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Cover Sheet for Proposals
(All sections must be completed)
Name of Initiative:
Open educational resources for the inclusive
curriculum (ORIC)
Name of Lead Institution:
University of Bradford
Name of Proposed Project:
ORIC
Name(s) of Project Partners(s)
Salford University
(except commercial sector – see below)
This project involves one or
Name(s) of any commercial partner company (ies)
more commercial sector
partners
NO (delete as appropriate)
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name: Sean Walton
Position: Lecturer in Higher Education Practice
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 01274 – 233286
Fax:
Address: teaching Quality Enhancement Group, JB Priestley Library, University of
Bradford, Bradford BD 7 1DP
Length of
Project:
1 year
Project Start
Date:
August 1st 2010
Project End
Date:
July 31st 2011
Total Funding Requested:
August 2010 – July 2011
August 2011 – July 2012
£20,000
£21,014
Total Institutional Contributions:
Outline Project Description
To create 30 credits of OER resources from an existing PGCERT around inclusive curriculum
design, education for sustainable development and digital literacy. An added feature will be
material on how to generate inclusive OER. Bradford has a recognised reputation for inclusivity
and the equality Duty 2010 will require HE institutions to develop more systematic and explicit
strategies for inculsive curriculum design. The OERs will be produced in a range of formats to
maximise flexibility and usability and draw on our extensive prior experience (JISC/HEA,
JORUM group work resource). Resources will be placed in the JORUM open deposit site,
institutional website, the Open Learn Learning Space and further locations through discussion
with our project partner. All materials will be tested and evaluated at both Bradford and Salford
with 2010 and 2011 cohorts. Dissemination will include SEDA, HEDG, HEA subject centres
and involves blogs, elluminate workshops and under the JISC/HEA tag.
I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms
YES
and Conditions of Grant at Appendix A
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Appropriateness and fit to programme objectives and overall value to the Academy’s communities 1. Inclusion and diversity have been important issues within higher education (HE)
for a number of years. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
(HESA) show that the numbers of black and minority ethnic (BME) and disabled
students across the UK HE sector have been steadily rising since 1996 (probably
as a result of widening participation strategies).
2. Sadly, we know that BME students, students with disabilities, and students from a
range of other under-represented groups tend to under-perform at university
compared to their white peers. Efforts to create inclusive curricula (as well as
other strategies to address this issue) across the UK HE sector have, to date,
and for a multitude of reasons, been of limited success. As an illustration of this,
the latest HESA statistics show that over the last five years the gap between the
attainment of BME students and their white counterparts has (on average)
widened, rather than narrowed.
3. However, following the introduction of the 2010 Equality Bill, the UK HE sector is
entering a new era in how universities will be expected to practice in relation to
inclusion and diversity. A new Equality Duty will replace existing race, disability
and gender duties as well as introducing legislation covering gender
reassignment, age, sexual orientation, and religion and belief. This expanded
agenda and the multiple varied and distinctive institutional contexts requires that
any OER needs to be sufficiently granular and flexible to allow for local
differences and protocols set up within institutions e.g. regarding access issues
such as screen issues etc.
4. The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) has outlined how the Equality Bill will impact
on universities: Universities will now be expected to tackle issues of inclusion and
diversity head-on, actively working to eliminate the unlawful discrimination of
under-represented groups, working to promote good relations across and
between groups, and embedding pedagogic strategies to narrow the attainment
gap between under-represented students and the more traditional student
population (see for example Van Hoorebeek, Walker and Dermo 2009) 1 .
5. The University of Bradford is uniquely placed to generate resources for the UK
HE sector concerning the delivery of inclusive curricula in a way that coheres with
a whole-institution approach to satisfying the learning needs of an increasingly
diverse student body. Over fifty percent of the student population at the University
of Bradford is from BME backgrounds and the university also caters for a high
proportion of international students, as well as mature students, and students
from the local area.
