‘The Ear Foundation and The University of Nottingham working together’
Open Educational Resources around Cochlear Implantation for deafness
Project Evaluation
Lyndsey Allen
Education Programme Co-ordinator
September 2012
Background
The Ear Foundation is a charity helping deaf people and their families make the best use of technology to improve hearing and communication. Through the JISC funded PARIS project, The Ear Foundation worked with the University of Nottingham to widen access to learning materials that are traditionally shared through face to face workshops. Following a needs analysis a broad range of content was developed and shared via a dedicated part of The Ear Foundation Website ‘Education Online’. .
Key themes for project:
- Analyse perceived need for content and devise open educational resources
- Identify roles of key partners (Nottingham University and Presence Multi Media)
- Source content from 3rd party sources such as Cochlear Implant Manufacturers
- Collect and include existing third party OER
- Design and collate resources with creative commons licence
- Release content through The Ear Foundation website and Jorum
- Evaluate content with potential users
- Maintain commercial viability throughout
Evaluation
Follow-up evaluation of content took place through three small focus groups and online questionnaires which were completed by 50 professionals
Open Educational Resources from The Ear foundation
Initially, The Ear Foundation identified 6 core areas known to impact upon outcomes for children; overview of cochlear implants, impact of deafness on communication and language learning, challenges of using technology at home and school, maximizing of technology in education, monitoring progress and family role in language learning benefits. It was planned, by means of needs analysis to spread the 6 core areas over 4 key themes to make information within each easily identifiable to professionals.
1)Overview of Cochlear Implants
2) Monitoring of progress
3) Use of Cochlear Implants at Home
4Use of Cochlear Implants at School
Content has been organised under a dedicated area of The Ear Foundation website, the home page of which received 4.5 million page hits in 2011.
Fig. 1 Website configuration of education online
Organisation
Each key theme is divided into 4 pages, interactive module, downloads, online presentations and further learning modules.
Interactive Modules
Completed in conjunction with an external development company to ensure quality and brand identity could be maintained. These modules were designed to provide information at an introductory level and to be completed in fifteen minutes.
Teachers of the Deaf identified how they would use the modules to provide training for Teaching Assistants in mainstream schools, and staff at a Cochlear Implant Programme identified the usefulness for parents.
Although the online format was popular the focus groups identified the need to make the resource more accessible by providing the modules on a CD; the modules could then be used for in-school training without concerns about internet access. As a charity and with the need to maintain commercial viability, we have decided to produce the CD’s with a small charge of £10.00 to cover production but have not yet started doing this.
Challenges
- It was difficult to get consent for third party content something necessary for technical animations and diagrams, with no experience of open source content, Cochlear Implant Manufacturers required © to be added next to the things they provided.
- Our initial plan included 4 interactive modules, one for each theme, we underestimated the time and cost for development so completed the project with only 3. The 4th module ‘Use of Cochlear Implants at home’ has been completed as a power point presentation and media clips of families talking have been released. Due to the brilliant feedback on the 3 completed modules we plan to self-fund the 4th interactive module in 2013.
Downloads
Nine word documentshave been produced under a creative commons attribution - non-commercial - share alike license, a mixture of information sheets and checklists, all the images used have been obtained from OER websites or provided by The Ear Foundation.
Through interviews with five families, many useful media clips have been produced that provide an insight into the decision making process around having a cochlear implant and the ongoing benefits and challenges.
To provide a more accessible format of the interactive modules the power point presentations on which they are based have also been released.
Want more?
Included on the page of free downloads are links to the shop and education bookings pages with suggestions of things to buy or face to face courses to attend.
Evaluation of the downloadable content showed that people were keen to adapt the information sheets and checklists so they were tailored to the specific needs of the children they worked. Access to media clips showing children with a range of outcomes was thought to be a really useful tool for both professionals and parents.
Challenges
- Currently media clips are streaming from Youtube; viewing will be restricted to many in our target audience because of local restrictions to the site. We plan to look at a more accessible way for our audience to view and download videos.
- Ongoing monitoring of purchases and course bookings will indicate if the free downloads encourage people to buy products or book services.
Online Presentations
The Ear Foundation has been recording lectures from renowned speakers for 5 years and making them available as part of a ‘twilight library’; through Education Online we are now able to make these lectures more accessible and help people navigate to information they will find useful.
