Academy/JISC Grant Funding 14/08 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities.aspx http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding Proposal Cover Sheet HEFCE/JISC/Academy Open Educational Resources Grant Funding Cover Sheet for Proposals (All sections must be completed) JISC/Academy Open Educational Resources Programme Name of Initiative: Open Educational Resources Programme bid to: Individual Name of Lead Institution: The University of Liverpool / UK Centre for Materials Education Name of individual: (complete for individual programme only) Subject area: Materials Name of Proposed Project: CORE-Materials: Collaborative Open Resource Environment – for Materials The University of Liverpool The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) The University of Birmingham Bradford College The University of Cambridge The University of Edinburgh The European Aluminium Association (EAA) The Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) Granta Design Limited Heriot-Watt University, ICBL Imperial College London International Council on Materials Education (ICME) The University of Manchester Materials E-Learning Technologies (MELT) The Open University The University of Sheffield Sheffield Hallam University The University of Southampton The University of Swansea The Welding Institute (TWI) Name(s) of Project Partner(s): Institutional Subject area Full Contact Details for Primary Contact: Name: Professor Peter J Goodhew Position: Materials Subject Centre Director Email: [email protected] Address: UK Centre for Materials Education, Brodie Tower, Department of Engineering The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GH Tel: +44 151 794 4665 Fax: +44 151 794 4466 Length of Project: 12 months Project Start Date: Mid April 2009 Total Funding Requested from JISC/Academy: Project End Date: £174,827 1 Mid April 2010 Academy/JISC Grant Funding 14/08 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities.aspx http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding Total Institutional Contributions: £271,455 Outline Project Description This project seeks to release existing learning resources for open use and repurposing, and will also explore processes, issues and policies involved in the practices of releasing such content. The rationale is rooted in the desire of the Academy/JISC to make a significant enhancement to university education. As a national Subject Centre, the UKCME’s rationale for bidding is in our commitment to sharing and promoting open learning resources and curricular content, as a means of enhancing the student learning experience in the subject of Materials. The main project deliverables are as follows: A comprehensive set of core open and accessible learning resources that provide full coverage of the Materials undergraduate curriculum (in total greater than 360 undergraduate credits). A ‘taxonomy matrix’ for the Materials discipline that both organises resources in a coherent way for the user and also identifies resources in need of development by users. Changed policies and practices within partner institutions / organisations relating to the release of open learning resources and wider use of Web2.0 technologies, as a result of project interaction. An active community of practice within Materials, where learning resources are widely shared, used and developed; with the benefit of promoting / marketing the discipline and quality of UK HE. I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix A and included an FOI form in the attached bid (Tick Box) I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B (Tick Box) 2 YES YES NO NO FOI Withheld Information Form We would like JISC and the Academy to consider withholding the following sections or paragraphs from disclosure, should the contents of this proposal be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, or if we are successful in our bid for funding and our project proposal is made available on JISC’s website. We acknowledge that the FOI Withheld Information Form is of indicative value only and that JISC and the Academy may nevertheless be obliged to disclose this information in accordance with the requirements of the Act. We acknowledge that the final decision on disclosure rests with JISC and the Academy. Section / Paragraph No. Relevant exemption from disclosure under FOI Justification There are no sections/paragraphs of the CORE-Materials bid that we would like JISC/HEA to consider withholding. 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Aim This project seeks to release existing learning resources for open use and repurposing, and will also explore processes, issues and policies involved in the practices of releasing such content. 1.2 Rationale 1.2.1 The rationale for this project is rooted in the desire of Academy/JISC to make a significant enhancement to university education. UKCME‟s rationale for bidding is in our commitment to sharing and promoting open learning resources and curricular content, as a means of enhancing the student learning experience in the subject of Materials. 1.2.2 The UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME), as the Higher Education Subject Centre for the UK Materials community, has since its inception in 2000 developed strategies and collaborative partnerships for both creating and disseminating teaching and learning resources. We are aware of a great number of local learning resources, many of them in electronic form and many of them created following the stimulus of a small grant from UKCME. Electronic-based and online mechanisms have been a significant component of such resources. This proposal seeks to improve opportunities for learning by students / trainees and for teaching by academics / trainers. 