories from users of learning materials from iTunes U.

If you would like to take part in my survery regarding this particular topic as well as gathering data on mobile device use, I would be very grateful indeed: http://tinyurl.com/surveyitunesu

Photo courtesy of Noah Scanlin on Flickr

Having a "Mobile Strategy"

I have been to two conference-type gatherings recently, in which the question arose, "Does your university have a mobile strategy?"

The first was the European Apple Leadership Summit which took place 11 January 2011 and about which I blogged in two parts for the Beyond Distance Research Alliance blog -- part 1 and part 2. In that meeting it was stated that 40% of USA universities have an explicitly-stated mobile strategy. The second time I heard this was when I attended the Open University Winter Mobile Learning Festival, a wonderful showcase of the various ways in which the OU is beginning to address students' growing assumptions that they should be able to access their learning materials on their mobile devices.

Having a mobile strategy is a policy that is, in a way, being forced upon educators. While central service providers of institutions struggle to consider which platforms, if any, to support, especially during a time of economic downturn and possibly less resources with which to launch new systems support of any kind, students are arriving on campus with iPads, iPhones, and Android phones -- and soon Android tablets... not to mention Windows 7 phones which are making a slow start but seem to be a pleasing product.

Does your institution have a mobile strategy? If not, what sort of mobile strategy would you like to see being adopted?

Terese Bird
SPIDER Project, Beyond Distance Research Alliance

A Few Thoughts about E-Books and iTunes U

Late in 2010, several iTunes U universities including Oxford and the Open University began to publish proper e-books on their iTunes U site. Even though pdfs have already been been able to be distributed through iTunes U, a pdf is not quite an e-book, is it? This particular question is for another blog post.

The advantage of e-books on iTunes U is that they can be made to work with the iBooks app, which can render media-rich e-books. Not only can you read the book and have nice colour pictures (unlike with many e-readers), you can have a nice colour movie clip embedded, or sounds, or a chart of data which you can re-sort and re-jig to get exactly the output you need.

iBooks on the iPad - the little photo could have been a little movie. Photo by shiftstigma on Flickr



The difficulty here is that this kind of e-book is not very open. My understanding is that these e-books are multimedia-rich epub documents. You can view an epub on a variety of devices and on any computer operating system, but iBooks are Apple-only. They require the iBooks app. I have used iBooks on my iPad and it's an extremely beautiful thing. I had trouble using iBooks on my iPod Touch. Presumably I can go to the new App Store and try iBooks on a Mac computer; I haven't done this yet. Have you tried this? If so, please leave a comment --- any good? How about iBooks on an iPhone?

Up until now, Apple seems to have made sure that files coming down through iTunes U can be viewed/listened to on Windows computers at no extra cost. iBooks e-books seems to be a diversion from this strategy -- so far. iBooks for Windows -- will it come to pass?

Terese Bird

Learning Technologist, SCORE Fellow, and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo