OER1104 Oral Presentation pdf

Thursday 12 May 14.00 Breakout Room 4/4a

i-mpact: Interactive Resource for Media Professionals and Academics Collaborating in Teaching

Sarah Atkinson, University of Brighton

Conference Theme: Collaboration and communities

Abstract: i-mpact, an open educational resource (OER) deployed at the University of Brighton, was initially conceived in the context of the challenges faced in the area of media practice, specifically in relation to sourcing and innovating high-quality contemporary visual materials for teaching and learning. There is a need at the institution, and within the field generally, for a specialist repository which houses and distributes uncut and un-manipulated professional video footage, or ‘rushes’, the raw materials for filmmaking, visual storytelling and editing. Within the i-mpact application, videos, visual materials and production documents are uploaded by users (both students and academics), which the application then encodes to be viewed online. The original (high resolution) source file is copied to the application’s database and made available for optional download under Creative Commons Licensing. The database can then be queried by using either an advanced textual search tool or visual searching features. Both lecturers and students can use this application to share their content after signing up to the site and its manifesto (that is - for every resource that they download – they must pledge to upload a resource of their own, before being able to download again). These resources can then be used for teaching exercises, assignment work and for peer review. The project investigates, facilitates, and supports virtual, on-line and blended teaching and learning methods. The longer-term ideal of i-mpact is that both students and colleagues across institutions will continually add and contribute to this resource, building a widespread community of practice in the field of media production. The application is scalable; the database can be linked across multiple sites and the application can be deployed, used and accessed on mobile devices. The aim is that users of i-mpact will embrace the curriculum enrichment that open access, sharing, and modification can offer within a Higher Education context, and that i-mpact will be seen as a valued response to the individualistic learning styles and expectations of a contemporary student demographic. In a broader context, the project aims to work towards developing OER procedures and policy in this specific area of media practice shared resources.

Keywords: Open Educational Resource; Media Practice; Media Production; Film Production; Rushes; Creative Commons; Video Streaming; Postproduction

References:

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