www.le.ac.uk

The thing about having an open policy…

Terese BirdInstitute of Learning InnovationUniversity of LeicesterALT Open Education SIG Webinar 23 June 2014

What shall we talk about?

• Is policy good or bad?

• Policy or practice?

• Staff

• Students and open

• Benefits of open policy

Photo by Bindaas Madhavi, Flickr

Is policy good or bad?

Good Bad

You can say “Management is behind this” in meetings

Details = restrictions

Topic more likely to be accepted onto agenda and taken seriously

Born of compromise

Indicates key people have been made aware

Management may not understand issues

Public statement (website) Position gets stuck

Which of these required a policy?

Policy or practice? It’s complicated!• “Just do it!”

• “It’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission!”

• “By the time we have a policy, the practice has moved on!”

But on the other hand...

• Policy stays when you move on

• Get a strategic patron

Photo by rabiem22, Flickr

How to get teaching staff on board• Have a meeting with free lunch

• Email key people directly and ask for a meeting, bring iPad to demo

• Ask to present at college or departmental meetings

• Share success stories

• Offer hand-holding at first

• Keep after them

Photo by State Library of Victoria, Flickr

University of Leicester Open Ed Policies

• Professor of Learning Innovation oversees academic quality of OER. Marketing is the gatekeeper for iTunes U.

• All MOOCs must be approved by the Quality Office.

• Copyright workshops given regularly throughout the year.

• No extra staff (yet)

Leicester photo by Djinn76 on Flickr

Positive student feedback

• Current students can benefit:– Maths reminders– Study skills collection– Their current lectures on iTunes

• We should see more benefit when iTunes added to student computer this autumn (hopefully)

• Students like that we are doing iTunes U and MOOCs

• No student said “Don’t give away learning materials we have paid for”

Photo by Frerieke, Flickr

Benefits of open policy & practice

• Departments now sharing on SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, social media

• Students can study from UoL materials not available to them on VLE (the £9000 argument)

• Students use UoL OER in assignments (Urban History and Museum Studies – CC is important

• MOOC QA could open consideration of MOOC accreditation

• Distance learning wants to try new teaching methods

Photo by Truro College, Flickr

t.bird@le.ac.uk

Thank you!!!