EdReNe expert workshop 5 series

1. EdReNeexpert workshop 5 series Leo Højsholt-Poulsen UNI•C

2. EdReNe –EducationalRepositories Network We • develop practical guidelines and recommendationson educational repositories • will establish a lasting collegial network of European repository nodes and stakeholders. Our main outputs: • a comprehensive website (www.edrene.org) withrecommendations, documentation, templates, roadmaps and documentsdescribing issues, state-of-the-art offering solutions We trust (hope) that • Existing repositories can cut some corners, and new repositories may have a less costly and much less complicated path in life The overall goal is • to improve the provision of and access to learningresources

3. A basic list of issues sat the agenda • How do you establish a repository of learning resources together with producers and users • Everyday organisation and management of a repository • Optimising number of titles and users • Quality frameworks and criteria • Networking repositories • Functionalities and features of a repository • Pedagogical metadata and links to curriculum • Management of IPR screening and clearance • Role of repositories in the new web environment

4. DoW - Issues to beaddressedinclude • Policies and strategies • Qualitycriteria and assurance • Rights protection and management • Standards and interoperability • Development and harmonisation/mapping of applicationprofiles • Types of learningresources • Involvingcommercialpublishers and associated agreements • Encouragingteachers' knowledgesharing • Linking to reviews and evaluations • Connecting to curriculum • Ethics, screening and clearing, and • Web-services bridging to other portals and locallearning platforms. • The projectwill link to/collaboratewithothercross-nationaland/orlocalrepositories/ collections/ catalogues, and publishers’ associations. • The projectwilldeveloppractical guidelines and recommendations, but most importantly, it willestablish a lasting collegialnetwork of European repository nodes and stakeholders.

5. Repositories and learning resources • Catalogues with descriptions (metadata), actual learning resources (data), both traditional textbooks and digital materials, only digital resources? • Which types of data: files, links, streaming etc. • Decisions on which types of learning resources to include. Which learning resources can be included in an educational repository and which not? What is (not) a learning resource? • Learning resources that are not specifically created for education, e.g. from the cultural sector • Collecting the user’s own mix of resources • Networking repositories • The role of repositories in a Google-world • Content from producer to user • Open Educational Resources, (user-generated content)

6. Structure and organisation, features and functionality • Repository architectures:The organisation behind the repository, resources (labour and economy, etc.) User/producer/public/private involvement • Exchange and import of data among repositories, other collections, databases and LMS systems • Browsing and searching, push, harvest, extract data from repositories to other web services, personalization strategies, the impact of emerging web 2 technologies • Linking to libraries and purchasing systems • Examination of the respective merits of federated search and metadata harvesting

7. Use and usability, quality and assessment • Quality frameworks and criteria, including the development of quality criteria for learning resources that "travel well" in a European context • Pedagogical metadata, also including e.g. learning styles, and the variety of use of any content • Linking and mapping resources to multiple curricula • Assuring quality and ethics • User feedback, reviews and evaluation • Stimulation actions

8. Rights and regulations • Rights Management: Examples of use of Digital Rights Management and identity management, Creative Commons licenses and other relevant licensing schemes and strategies for dealing with intellectual property rights within the educational sector, nationally and in a European context. • Screening and rights clearance • Agreements with producers (professional publishers, authorities, organisations, institutions, teachers) and other repositories/databases.

9. Standardisation • Standards of metadata profiles and data formats • Standards to allow for interoperability among repositories both within a language area and across language borders

10. Strategicseminars and expert workshops

11. EdReNe events • First strategic seminar; 11 – 13 June 2007, Naples, Italy • WS 3.1, 4 – 5 December 2007,Brussels, Belgium Repository strategies at general level • WS 4.1, 8 – 9 January 2008,London, UK Standards and interoperability • WS 5.1, 2 – 3 October 2007, Aarhus, Denmark Engagement of producers and users • WS 6.1, 4 – 5 March 2008, Ljubljana, Slovenia Rights issues • Secondstrategic seminar; 9 – 11 June 2008, Lisbon, Portugal • WS 3.2, 16 – 17 September 2008, Tallinn, Estonia Repository strategies at general level • WS 5.2, 20 – 22 October 2008, Alsace, France Engagement of producers and users • WS 4.2, 25 – 27 February 2009, Oegstgeest, NetherlandsStandards and interoperability • WS 6.2, 23 – 25 March 2009, Warwick, UK Rights issues • Thirdstrategic seminar, 3 – 4 June 2009, Stockholm, Sweden • WS 3.3, 17 – 18 September, SestriLevante, Italy Repository strategies at general level • WS 5.3, 18 – 20 November, Linz, AustriaEngagement of producers and users • Fourthstrategic seminar, 24 - 26 March 2010, Barcelona, Spain

