Transcript Slide 1

Open Educational Resources for
Researcher Development
Ian Fairweather, School of Social
Sciences
University of Manchester
Needs-based research
methods resources
• PGR students have diverse needs. Many are unprepared and
need help building critical research skills (Brown et al. 2007).
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Students often find courses in research methods difficult and
challenging (Edwards and Thatcher 2004)
• Difficulty making the perceptual link between learning
research methods and applying this knowledge and
understanding to their own research (Benson and Blackman
2003).
• Researchers are more receptive to information when they
recognize they need it.
Methods@Manchester
• Academics are invited to give talks on research methods. These are
podcasted and released through youtube and itunes. In this way
methods@manchester became a producer of OER’s
• What is ..? talks have resulted in 129 audio-recordings posted on the web
• Recordings are popular, e.g. What is narrative analysis? has been watched
an average of 135 times a month
• Additional short methods videos have been made, 19 to date. Structural
Equation Modelling has been watched over 1000 times
• The methods@manchester website was not developed to be a repository
of OER, but there are several eg JORUM, HUMBOX
Some student comments on OER:
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This is the first I've heard of 'OER'!
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1. Recommendation from supervisors are always relevant to research studies
2. Resources mentioned in workshops also have high credibility although not
necessarily always relevant to particular research
3.The easiest way to do it is by googling relevant keywords and you will find hits
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[I don’t use OER’s] because I don't know where to start, and how to make them
count towards my research training hours
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I wish I could find the time to read more of what is available; my occupation with
my research project limits me from reading on a topic that interests me , but is not
directly related to where I am in my research at the moment.
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There's already so much to do and think about that I don't feel I have time or
inclination to go searching for research methods training.
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I am not aware of the type and quality of the offered resources, so I do not use
them often
Some Findings
• Quality assurance is a key issue in the use of OER’s for research methods
teaching.
• Context and support – How do PGR’s and their supervisor know if a video
will be suitable for them?
• Recommendation by supervisors, tutors or peers is a very significant factor
in student’s use of resources and methods@manchester’s’ community of
practice’ approach means that that there is a high level of awareness of
the resources.
• Raising the profile of the university externally is at least as important as
pedagogy in motivating release of OER
• Issues about copyright, licensing etc are of very low priority to staff and
students, but branding is very important as a means of ensuring quality.
Vitae RDF
Researcher Development Framework
www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/428241/Resea
rcher-Development-Framework.html
Mapping to RDF
• In the short term the usefulness of the RDF in this context turned out to be
limited, because engagement with the RDF among staff and students is very
low.
• RDF too broad to provide sufficient granularity to map
methods@manchester resources in a meaningful way.
• The development of a research methods ‘lens’ and tools to flag resources
according to level of development using the phases of the RDF would
certainly be a step in the right direction and it is possible to envision a
significant role for OER in conjunction with these developments.
• In the longer term it is reasonable to assume that engagement with the RDF
will increase as it becomes a more familiar tool for students and supervisors
to determine their training needs and as researcher developers find more
effective ways of using the RDF.
Reuse & Embed OERs
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Quality reviewed resources
Time
Customize
Appearance
Deal with copyright & consent at outset
Repurposing needs:
resource discovery, pedagogic, subject and
technical skills
Skills Portal & RDF (Sieber 2012)
Creative Commons CC licenses
Some Advantages
• Enables interdisciplinary thinking in research
methods.
• Live, and continuously updated.
• Redefines the tutor’s role in the teaching and
learning interactions (Ehiyazaryan 2012).
• Development of academic practice.
• Concerns expressed when OER are seen as a
time-saving mechanism (Ehiyazaryan 2012)
Conclusions
• OERs mapped to RDF
• Successfully in use for researcher development as:
• stand-alone resources
• within communities of practice
• embedded into research methods teaching
• Use more likely if recommended by trusted other
• Multimedia popular
• Students value independent learning
• Can “inspire” and “inform” teaching developments
• OER/Open data can offer real opportunities for student learning