Using Learning Objects Meta-Data in Education : An Introduction to MERLOT

1. UsingLearningObjectsMeta-Data in Education: AnIntroductionto MERLOT • Barbra Bied Sperling • Manager of Technical Development, MERLOT • California State University, Office of the Chancellor • bsperling@calstate.edu MEITAL 2009: The Open Knowledge World7th Annual MEITAL National Conference

2. Presentation Outline • Introduction to MERLOT • Joining MERLOT • Contributing Material • Other services

3. 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.

4. Structure of MERLOT • Staff (Cal State University) • 3 Full time (2 of these are Tech Team) • 3 Part time (including Executive Director) • Project Directors (10% of time) • Represent Partners • Set direction of MERLOT • Editors of Disciplines (25% of time) • Communities • Peer Review • Editorial Board Members (10% of time) • Peer Review • MERLOT Projects • Volunteers

5. MERLOT Supports Creative Commons MERLOT strongly endorses and recommends Creative Commons licensing to encourage the sharing and reuse of online learning materials while protecting Members’ work from misuse and abuse.

6. MERLOT gives faculty… • A vision, direction and a process for the integration of instructional materials in hybrid, online and f2f courses • A formidable resource for professional development • A mature collection of ready to use materials • Opportunities for collaboration with MERLOT users and authors worldwide.

7. MERLOT Makes Faculty Work Easier • One stop shopping to good material • An easy way to get hybrid and online courses off and running • A great way to reach students where they are at - online!! • A way to provide real-world, classroom-tested materials just in time

8. MERLOT Repository • Registered Members* • 74,468+ growing @ 1,000/month • Materials • 21,220 • 2,798 ~ Peer Reviewed • 9,269 materials in “Personal Collections” • 3,292 materials with member comments • Usage • ~ 150,000 average unique visits per month * October 1, 2009

9. Always find what’s new

11. Who Are You? • How Many First Timers in MERLOT? • Who Knows What MERLOT Stands For? • Who Has Used MERLOT to Find Online Learning Materials? • Who Has Included MERLOT in Course Instruction?

12. Are you a member of MERLOT?

13. MERLOT Is Here For You To Use • Become a member (its free) • Discover and Contribute learning materials • Create Personal Collections • Add Assignments • Write Comments

14. Why should you join MERLOT? • Create personal collections • Contribute materials, comments, learning exercises • Develop a personal profile and create a CV • Share online expertise with others • Receive peer recognition • Become a guest speaker • Join an Editorial Board - Become a Peer Reviewer • Find others in a discipline

15. How do I join MERLOT?

16. We don’t require much information

17. Affiliations Identification • All members identify affiliation when registering in MERLOT • Identify professional affiliation • Current Use - Partner “Dashboard” analyses • Future Use – customized, institutional MERLOT home page

18. Specify your affiliation when joining

19. Edit your affiliation in your profile

20. View partner affiliation participation

21. Once you join, you have a profile

22. I’m logged in, now what?

23. Updating your profile

24. Update your profile Want to change what you just added? We will save these for a future presentation.

25. Update your profile

26. Find materials and members in MERLOT

27. Search and browse MERLOT

28. Search MERLOT Members

29. Federated Search

30. Federated Search - results

31. RSS Feeds in MERLOT • Any search can become an RSS feed

32. MERLOT Web Services http://www.merlot.org/merlot/signWebServicesForm.htm • Simple Search • Advanced Search • Contribute material • Register (Join)

33. LMS Partnerships • Blackboard • WebCT • ANGEL Learning • Desire2Learn

34. MERLOT Web Services • - Web services are server functions - not end-user functions • - A “client application” must be written as an end user front end • Simple Search web service

35. MERLOT Advanced Search - Advanced Search web service available to Partners, and for a fee - Contribute web service and Join web service in Beta

36. It’s important to share: Contribute to MERLOT

37. Contribute learning materials

38. All you need are a few details: • Enter a title and URL for the material • Describe the material, material type, audience and keywords (even include formatting with the text editor) • Identify the subject category and language(s) • Add author information • Any extra information to help a user including creative commons

39. The finished product! Detail view

40. Member comments and Learning Exercises

41. Add a comment or learning exercise

42. Member Comments

43. Learning Exercises (previously known as assignments)

44. Organize your materials: Personal Collections

45. Personal Collections

46. How do I create a collection?

47. Where can I find personal collections?

48. Do you like someone else's collection?

49. And there’s still so much more to MERLOT…

50. Recognizing Your Efforts • Ribbons of recognition • Provides recognition for faculty capabilities and performance • Provides accountability for institutions • Provides academically acceptable mechanism/process that is motivational