12. We have enteredphasethree • In phasethree a multi-stakeholderconsensus-buildingprocesswillbe the primaryobjective. • Thiswillinvolve policy makers, contentindustry, researchers, practitioners and users. • Duringphasethree the thematicnetworkwillbeable to move from best solutions via general issues to policy recommendations. • At the end of phasethree an extendedstrategic seminar willbeorganised to disseminateprojectresults and to present a proposal for a sustainablecontinuation of the work in the network. • Focus of fourthstrategic seminar willbeonrecommendations for national repositories and the sustainability and continuation of the network.

13. The objectives of WP 5 – expert workshops 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3 • Ensuringregistration of learningresources • Support knowledgesharing and motivation of producers and users • Attractingusers Topicsaddressedinclude • Agreements • Betweenrepositories and producers (professional publishers, authorities, organisations, institutions, teachers) orotherrepositories/databases • User feedback, reviews and evaluations • Manyrepositoriesincludeuserfeed-backand/or links to reviews and evaluation of the registeredtitles. Therearemanyways of arrangingthat, technically and organisational (whodoes the evaluations: all users, a validatedgroup of pedagogicalexperts etc. and usingwhichcriteria.)

14. The objectives of WP 5 – expert workshops 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3 • Stimulation actions • Howcanrepositoriesbest bring content from producer to user and request from user to producer • Howdoes a repositorygetmany – and the most important - titles and manyusers/subscribers • Whatincentiveschemesarenecessary for professional producers, public institutions and teacherssharingmaterials for inspiration • Features and functionality • Improvingusability • Browsing and searching • Personalizationstrategies • Web 2.0 functionality

15. Description of work The basic list of issueswill set the agenda However, furtherthemes and issuesmaybeidentifiedduring the strategic seminars, and the firststrategic seminars willprioritiseamongthem Workinggroups of subject specialists willbeestablished – thesewill deliver input to a members’ knowledge base, discuss online in the communication forums and meet for workshops to present, discuss and developdocumentation of practice, roadmaps, templates for agreements etc.

16. Whichissueswereprioritised for WS 5.1 Before WS 5.1 The firststrategic seminar in Naplesprioritisedthreeissues for the first workshop • Ensuringease of use (usability, wizards, help and support) • Web 2.0 and repositories? (sharedqueries, social bookmarking, tagging…) • My repository – the need for personalization (profiles, reviews, collections…) • Members also stressed the importance of interactivity during workshops. At WS 5.1 These rather broad topics resulted in an agenda, with a focus on the user interface of repositories, exploring common design patterns of educational repositories.

17. Whichissueswereprioritised for WS 5.2 Before WS 5.2 From the strategic seminar in Lisbon • My repository - the need for personalization(profiles; reviews; collections; automaticrecommendations…) • Building yourowncontent from repositoryresources(allowingteachers to combinecontent from various producers) • Analyzingrepositoryuse(statistics; identifyingpopularfunctions; interpretingsearchstrings and results; usersurveys; characterization of user types) • Implementation of usergenerated metadata (evaluations; reviews; tagging; collaborativefiltering; information onactualusage...) • Ensuringease of use(identifying/developing design patterns; usability; wizards...) From WS 5.1 • (Central) services for curriculum mapping / vocabulary management - a mapping of status and strategies • Communitybuilding in connectionwitheducationalrepositoriesas a strongincentive for educators to sharematerials (more examplesneeded)

18. Whichissueswereprioritised for WS 5.3 ( thisone ;-) From the strategic seminar in Stockholm • Content/information could be presented based on user profiling and personalization. • Before the workshops the members should prepare user profiles of teachers with the relevant characteristics, e.g. front-runner (early adoptors), normal teacher, etc. • User involvement • Set up user groups and listen to their needs; let them influence the development; keep users as close as possible. Inspiration and experiences could be acquired by inviting teachers from the eduhi.at project to the final workshop. The teachers should present their needs and working practices regarding repositories. • “Being where the customers are”: • What can we learn from social networks? How can repository content be present in social networks (to attract new and active users)? An expert of social networks could be invited to the workshop. • Investigate how repository functions could be used from within a VLE or other it-systems where the teacher has to be on a daily basis. Invite VLE-experts to explain and discuss their vision on 'user engagement'. • How do we get users to come back, to stay and to use the repository? Can we learn from internet marketing? The differences in culture across Europe should be kept in mind. An expert could be invited.