6. Over the last five years, following an agreement that the University of Bradford
entered into with the (then) Disability Rights Commission (DRC) we have
1
Van Hoorebeek, Walker and Dermo: Analysing the parameters of the duty of reasonable adjustment to facilitate access to elearning resources, Multicultural Education & Technology Journal (2009), Volume 3 Issue 3-4.
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introduced a whole range of measures to create a truly ‘inclusive campus’. These
measures cover every aspect of campus life and range from reviewing our use of
technology to support under-represented groups, through developing new
teaching and learning strategies to support delivery of more inclusive curricula, to
making new career and promotion routes available to staff who demonstrate
excellence in delivering inclusive learning. The Action Plan and Progress Report
which we developed through this agreement was formally signed off by the
EHRC earlier this year.
7. In addition, since 2006 we have also embarked on the largest whole-institutional
approach to embedding education for sustainable development (esd) in the
curriculum in the UK through the HEFCE SDF funded Ecoversity StuDent project
(2007-2010). This is both a strategic priority of the HEA, one of four key priorities
in this call and a source of growing interest with the HE sector generally. Our
academic approach has been largely shaped by the UNESCO framework for esd
as part of the UN Decade for Sustainable Development. The UNESCO
framework was selected due to the prominence given to issues of inclusivity,
respect, tolerance and equality – core values for the University and offers a
distinctive approach to linking esd and inclusivity to the benefit of both policy
agendas.
8. A key element of this package of changes is the ongoing development of a 20
credit module as part of our previously accredited Master’s level Postgraduate
Certificate in Higher Education Practice (PGCHEP) The new PGCHEP module
entitled ‘Inclusive Curriculum Design’ (ICD) is specifically tailored to equip
university staff to develop effective pedagogies for delivering learning to a diverse
student group, within the framework of a university that has introduced strategies
and procedures for meeting the demands for the new Equality Bill. The module
syllabus includes theories and models of learning ( e.g. distinguishing pedagogy
and androgogy, constructivism, experiential learning etc), the context of HE
learning, teaching and assessment development (e.g. dearing, leitch, Next
Generation Learning etc) and the design of effective inclusive learning
environments ( e.g. models of design, diversification strategies, inclusive
curriculum initiatives e.g. relating to disability, inter-cultural education, widening
participation etc).
9. The work will also feed into Salford’s new Postgraduate Certificate 15 credit
module ‘Curriculum Design and Programme Leadership’ (CDPL) which has a
focus on helping equip staff so they can produce accessible and inclusive
programmes and learning environments. The CDPL module covers all aspects of
inclusive curriculum design including: BME attainment and pedagogic strategies
for ‘levelling the playing field’; education for sustainable development; and digital
inclusion (and exclusion).
10. The aim of this bid is to turn all the resources which support this module into OER
and to provide a further ten credits of additional material focussing on inclusivity
and education for sustainable development and on inclusivity and information
literacy. The University of Salford has just approved a new information literacy
strategy and framework which seeks to provide a consistent and inclusive
approach to developing student digital / information literacy across the
curriculum.
11. The ICD material that is being created (and which would appear as an OER) has
been developed in conjunction with a number of Higher Education Academy
programmes including two Summit Programmes and the HEA’s new inclusion
special interest group. The OER resources would also be heavily influenced by
studies produced by the Academy (e.g. Ethnicity and Degree Attainment and
Reward and Recognition of Teaching in Higher Education).
12. As an added reflexive feature, the modules will also be further developed to
include material that deals with how to generate inclusive OER. In this area, it is
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absolutely critical that we ‘practise what we preach’. Not only must we
disseminate the principles and evidence on inclusive practice but we must also
exemplify it in the materials that we produce. A toolkit for academic staff is an
essential step forward. This will bring together existing resources in this field – we
must also exemplify good practice by not re-inventing wheels.
