Information literacy learning objects

Yesterday I attended the CaRILLO event for developers of information literacy teaching and learning material. The focus of the day was on re-using and re-purposing information literacy learning objects. The day consisted of a series of short presentations and workshops covering learning object repositories, software for creating learning objects and finding resources for re-use and repurposing.

First up was Rebecca Mogg from Cardiff University talking about the Information Literacy Resource Bank (ILRB). This is a central repository of learning objects which can be integrated into teaching materials for use at Cardiff University and beyond. The resources held in the ILRB are intended to be bite-sized, generic and interactive. Resources can be browsed by topic or type – the latter is a real bonus as many of the repositories we looked at yesterday seemed to rely on the metadata submitted by the resource creators and so it was quite hit and miss if you were trying to search for content in a specific format.

  by  Smilylibrarian 

Next was Katy Wrathall talking about her experience on the SMILE (Study Methods and Information Literacy Exemplars) project. The aim of the project was to create a study skills module to be delivered in face-to-face workshops and through a VLE. 60% of the material used in the final module was required to be re-purposed from existing information literacy resources.

Katy’s presentation was very visual; she used her photo of two young blue tits fighting over a bird feeder as a visual description of the squabbles over ownership that take place in academia. Content ownership was one of the barriers the SMILE project faced in trying to find existing learning materials to re-purpose. Another was the extent to which existing materials are actually re-usable or relevant in a new context. This was an issue that was raised later in the day during the workshop feedback.

The module created for the SMILE project ran at the University of Worcester in the 2008-9 academic year. The feedback from students who participated was overwhelmingly positive. They found it particularly useful because it was available online at anytime for them to return to and review sections.

After a quick break Tom Boyle from RLO-CETL at London Metropolitan University gave us a demo of GLO Maker. He described it as “a tool to empower tutors” which removes the reliance on developers. The software is split into two sections; planner and designer. The planner is used to create the underlying pedagogical structure of the resource. This structure is then used in the designer to create the learning object. GLO Maker is free and open source. There is a gallery of materials created using this software on the GLO Maker community wiki.

Following this demo was Nicola Siminson from Mimas giving a presentation on JorumOpen. This repository of learning objects was launched in January 2010 on the back of JorumUK. Where JorumUK requires an institutional license to re-use the content deposited there, JorumOpen content is licensed under Creative Commons. Since JorumOpen launched there have been 6,342 learning materials deposited.

After lunch the group split into three for a series of workshops. One group looked at creating new resources, another at finding resources and the third on re-purposing resources. This was a really good opportunity for us to have a play around with some of the repositories and tools we had been introduced to during the morning. One thing that I really liked about this session was that each group gave feedback to the room. The issues that were raised here were largely the same from all groups:

• Finding resources is extremely time consuming, mainly because there are so many places to look
• There are very few resources that can be re-used exactly as they are
• Resources that have already been created are best used as inspiration for creating new material

The last presentation of the day was from Catherine Bruen, the National Digital Learning Resources (NDLR) Manager, talking about the community aspects of the NDLR. All 21 HE institutions in Ireland have involvement with the NDLR. Essentially the NDLR provides funding for teaching and learning projects at the institutions and then hosts the output. Originally an institutional license was required to re-use the materials hosted by the NDLR but increasingly, as with JorumOpen, Creative Commons licenses are being applied. The NDLR has a growing community through forums on the site and on Twitter and Facebook.

To me the NDLR appears to be a one-stop-shop for staff working on information literacy materials in Ireland’s HE institutions. The lack of something like this in the UK was an issue raised in the Q&A session at the end of the day. This event was certainly a great opportunity to discuss what other people are doing at their institutions, share resources and sources of information. Surely the next step is to continue this online…

Additional links

Repositories/Projects

• BRUM (Birmingham)
• Merlot (California State)
• Information Literacy Toolkit (Newcastle)
• SMILE

Software

• Hot Potatoes
• XtraNormal