Challenges
- Many of the online lectures in our library don’t fit into the current themes; they are available in list format under their own tab and sub-menu. Further consideration will be given to developing new themes under which to release content such as ‘working with teenagers’ ‘babies and toddlers with hearing loss’.
Other Learning Modules
Other sources of Open Educational Resources were researched, this section gives learners the opportunity to link to external content to do further in-depth learning or to broaden their focus.
Modules highlighted include ‘Hearing’ SD329_1 Advanced from the excellent Open Learn at the Open University and HOPE, the (re) habilitation website from the manufacturer Cochlear, it contains 100’s of pre-recorded lectures, the ones that add to the themes have been described and links provided.
Challenges
- Some content was sourced early on in the project and later discovered to be no longer available; to ensure that external content remains valid regular checks will be needed.
- Much of the external content although free to access has not been released under a creative commons licence.
Evaluation of resources
- Two focus groups comprising Teachers of the Deaf and Teaching Assistants; qualitative comments used throughout report
- One focus interview with Dr RachnaGhopal, Chief Audiologist and Speech and Language Therapist for Mauritius; see international impact
- Online surveys to 50 professionals both within the UK and internationally
Qualitative Data Collection
My professional role is:
My work is based:
The online survey was completed by 50 professionals, Teachers of the Deaf and Teaching Assistants made up the largest group comprising in total 36 responses. Statements were presented with responses invited on a 5 point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Of the responses given, 100% of people agreed or strongly agreed with the statements that the information was presented in a way that was easy to understand and that the resource would be useful in their practise. When asked if they were likely to adapt the materials, a lower figure of 86% agreed or strongly agreed with this.
Each participant was asked t o review one interactive module and the responses were fairly evenly split across the 3 themes. 100 % of respondents felt that the modules would be helpful in their training of others but only 78% felt that it had been helpful for their own learning. The modules have been designed as an introductory level and the figure is reflective of this. The length of time it took to complete the module was felt to be right by 88% of respondents, this will require ongoing monitoring and consideration in planning further modules.
International Impact
The Ear Foundation has earned itself international respect as a provider of continuing professional development for professionals who support children with Cochlear Implants. The Education Programme of face to face courses are delivered internationally with the programme for 2012 including Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Finland.
Many of The Ear Foundation written resources are available in a range of European languages and the website receive a high rate of hits from outside the UK .
Education Onlineprovides information in a variety of formats; produced under a creative commons license that allows others to adapt it, this meets the demand from professionals around the world for documents they can easily translate into languages other than English.
Many parts of the world are able to offer children cochlear implants for the first time, in the majority of instances such as Mauritius initial planning goes into providing medical and audiological aspects of care. Successful outcomes from Cochlear Implantation are most likely when local professionals are trained to provide the ongoing support that children need and The Ear Foundation open online resources can be easily accessed around the world.
Spreading the word
Availability of the resources will be made known to over 10 thousand professionals and families both in the UK and overseas in the following ways:
- The Ear Foundation home page with 4.5 million page hits in 2011
- The Ear Foundation newsletter delivered to 6000 professionals and families
- Sounding board e-newsletter reaching 2000 subscribed members
- Promotion at 6 international conferences in 2012 including ‘Beyond Newborn Hearing Screening, Como, Italy in June’ and ‘Deafness and Education, Nottingham in June’
- Submitted articles to professional magazines ‘Bulletin’ for Speech and Language Therapists and ‘BATOD’ for Teachers of the Deaf
Producing OER at The Ear Foundation
The Ear Foundation for many years has been committed to providing open access to some of its resources such as recording lectures but the concept of Open Educational Resources was alien to all. Initially cautious about the concept, it was realised commercial viability may be maintained while increasing peoples access to information. The project encouraged staff to use skills in a new wayby creating content for interactive modules and working with an external company. It also ensured that materials previously charged for, were released in an adaptable format and for free.
The initial evaluation of the resources released has judged them to be really valuable for both parents and professionals.
What’s next?
- Self-fund the 4th interactive module ‘Use of Cochlear Implants at Home’
- Monitor commercial viability and design a system that evaluates commercial benefits
- Promote resources through all face to face courses, conferences, professional publications, newsletters and website
- Expand Education Online section to include new themes, continue to release content within each theme under creative commons licence
Lyndsey Allen
Education Programme Co-ordinator
BSc Speech and Language Therapy