13. The University of Bradford and the University of Salford both espouse the
educational philosophy that good inclusive teaching is good teaching per se, and
the OER material under development reflects this position. This makes the
module material relevant not only to those with a specific interest in and/or
enthusiasm for inclusive teaching and learning, but to all those who are interested
in improving their university teaching practice (and this covers all staff with
significant teaching experience as well as relative newcomers to the profession).
14.The benefits of the project to the sector, lead institution and partner will be
•
•
•
•
•
A significant increase in the open availability and use of free high quality
online resource on key areas of HE policy and teaching, learning and
assessment strategy
Ensure compliance with current and future legislation ( eg Equality Duty)
Enhanced curriculum design to improve directly academic practice and
indirectly to impact on and increase student satisfaction
An innovative approach to combining inclusivity, esd and information literacy.
This will extend and expand Bradford’s reputation in the areas of inclusivity
and esd.and Salford’s information literacy strategy and it’s implementation.
Sharing of Bradford’s leading work on inclusivity with Salford and the sector
Workplan Creation of OER 15. We are planning to produce the materials in a range of formats, building on our
collective experience of producing OER (e.g. individual project in JISC/HEA OER
Phase I and major partner in the JORUM-award-winning groupwork resource
from the LearnHigher CETL) and consultation with staff and project partners on
the most appropriate platforms. We will also review existing materials and likely
sources of case studies and tools such as the JISC Curriculum Design and
Delivery Programmes (e.g. the Design Studio). We intend to include:
• Powerpoint presentations and supporting documents/handouts
• Webpages and downloads
• Learning objects, using tools such as GloMaker2
• CAA materials (building on our JISC IT4SEA project)
• Podcasts and audio tools (building on our JISC ASEL project)
• Vodcasts and screencam demos (using software such as Camtasia)
16. If new materials are being created or existing materials being repurposed,
existing materials careful thought must be given to a range of issues that include
accessibility, copyright clearance and issues surrounding culture.
17. This project will utilize the best practice from the JISC/HEA OER Phase I and
upcoming Phase II strands and ensure that materials are deposited in the
JORUM Open deposit site, an institutional website, the OpenLearn
LearningSpace and and at least one other openly accessible place with an
RSS/Atom feed.
18. The institutional website at Bradford will be a development of our existing
resources which includes materials already available to the sector and specific
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materials which we have been requested to ‘open out’ (e.g. discussions and
emails with JISC representatives and several institutions following our
presentation at the HEA 2010 Conference regarding the SMART reflection tool
for academic staff which we have currently embedded within our institutional eportfolio).
19. The material will have SWORD compliance, with metadata added to ensure
repository standards are met with the overarching aim of ensuring ease of access
and institutional mirroring. The standards will be in line with JISC
recommendations; further formats will overlay these recommendations to ensure
maximum usability in repurposing.
Impact and effectiveness 20. Once the OER content has been created or re purposed the materials will be
made fully granular by ensuring that individual parts of the material can be used
to facilitate maximum reuse. The tracking of the material is also important to
show impact but also to gather information on how users are finding and
repurposing the materials, this feedback can then be used to fine tune the
protocols that area being used.
21. The following questions will be used to guide this aspect of the project:
• Reuse: Do staff use the OER effectively?
• Redistribution: Can staff find relevant OERs easily and quickly?
• Revision: Can an OER be further developed and progress over time?
• Remixing: Is any time clearing copyright and negotiating licences well spent?
Is there a point where redesign is more efficient use of time and resources?
