OER1130 Oral Presentation pptx

Thursday 12 May 12.00 Breakout Room 6

New and improved, now shared with you: A case study following the lifecycle of 32 nursing RLOs developed with Xerte for OER release

Colleen McCants (IS Learning Technology), Andy Meal & Heather Wharrad (School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy), University of Nottingham

Conference Theme: OER strategy and sustainability

Abstract: Many institutions face similar problems with ageing Computer-Aided-Learning: how to achieve sustainability whilst avoiding future pitfalls. Technical problems that Master of Nursing Science students at the University of Nottingham encountered when trying to gain access to older Authorware-based CAL packages on the NAL network established the need to extract and improve on the content. By opting to invest time and resources, rather than pay yearly subscriptions to educational medical collections, development costs could be recouped by the University, long-term. The intention became not to solve the problem once, but sustainably, and for others facing the same obstacle. With additional effort, RLOs could be created for Creative Commons release, thus providing free, quality, core resources for teaching Anatomy and Histology.
The Division of Nursing at Nottingham has been developing OER in the form of RLOs since 2002, so subdividing the CAL into smaller bits was a natural step. In-house-developed 'Xerte Toolkits' was the obvious choice for sustainable delivery. Using this Flash-based XML engine as the development environment enabled non-site-specific collaboration and straightforward updates by all contributors. New graphics and animations were essential, to establish clear copyright, and to improve quality, as student understanding of complex systems benefits from both accurate and engaging medical depictions. Collaboration between academic, artist and developer over a two-year period resulted in 32 Exemplar-level RLOs incorporating new content, better graphics and new additions to Xerte functionality. 
The RLOs are already in use by 120+ MNursSci students. In Sept 2011, 240+ BNursSci students, 200+ Medical students and others in Veterinary Science and Archaeology begin using the RLOs, in sync with wider release via the University's U-NOW website. 
Maximising on time and effort spent, the illustrations contained within the RLOs are due to be released on a simultaneous and standalone basis. Using Flickr® with metadata will allow image repositories, such as in-house-developed 'Xpert Media Search and Attribution' service access via CC searches. 
Release of RLOs and graphics together will provide high-quality core resources, enabling anyone to expand and adapt content for bespoke teaching needs. Additional RLOs are due to follow, as the University of Nottingham continues support of OER

Keywords: case study; learning objects; open content; repositories; reusability; oer; xerte; xpert; medical rlo; collaboration

References:

Intranet Workspace for Nursing RLOs http://workspace.nottingham.ac.uk/display/nursingRLO/Home