1.2.3 The following table summarises the project‟s main 20 Characteristics of benefit to UK HE: Principles of this project Coherent set of open resources Curriculum-based learning, with more than 360 credits accessible Constructed taxonomy matrix Community-based development Creative release of content Contributions can be by all users Culture-changing in HE sector Continuation strategy, with models for project sustainability Features of the resources Cutting-edge elements (bold and innovative) Convenient (portability for users ensured) Choice (flexibility of use) Cleared for open release Compliant (to IPR and IMS standards/protocols) Creative Commons licence standards Other project attributes Consortium of subject / discipline community Commitment of partners Capacity-building for the future, beyond this pilot Critically appraised and evaluated outcomes Case-studies of practices and lessons learned Communications strategy 1.3 Need and Impact The justification for this project is based partly on the messages emerging from the interactions UKCME regularly has with its subject community. In a very short period of time, we have been overwhelmed by institutions wanting to take part in the OER process. The needs of students, academics, industry, policy makers and the wider HE community have all been taken into account in shaping this proposal. In addition, focused information that affirms the need for more open educational resources in Materials has come from four UKCME-led projectsabcd. Specific lessons learned from these will be drawn upon in the development of this project. Materials is a subject that underpins all of Engineering and much of Science, and is taught in a variety of university programmes. 1.4 Priority Focus This UKCME-led project addresses 5 of the 8 priority areas in the OER programme, as shown below: 1. Materials is a vocational subject area, with applied elements of the curriculum that draw from the input of a range of industries and skills-based training providers. 2. Materials is defined (HEFCE, 2008) as a „strategically important and vulnerable‟ subject. 3. Materials has a main professional body, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). 4. Materials is a third stream discipline, a key contributing sector of the economy of UK plc, linking knowledge creation with business development. 5. Materials relies heavily on multi-media technologies to enable students to better understand the many concepts that underpin the knowledge and competencies of the subject. a b c d National Subject Profile for Higher Education Programmes in Materials (Higher Education Academy, 2008); Working in Partnership with Students: The E-Learning Summer School at Cambridge (JISC, 2008); Employer-College Partnerships: Developing a Materials Foundation Degree at Bradford College (HEFCE, 2008); The Engineering Doctorate in Steel Technology at Swansea University: Practices and Benefits (The Welsh Assembly, 2008). 1 2.0 Project Description The objectives are defined here. The ways they are addressed in the project are shown on Page 3. 2.1 Objectives a. To identify and scope existing electronic resources for learners and teachers in Materials, and to specify legal and technological protocols (drawing on recommended sources and technologies advised by JISC and CETIS) to release content in an „open‟ format accessible by all. b. To scope, specify, build and pilot a „taxonomy matrix‟ – which may be constructed along the lines of the diagram below – to interpret, codify, and possibly act as an interface to „a core of open access learning resources, organised coherently to support on-line and blended learning by all HEIs, and to make it more widely available in non-HE environments‟ (Cooke Report to Denham, 2008). c. To establish a collection that would make use of JorumOpen, but also a more discipline-specific site, and investigate their use by Materials teachers and students; users will be encouraged to source, use, submit, share and reuse electronic learning resources from the collection. d. To work with the Academy/JISC, their services, and other projects funded within this OER call, to develop a robust information architecture, resource description, cataloguing / collections policy. e. To investigate attitudes of users and potential barriers to sharing and making resources publicly available across the Materials community. f. To gain initial feedback of viability and usefulness of the learning resources in their open format; this will be with a range of users / stakeholders from across and beyond the Materials community. g. To disseminate and evaluate project outcomes; dissemination will draw heavily on networks of the UKCME and of consortium partners, whilst evaluation will be both formative and summative. h. To explore the use of RSS feeds as a means of providing content for personal learning environments (PLEs). In addition, to investigate systems and criteria for the portability of interactive learning resources in high demand by users. 2.2 Project Deliverables Based on the above objectives, from this project, we are going to deliver the following: a. A comprehensive set of core open and accessible learning resources that provide full coverage of the Materials undergraduate curriculum (in total greater than 360 undergraduate credits). b. A „taxonomy matrix‟ for the Materials discipline that both organises resources in a coherent way for the user and also identifies resources in need of development by users. c. Changed policies and practices within partner institutions / organisations relating to the release of open learning resources and wider use of Web2.0 technologies, as a result of project interaction. d. An active community of practice within Materials, where learning resources are widely shared, used and developed; with the benefit of promoting / marketing the discipline and quality of UK HE. 2 2.3 Project Work-Plan 2.3.1 One of the main strengths of this project is that it can get underway immediately in April 2009. This is because the Project Team will comprise experienced staff seconded from the UKCME, along with two staff previously with the MATTER software project. Two additional staff from the Heriot-Watt University (located in the ICBL) will bring complementary expertise in technical and legal issues. 