Project Plan 22. The table in paragraph 23 summarises the main stages in the project and the
deliverables/outcomes associated with each stage (which overlap deliberately to
reflect the iterative nature of resource development). The key features of this plan
are:
• All the materials will be tested and evaluated (and if necessary improved) with
the 2010 and 2011 cohorts of the Bradford PGCHEP and with staff at Salford
• The ongoing dissemination programme will ensure that other institutions and
staff can access and feedback on materials as the project develops and help
to shape its outcomes
23. Main stages:
Stage
1
Timescale Main activities
August/
Review of existing resources
Oct 2010 both within the current
course and external OER
Further staff development in
OER
Establish project
management and
collaboration
Deliverables and outcomes
Review of resources
Detailed workplan for
specific materials
adaptation and any
repurposing
Elluminate workshop to
engage other institutions
and to elicit feedback
2
October/
April 2011
Range of materials
available – see para 14
3
March/
Aug 2011
Materials adaptation and
generation
Trialling resources in Salford
PGCert module and in its
open workshop programme
Application and evaluation of
materials at both Bradford
5
2nd Elluminate workshop
Conference dissemination
4
July/Aug
2011
and Salford
Refinement of materials as
required
Final reporting
Completion of website
Final uploading of materials
(e.g. HEA, SEDA etc.)
3rd Elluminate workshop
Final report
All materials available
through website and
selected repositories, E.g.
JORUM
Salford ECE conference
and dissemination event to
showcase findings and
outcomes
Project management 24. The project will be managed through a Steering Group which will meet three
times in the course of the project and through short fortnightly progress meetings
of the project team (typically using Elluminate to involve all participants, save on
travel, and allow any members unable to attend to catch up). The steering group
will comprise selected individuals from within the team and the external PGCERT
and OER community. There will also be an internal project management group,
who will meet more frequently, comprising representatives from both Bradford
and Salford.
Risk analysis 25. The following table identifies the major risks we envisage and our contingency
plans to deal with them:
Risk
Specific staff leave
project team
Materials do not meet
needs of academic staff
Materials are difficult to
use or access
Potential
Impact
(1-5 in
severity)
2
How this risk will be mitigated/
Contingency
Breadth and duplication of experience in
project team means that no one member
is indispensable
Testing and evaluation in at least 2
institutions throughout the project
Testing and evaluation in at least 2
institutions throughout the project
5
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IPR and sustainability 26. All the materials produced will be made available (see paras 14 and 15) under
Creative Commons Licence
27. All the materials will be embedded in course and CPD provision at Bradford and
Salford to ensure sustainability.
Engagement with the Community 28. The project will be publicised and disseminated through a wide range of
networks, including: SEDA, HEDG, HEA Subject Centres, PGCert leaders North
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29. Mechanisms will include: Project Blog; Elluminate workshops at regular intervals
to engage other institutions and individual staff;
30. The dissemination plan is unlikely to remain static as more open education
repositories come on line and new methods of delivering content to student in
open education format evolve. To help keep the project up to date the project
team will respond to trends from worldwide projects such as OLnet and the OER
commons.
31. This project will be imaginatively disseminated both internally and externally
under the relevant JISC/HEA tag. For example dissemination will take place
through institutional channels and also include participation in JISC based
projects such as the IE Demonstrator project (http://blog.iedemonstrator.org) and
JISCs Involve platform (www.jiscinvolve.org), other channels will include
dissemination to local public services such as the council and health services. A
detailed dissemination strategy will be submitted to the relevant JISC project
officers.
Budget
32. The total project cost is £41,014 (see table below) with the institutional
contribution being 51%. The staff costs are approximately two-thirds Bradford
one third Salford across seven staff members.
