Merlot: An Innovative Approach To Teaching Distance Education

1. Merlot: An Innovative Approach To Teaching Distance Education • JAZZING IT UP WITH MERLOT • 2007 MERLOT International Conference • New Orleans, LA • Wednesday, August 8, 2007

2. Why don’t more faculty use MERLOT as a resource for teaching, instruction and scholarship? • Maybe….they just don’t know about it? • Maybe….the learners/students won’t like it? • Maybe….it will take too much time to learn how to use it?

3. MERLOT: What is it? • Free and open resource designed for faculty and learners/students of higher education • Anyone can browse, select and even use learning content • Content posted to MERLOT is placed there by those who apply for membership. • The web link to join Merlot is: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/join.htm • It only takes about 10 minutes to complete the short membership survey. • Individual membership is free, but there are costs for other levels of membership

4. MERLOT: Priorities and goals • Community and collaboration • Professional Development and outreach • Digital library connection and services • Enabling technologies

5. MERLOT: VISION & GOAL • MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy. • MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses. • Merlot’s goal is to make you a better teacher, learner, and business professional.

6. Distance Education Learners: Some students need an alternative system of education. Students Learn-- • 1% through taste • 1.5% through touch • 3.5% through smell • 11% through hearing • 83% through sight

7. Learning:Students Remember-- 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 50% of what we see and hear 80% of what we say 90% of what we say and do -Rigg

8. MERLOT • As you search for learning materials, you can click on the global search button or go to the academic discipline area and then click on it to illustrate a submenu. Merlot allows you to click on: • teaching, • people, • learning materials, • beyond merlot, or • showcase.

9. Member DirectoryOn Aug. 8, 2007, there were 48,994 members in the Member directory. • Can search for community members • Subject • State • Interest • Title • Organization • Last Name • Date Joined • Etc.

10. Subject Based ContentOn August 8,2007 there are 17,401 peer review learning materials in the following academic disciplines: • Browse by Subject • Arts • Business • Education • Humanities • Mathematics & Statistics • Science & Technology • Social Sciences

11. Federated Search • An important and useful technology for MERLOT users. • Allows searches for materials from multiple partner collections, instead of having to search each one separately. • Results are combined and sorted by relevance, title, or originating collection. • Two forms of FS, • general federated search • discipline-based federated search (that corresponds to the MERLOT editorial boards).

12. 12 Learning Material TypesThe materials are categorized as follows: • Simulation: Approximates a real or imaginary experiencE. • Animation: Allows users to view dynamic and visual representationS. • Tutorial: Users navigate through electronic workbooks. • Drill and Practice: Requires users to respond repeatedly to questions. • Quiz/Test: Any assessment device intended to serve as a test or quiz. • Lecture/Presentation: Any material intended for use in support of in-class lectures/presentations. • Case Study: Illustrates a concept or problem by using an example. • Collection:Any collection of learning materials such as web sites or subjects. • Reference Material: Material with no specific instructional objectives. • Learning Object Repository: A searchable database of at least 100 online resources. • Online Course: A material that is designed to be used in an online course. • Workshop and Training Material: Materials best used for the purpose of teaching others about learning and teaching online.

13. Digital Libraries • Increasing access to collections with other Digital Libraries – Federated Search • Edna (Australia) - ARIADNE (EU) • CAUSE (statistics) - COMPadre (physics) • SMETE (sciences) - NSDL (Nat. Science) • In the works: • BEN/AAAS (biology) - HEAL (health sciences) • CLOE/EduSourceCanada - LOLA (Wesleyan) • ATHE (theatre – to build collection within MERLOT) • Corporate library Services into MERLOT and integrates with your INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS • Exlibrus- Metalib - Sentient Discover • RSS Feeds: 220 unique requesters; WebCT, Bb, D2L MERLOT could add access to 5,000,000 (?) materials

14. Locating Suitable Materials • “Search engines tend to return a staggering number of links, and evaluating search results for suitability and quality can be extremely time consuming - often more so than authoring a new Web page would have been. Not to mention the fact that high-quality sites that are not highly used or attuned to the search engine's way of seeing the Web often fall through the cracks entirely. It's sometimes quicker to reinvent the wheel than to find its schematics online. Wouldn't it be nice to have a mechanism to quickly find the best teaching materials for a given subject, in a given discipline? “ • B. Knauff

15. 3 Rs, Results, Relevant, and Reviewed 1M+ results 237 results

16. Student Use of MERLOT • 18% of members are students “I was instructed by my college professor to join merlot and to review three websites and pick my favorite. The webpages were setup in such a way that you don't realize how much you are learning until you have completed the "lesson"….. I found it much more effective to "view" the experiments rather than merely hear about them. The videos and sound were excellent and I appreciated the animation allowing me to move at my own pace. I was not forced to move through too quickly…” Angela Landsman As of July 31st, there are 17,129 peer review learning materials in the 7 academic disciplines.

17. Faculty Use of MERLOT • “MERLOT is transforming the face of higher education as we know it. Being a part of this project is stimulating and every bit worth the time and effort. We are building a first class digital library and a strong community of practice at the same time. MERLOT puts the focus on teaching and learning.” • Laura Franklin, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Northern Virginia Community College

18. NTC & BSU Use of MERLOT • “MERLOT is transforming the face of higher education as its resources can be used for any college or secondary course. • eLearners AdvisorThe eLearners Advisor is a free, easy-to-use assessment tool designed to evaluate a user's preparedness for online learning. • The 10 minute survey asks questions related to earning an online education. The answers are instantly reviewed to evaluate learner readiness for online college education.