2.3.2 Preparatory work in February 2009 involved a meeting of consortium partners at the host institution, with opportunities for all to contribute towards the development of this bid, and to identify resources for sharing (images, videos, podcasts, case studies, course materials, reading lists, learning objects, MCQs, recordings). It will be important at the start of the project to have detailed explorations across the Partner Consortium of both the proposed dissemination plan and the sustainability plan. 2.3.3 The final project outcomes will be completed by April 2010, when a final report will be signed-off, ongoing dissemination will be extending and embedding deliverables in liaison with Academy/JISC, and a continuation strategy will be in place to sustain the project outputs and outcomes. The following table details the main project tasks over the 12-month timeline, starting April 2009: Main Project Tasks Hold continuous and regular Project Team meetings, to update plans / targets and to monitor / review progress Hold 3 meetings of the full 20 Partner Consortium; the hosting of these shared between UKCME and IOM3 Work with all 20 partners to identify useful and shareable learning resources that exist; (much has been achieved, from bid consultations and UKCME ongoing strategies) Clarify the IPR status of these existing resources, and explore Creative Commons licence agreements Secure the release of the resources under an open licence, thereby giving the right to host the resources Develop a relationship with the JorumOpen repository, to allow updating of learning objects for storage Construct a „taxonomy matrix‟, drawing on existing schema (e.g. MATTER, QAA, UKCME, CES, textbooks) Populate the collection with a variety of electronic resources and identify gaps by using the taxonomy Establish mechanisms for both the searchability and interoperability of the deposited collection of resources Create a project website within UKCME, „mirroring‟ the collection in JorumOpen with added value user functions Conduct frequent visits to consortium partners, to ensure ongoing engagement and understanding of their milieu Develop RSS feeds drawing on the open access resources, and test in personal learning environments Re-size and test a range of interactive learning objects for portable use, e.g. in standard presentation packages Survey consortium partners and institutional systems regarding release, use and sharing of open resources Test open resource use with a range of stakeholders, and feedback the findings for review and updating Participate in Programme-level activities organised by Academy/JISC, along with other OER funded projects Disseminate the project, its outputs and outcomes, over the 12-months and beyond, liaising with Academy/JISC Evaluate the project at intervals, drawing on formative and summative approaches, liaising with Academy/JISC Develop a business model for project sustainability beyond the 12 months pilot, liaising with Academy/JISC 3 April 2009 to March 2010 (inclusive) A M J J A S O N D J F M 3.0 Project Management Arrangements 3.1 Project Direction 3.1.1 The project will be under the overall direction of the Director of the UKCME. The Project Team (detailed in Section 10.0 on Page 10), based at UKCME, will constitute the core operational group, with staff having clear roles / responsibilities and maintaining close communications with each other; it will also carry out regular reviews of progress in response to feedback from users and changing contexts. 3.1.2 We have identified a specific Project Manager with responsibility for day-to-day project activities, including monitoring of progress and finances. A Project Chair will act as academic adviser to the project, operating independently of the internal Project Team (drawing on similar expertise from the recently completed National Subject Profile in Materials). The Project Director and E-Learning Consultant will liaise with senior management in institutions (drawing on experience of chairing the University of Liverpool‟s E-Learning Committee). The Senior Liaison Officer will focus on strategic elements of the project, on synergies with the principal mission of UKCME, and on stakeholder links. 3.2 Programme Support The Project Team greatly values the benefits of communication and collaboration with other projects funded under this OER programme. We are keen to establish these relationships through participation in Programme-level meetings organised by the Academy/JISC (having accounted for these in our budget), as well as on an ad hoc basis. We welcome support from the Programme Manager in facilitating and fostering dialogue of this type. In addition, we will seek support on specific JISC protocols and procedures from the Programme Manager at the Academy/JISC, as necessary. We will also liaise with the Academy/JISC with respect to aspects of both project dissemination and evaluation. 3.3 Risk Analysis There are a number of risks associated with tasks outlined earlier in the project plan. Four of the most significant risks among those we identified are listed in the following table, along with a mitigation plan. With sound planning these risks can be minimised and contingencies can be put into place. Risk Probability (1-5) Severity (1-5) Score (P x S) Action to Prevent / Manage Risk Barriers to gain institutional support from partners for the full release of learning objects identified 2 3 6 Careful choice of partners that build on work relationships and an understanding of their milieu. Letters of Support (Appendix) have explicit senior institutional approval. Infrastructure unable to support wide variations in technology 2 3 6 Careful contingency planning from the outset, in collaboration with technical staff of partner institutions, to establish clear parameters on what is and is not possible. Challenges to obtaining IPR clearance of resources for open release 3 3 9 Draw on both the host institution and JISC legal support services. Lack of time to provide adequate evidence of user take-up of the open resources released though the project 3 Liaison with Academy/JISC in developing robust project Consortium Agreements. Liaison with Academy/JISC in ensuring appropriate legal protocols employed. 