OER Steering Group Meeting – Meeting-5

Wednesday 17thMarch2010, 10:00-12:00

Location : XFi B

Progress Report on Open Exeter

1.0 Introduction

The following is a brief report on the progress of the JISC-funded project on Open Educational Resources (OER). The project, called ‘Open Exeter’ runs for one year from 1st May 2009 to 30thApril 2010.

This is the 5rdprogress report. By way of preparation, you may also find it useful to peruse the previous progress reports and the subsequent minutes,available from:

The format of this report will follow that for the previous reports.

2.0PreliminaryOutputs

A draft final report was submitted to JISC on 5/3/2010. The emphasis is on ‘draft’. It is regarded merely as a working document, which JISC will read with a view to advising us on how to write our final report, which must be submitted by 26/4/2010. Much of the information mirrors that which follows.

3.0 Project Progress

The progress within Open Exeter will be outlined through each of the workpackages.

3.1 Staff Recruitment (WP-0)

Ahmed left the University of Exeter at the end of February. He has moved to the Qatar Foundation. In a newly created role, he heads up their library which is dedicated to Arabic and Islamic cultural heritage. His contribution to the OER project has been immense.

3.2 Project Management (WP-1)

Please note Agenda Item 5, and the accompanying paper ‘Open Educational Resources – the way forward for Exeter’.

3.3 Review of Current Practice / Challenges (WP-2)

This workpackage is substantially addressed by the presentation that will be given to the OER10 conference at Cambridge on 22/3/2010 (see: and the proposed peer-reviewed paper, a draft of which is available at The latter must be submitted by 28/4/2010.

3.4 Quality Enhancement (WP-3)

The approach proposed is included in the paper ‘Open Educational Resources – the way forward for Exeter’ and can be discussed under Agenda Item-5.

3.5 Identification of Material’s Provenance (WP-4)

Process established. Nothing new to report.

3.6 Licensing & Clearing (WP-5)

As of 10/3/2010, we have 336 credit equivalents of material that has been cleared and another 90 credits in the pipeline. Equivalent figures at the time of the September report were 136 and 354 respectively. Full details of progress can be found at:

(N.B. if you wish to print this spreadsheet, you will need to turn on background printing for the colours in your chosen browser). This spreadsheet is updated every Wednesday.

With much support from Claire Turner, Head of Legal Services, Eversheds, our University solicitors have agreed that we can use the international recognized Creative Commons Licence, rather than having to have an Exeter variant. We will have the accompanying supportive text:

1) You must not remove, alter, hide or modify any copyright notices and/or acknowledgments in the Work

2)The Licensor expressly disclaims, to the extent permitted by law, any liability with respect to the Work including but not limited to errors or omissions contained in the Work, libel, infringements of intellectual property rights or the disclosure of confidential information. You acknowledge and agree that your use of the Work is at your sole risk and the Licensor accepts no responsibility for loss suffered or incurred as a result of your reliance on the Work.

We anticipate being approached by GEES, the HEA Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, which is located at PlymouthUniversity, to deposit some of their material into Open Exeter. They have an HEA-funded subject consortia OER project, and have a thematic approach around climate change. Some Exeter geographers have contributed material. Whilst we are keen to have the material from Exeter contributors, it does raise concerns because we cannot vouch for the rigour of their processes, e.g. in copyright clearance. Again, Claire Turner has provided the following very helpful advice:

It would not be advisable for Exeter to put in the OER repository any material of which you are unsure of its provenance. If this is not checked, you cannot be confident that the material does not infringe third party rights and it could expose the University to an infringement claim. This is even more important, given that the repository will be accessible to all, and the University will not be able to check the identity of, or enforce a licence against, those accessing the material.

3.7 Interoperability (WP-6)

We are actively packaging up our materials using the JISC-funded RELOAD programme and uploading them to our repository (See WP-8).

3.8 Metadata (WP-7)

Completed. Nothing new to Report.

3.9 Delivery Platforms (WP-8)

  • With particular thanks to Kevin Evans and Ahmed Abu-Zeyad, our repository is now live and is available at
  • We now have official confirmation from JISC that we are not obliged to deposit directly into OpenJorum but can use their ‘link’ option instead. This will point to the resource located within the OpenExeter repository.

Our preference remains that that Open Jorum harvest our metadata, but they have yet to implement this option. There is no timescale for its availability.

3.10 Tracking (WP-9)

Because of the delay in establishing our repository, WP-9 has made little progress, apart from some foundation work undertaken with the Open University regarding using their Cloudworks software as a pedagogical wrapper. We aim to at least set up a suitable process by which downloaders and depositors can form ‘communities of practice’ during April 2010.

3.11 Training Materials/Dissemination (WP-10)

In February 2010, Tom contributed several impromptu OER workshops within our LTHE programme, with a focus on the demand side. The feedback was positive and our conclusions are that such an approach is an effective entréeto introducing OER.

3.12 Ongoing and final evaluation (WP-11)

Sue Rodway-Dyer is actively undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of our project. This work has informed our OER10 presentation and proposed paper.

4.0 Other Activities

  • 12/2/2010 - Tom contributed to a workshop at the University of Nottingham, which was attended by representatives from the 7 JISC-funded institutional projects. He gave brief presentations on Exeter’s approach to IPR and also on approaches to evaluating ‘quality’.
  • Discussions are at positive stage between the Open University and Tom Browne to pursue a SCORE Fellowship, with a focus on OER staff development, with the material produced available for repurposing by e.g. any HEI that wishes to include a relevant module within their HEA-accredited courses.

5.0 Budget

Please see Section 10 of (*** budget URL ***). If an updated budget is available from Research Accounting in time, I will make it available for the meeting.

6.0 In Conclusion

Unless there is a positive response from VCEG, the resources to promote OER will be greatly diminished after 30/4/2010 and in particular, there will not be an identifiable service. However, in anticipation that there will at least be some positive outcome, Tom is gathering the information for the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) spreadsheet. This is a comprehensive checklist, prepared by Zac Nashed, the Quality Managerin Information & Computing Systems. It needs to be completed to enable the project to become a service. Current progress can be viewed at: It would be unwise to widely advertise the availability of the repository internally and most definitely not internationally until assurance is given that a service can be provided.

Tom Browne,

Education Enhancement, Academic Services

Page 1 of 3 Report-5 submitted to OER Steering Group, 17/3/2010 Tom Browne