19. System Partner Use • “MERLOT has been an excellent faculty development initiative for a state system, since it promotes collaboration and efficiency. It is a unique organization, approaching common issues and challenges in a way no others do. MERLOT extends our reach and resources by partnering with other systems, organizations, and agencies. I don’t think we could accomplish nearly as much if we tried to do these things by ourselves.” • Phillip K. (Phil) Moss, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

20. MERLOT: Levels of interaction • User and Contributor • Peer Reviewer and Editorial Board • International consortium of partners and affiliates • 17,401 learning materials • 226 recently added materials • 48,994 members • 1,144 recently joined

21. User Interaction • Browse/use content • Contribute content • Author content • Comment on content • Create related content for use as a • Teacher • Learner • Practitioner • Scholar

22. Peer Review and Editorial Boards • Follows the Peer Review model of scholarship • Stringent process • Peer Reviewers and Editorial Boards are supported by system and campus partners

23. International Consortium • Promotes: • Collaboration, community building, faculty development and scholarship • Provides: • Access to digital libraries, expertise of and interaction with discipline experts, and education technology expertise from around the world

25. Why Work with MERLOT? • To create common means to individual ends. • To get more than we will give. • To have a fair share in decision making and participation. • To support and hold true to academic values. • As a means to provide visibility, accountability and sustainability. • To promote quality of content and scholarship in our system.

26. MERLOT: Special Initiatives • Just to name a few: • Digital libraries • Virtual Speakers • Faculty Development

27. Planned as consortium of online services and tools that will • provide an integrated search of learning objects for individuals and educational institutions worldwide • provide a distributed network of learning objects that meet quality standards. • share resources through a federated search, strategic alliances and technical interfaces made once, but all of GLOBE benefits from these partnerships.

29. Virtual Speakers Bureau-134 speakers • Through the MERLOT Virtual Speakers Bureau, you can search for, locate, and invite guest speakers to your courses, professional development workshops, and special online events. You can even use it to invite content experts to visit your classes face-to-face. • Browse Virtual Speakers Bureau: • Arts (6)Business (21)Education (42)Humanities (14)Mathematics and Statistics (4)Science and Technology (36)Social Sciences (7)

30. How might this help all faculty? • Faculty members—including adjuncts—in fifteen disciplines contribute lesson plans, which are then peer reviewed and rated. • This can be especially helpful for an adjunct faculty who is hired three weeks before classes starts and is asked to make sure to include technology in your teaching. • Allows you to find good stuff quickly and use it with confidence, because you can rely on the evaluations that your peers have made.” • In addition to serving as a resource, MERLOT can also showcase all faculty work.

31. MERLOT: Faculty Development for Partners • Annual train-the-trainer workshop. • Consultation services. • Participation in regional or individual campus workshops. • MERLOT International conference session devoted to faculty development. • 2008 conference is in Minneapolis, MN. • Online course for faculty developers.

32. Check out the latest additions • Great places to look for latest additions and best conversations in your disciplines.

33. Coming Soon • RSS Feeds to • D2L • ITeach Online Professional Development Center • Minnesota Online

34. Influencing Tenure and Promotion If you don’t get recognized by your peers for high quality work in teaching and learning with technology, it doesn’t matter how effective or efficient you are.

35. Tenure & Promotion with MERLOT • MERLOT provides QUALITY REVIEWS • Standards-based evaluation • Independent panel of experts • Training for the reliable application of standards • MERLOT provides DOCUMENTATION • Documentation for Authors, Contributors, Reviewers, and Users • An electronic “portfolio” can be created within MERLOT

36. MERLOT: Peer Review & Tenure • Quick list of related articles from a last minute Google Search • MERLOT’s Peer Review process and tenure by Dr. G. L. Hanley, MERLOT/California State University • The Chronicle of Higher Education: Working with Technology and Winning Tenure http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2002/02/tenure/ • Web Contributions and Tenure Decisions by Marylaine Brock http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib159.html • Faculty Rewards in Digital Environments by Syllabus Institute (In Press) http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=410 • Stakeholder Needs Assessment by eduSource Canada http://www.edusource.ca/craw/RPT_Needs_Assessment08.htm • MERLOT: A Model for User Involvement in Digital Library Design and Implementation by Dr. F. McMartin http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v05/i03/McMartin/ • MERLOT Promises Effeciency and Quality Control by B. Knauff http://www.dartmouth.edu/~webteach/spotlights/merlot.htm • Engaging the Faculty by P.R. Hagner and C.A. Schneebeck http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/30/07879501/0787950130.pd

37. Remember…. • What access to education means to the students, their families, their lifestyle, the community, the economy … • “Five years ago I moved to a more rural area of North Dakota...I thought my chances of ever getting a degree were pretty much gone. Thankfully...Transcends and Northwest Tech offered me the opportunity to get a degree in nursing and I jumped at the chance. It hasn’t always been easy—but nothing worth it ever is!...Distance education offered me the chance to go back to school, the chance to earn my degree, the chance at a better and higher paying job, and the chance for a better life for myself and my family. To be able to do all of these things and still live where I am living is a wonderful thing and I appreciate the opportunity!” • --Jadene Ihla

38. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Alvin Toffler “Rethinking the Future”

39. Where are we going to be in the Year 2010? Future Merlot: A Virtual Classroom Merlot: An Innovative Approach To Teaching Education