7
Directly Incurred Staff Aug10July 11
Non-Staff
Travel and expenses
Hardware/software
Dissemination
Evaluation
Other
Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B)
Aug10 July11
£4,790
£789
£3,600
£205
£1,000
£10,384
Directly Incurred Total (C) (A+B=C)
£27,649
Directly Allocated
Estates
Other
Directly Allocated Total (D)
Aug10July11
£1,098
£
£1,098
Indirect Costs (E)
£
Total Project Cost (C+D+E)
Amount Requested from JISC
Institutional Contributions
12,267
£41,014
£20,000
£21,014
Percentage Contributions over the life of the
project
HEA/JISC
0%
No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and
estates charges, and staff included:
Peter Hopkinson, Peter Hartley, Peter
Hughes, Will Stewart, Sean Walton, Neil
Currant/Chrissi Nerrantzi
No FTEs 1.23(PA)
0.321
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Project Team 33. The brief biographies below are presented in alphabetical order. They
demonstrate that the team possess all the necessary skills and experience for
this project:
• Considerable direct experience of the development and delivery of
postgraduate courses and CPD in learning and teaching to academic staff
and faculties
• Very broad experience of teaching across UK HE
• Understanding of the necessary conceptual frameworks (e.g. HEA
Professional Standards)
• Expertise and experience in working with OER
• Project management skills and a significant track record of successful project
delivery (e.g. JISC, TechDis, EU, HEA and Subject Centre projects)
University of Bradford Peter Hartley 34. Peter Hartley is Professor of Education Development where he leads the
University’s educational development team (TQEG). TQEG supports the
development and implementation of the University’s Learning and Teaching
Strategy, including the incorporation of technology-enhanced learning, and the
HEA-accredited course for new lecturers. Peter’s national involvement has
included the University’s two successful partnership CETLs (LearnHigher and
ALPS), Project Director for 4 JISC projects (ELP1, ELP2, ASEL, and ITS4EA),
work on two TechDis projects, and three JISC Advisory Boards. He led the
University’s HEA Pathfinder project following the E-Learning Benchmarking
exercise, was External Evaluator for one FDTL5 project focussing on the
development of students’ academic literacy (MEDAL) and is completing work as
External Evaluator for one CETL focussed on e-learning (SOLSTICE). He is
Critical Friend to a cluster of projects in the current JISC Curriculum Delivery
Programme, and is Project Director for the NTFS PASS project, working with two
CETLs and three other UK Universities to develop polices and practice relating to
programme-based assessment. Peter’s work as National Teaching Fellow (NTF)
has focused upon educational applications of ICT. This includes award-winning
multimedia software to support students’ job-hunting through interactive virtual
learning (The Interviewer - now extended to a research viva simulation) , work on
the LearnHigher group-work resource (see
http://www.learnhighergroupwork.com/ which won two awards at ALT-C 2009
(the JORUM Learning and Teaching Award and the Epigeum/ALT Award for Best
Use of Video), and C-Link (JISC concept linkage project).
Sean Walton 35. Dr Sean Walton is Lecturer in Higher Education Practice with the Teaching for
dealing with issues of inclusion and diversity across the university. Sean is the
programme leader for a Master’s level teaching and learning module aimed at
graduate teaching assistants and part-time teachers. A large part of this module
is concerned with the development of inclusive curricula and the use of
appropriate pedagogies and technologies for teaching diverse groups. Prior to his
current role, Sean has worked as a lecturer and tutor, as a social tutor for adults
with severe and profound learning disabilities, as a researcher, and as an Adviser
for the Higher Education Academy. He has a range of experience of teaching
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diverse groups in the HE setting, including teaching at a summer school for
international students whose first language is not English. Throughout his career
he has project managed a number of projects and initiatives in and around higher
education. He is qualified in the PRINCE2 project management method at both
Foundation and Practitioner levels.
Peter Hughes 36. Peter Hughes was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2002, and is
currently Course Leader for the accredited Postgraduate Certificate in Higher
Education at the University of Bradford. He has been closely involved in the
management and delivery of accredited PGCerts since 2003, is an active
member of the PGCert Leaders North network and is external examiner for the
PGC in Learning and teaching in HE at the University of Cumbria and the MA in
Academic Practice at the University of Cumbria. He has been involved in several
large collaborative educational development/research initiatives including the
FDTL5 MEDAL project, the 4th cohort of the Inter/National Coalition for research
into Electronic Portfolios, NTFS-NARN project(2007-10) and is currently principal
investigator for the NTFS funded Outduction project (2008-11). Formerly an
academic geographer, he has particular expertise in the development of learner
autonomy and in education for sustainable development (ESD). He has led
workshops and seminars on these themes at ten different HEIs in recent years.
Peter Hopkinson 37. Peter Hopkinson is Director of Education for Sustainable Development (esd) for
the University of Bradford Ecoversity programme which has been acknowledged
as a sector leader through a number of recent national and international awards
and standing in the sector wide Universities that count index. Peter is project
manager for the £3.1M HEFCE SDF project to embed esd in the curriculum and
is convening a major 2 day national conference on this work in July jointly with
the HEA, HEFCE, and JISC. Peter has spoken at a number of universities on the
Bradford approach to embedding esd in the curriculum which emphasises the
linkages between esd and inclusivity, diversity and equality. Peter was awarded a
National Teaching Fellow in 2010 and is based in the Academic Development
Unit.
Will Stewart 38. Will Stewart is a member of the Centre for Educational Development at the
University of Bradford. His roles include teaching on the Post Graduate
Certificate in Higher Education Practice (PGCHEP), and supporting academic
staff in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning, He is also
involved in the design and delivery of a distance learning version of the PGCHEP
which is taught entirely online using a range of social and collaborative tools.
Recently, he was Project Manager for the Audio Supported Enhanced Learning
project (ASEL), a JISC-funded project exploring the use of audio to support
summative and formative feedback to learners. Previously, he worked with the
National Learning Network team at Becta, promoting the use of open, online
learning resources to the FE and ACL sectors. Following this he worked with the
JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire and Humber as a teaching and
learning advisor. He is also an Associate Lecturer with the Open University.
Mark van Hoorebeek 39. Dr. Mark Van Hoorebeek Is a lecturer in the School of Management and has
used this specialist expertise in law in the creation of OER in a range of areas,
from business law, intellectual property law through to sustainability and law in
the architecture field. He is the Principal Investigator in the Bradford JISC/OER
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phase I project which commenced in 2009. He has gained experience from both
the physical and online JISC/HEA events alongside networking with other OER
projects in other universities. Mark is currently acting as a reviewer for the phase
II of the OER project.
University of Salford Neil Currant 40. Neil Currant is an Academic Developer involved in the development and
dissemination of good practice and innovation in learning, teaching and
assessment across the University. He works as a module leader on the HEA
accredited PGCert programme to support staff involved in teaching and learning.
Neil has previously been full time project officer in successful funded
collaborative projects on e-portfolios (JISC Enhancing Learner Progression, 18
month project) and social media (JISC ELP2, two year project). As part of this
work, Neil has engaged in extensive dissemination work. He was also the
institutional auditor for the JISC Learning Literacies for a Digital Age project. Neil
is a certified member of the Association for Learning Technology.
Chrissi Nerantzi 41. Chrissi Nerantzi is an Academic Developer. Previously, she has worked at the
University of Sunderland as an academic developer in technology enhanced
teaching and learning and a lecturer in Education at Newcastle College. Her
qualifications include an MA in Teaching and Learning, postgraduate
qualifications in Coaching and Mentoring and she is currently completing an MSc
in Blended and Online Education. Over the last few years, she has been involved
and initiated a number of small scale innovative projects within teaching and
learning in HE and FE, for example with funding from NIACE and HEA
Pathfinder. These involved collaborations with a focus on innovative teaching and
learning approaches, including curriculum redesign and resource development.
Chrissi is a fellow of the HE Academy and the Institute for Learning.
Dr. Christine Smith 42. Chris is Head of Academic Practice and programme leader for the PGCert.
Christine worked previously as a Lecturer in Educational Research and has
published around 50 papers on the pedagogical design and development of
distance, distributed and flexible learning environments. Christine has been a
principal investigator and fundholder of a number of research projects including
ESRC and EU-funded relating to professional learning in HE.
Dr. Ruth Ayres 43. Ruth is Director of the Learning Development Unit. She is responsible for leading
the team in its work with academic colleagues to enhance institutional practice in
learning, teaching and assessment, including the promotion and development of
technology-enhanced learning. Amongst her many varied roles she has lead
research projects which focussed on the research/teaching nexus.
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