3 9 Use of UKCME‟s engagement strategies at Departmental and at institutional level, to ensure uptake of the open resources. Ongoing „roadshow‟ visits and project dissemination and sustainability plan, to encourage and evaluate the use of the open resources beyond the project lifetime. 4 4.0 Technical Considerations 4.1 Two areas of technical issues will be important to the: those around dissemination and those around resource management. 4.2 For dissemination we consider the need to make resources discoverable by those who would use them to be of paramount importance. Key to this will be visibility on Google and other search engines. This will be enhanced by making the textual content of resources visible to web crawlers and ensuring links to the resources from relevant websites. 4.3 It will also be helpful to provide potential users with information to support selection of resources appropriate to their learning or teaching needs, and it may be helpful to provide ideas on how resources may be used in pedagogic situations. This means careful consideration by the project of how to acquire and convey information about the resources' origins, suggested education usefulness and descriptions of actual use. 4.4 The Project Team will ensure that information about resources and, where possible, the resources themselves may be syndicated for aggregation by interested parties, either for their own educational use or to present to their user communities. As well as its direct impact on the number of users who will see our resources, such syndication increases the number of links to our resources from relevant websites and makes them more visible on search engines. 4.5 We will also ensure that resources can easily be embedded into a variety of learning environments, tools and websites, e.g. institutional VLEs, presentations packages (such as PowerPoint) for lectures, wikis, blogs, personal "portal" pages such as iGoogle, Netvibes and Pageflakes. This has a consequential requirement that interactive resources should be made available in a stand-alone format rather than relying on server-side interactive technologies as many of them currently do. 4.6 Web 2.0 services provide many facilities that will be helpful in ensuring successful dissemination: tags and user profiles can provide information about the resources and their relationships to the project; many web 2.0 sites have a sophisticated approach to providing RSS and ATOM feeds for syndication, and cut-and-paste code-snippets are provided for embedding resources into other websites. We are aware that there are access issues with some web 2.0 services, for example schools, who are an important part of our audience, are often barred from accessing YouTube; so careful consideration will be required before a range of hosting solutions is selected. 4.7 The important requirements for resource management are that we should be able to provide a coherent collection of resources, with guaranteed access over a suitable period, and to account for the level of use of the resources and the impact of the project. The UKCME website will provide a coherent view on the collection that will show relationships between resources, between resources and the Materials curriculum, between different versions of resources and between resources and information about those resources. The JorumOpen will provide a safe host to assure continuity of access to resources. The Project Team will use appropriate measures, e.g. information provided by web 2.0 hosts and Google analytics, to provide information about the amount of access to the resources. 5.0 Legal Considerations 5.1 This project is founded on a commitment to openness. We want resources to be used freely: that is free of charge and free from restraint. This includes the freedom to copy and adapt, as well as the ability to view the resource. We consider Creative Commons licensing to be an expression of this commitment. An important part of this project will be working so that resources may be licensed under Creative Commons. Key issues to address will be institutional attitudes to ownership of resources created by staff and students, and institutional policies for granting permission for Creative Commons licensing, (including for example attitudes to the effect of this on potential revenue generation and risks of copyright infringement through accidental inclusion of third party material). We will work with partner institutions to clarify these issues in such a way that facilitates future release of open content. 5.2 IPR is to be a major part of this OER project, and as such it is built into workflows. The project will be focused on sustainable processes, with more than 10% of the budget dedicated to specific IPR staff, in addition to time which will be spent on IPR issues during frequent visits to institutions. 5 6.0 Synergies and Partnerships 6.1 Partner Consortium This project builds on collaboration between UKCME and the following 20 Consortium Partners: Institution / Organisation Role in the project Previous experience 10 Higher Education Institutions Univ of Liverpool (host institution) Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Imperial, Manchester, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam, Southampton, Swansea 1 Further Education College Bradford College 3 Professional Organisations Institute of Materials (IOM3) The Welding Institute (TWI) European Aluminium Assocn (EEA) 2 Computer-Based Learning Bodies Heriot-Watt University – (ICBL) MeLT: Materials e-Learning Technologies [formerly MATTER] 2 Subject-related OER Advisers The Open University Granta Design Ltd 2 International Subject Federations FEMS: Federation of European Materials Societies ICME: International Council on Materials Education Input to „taxonomy matrix‟; Identification of resources; Investigation of practices and policies for open release; Liaison with Project Team for clearance of the resources; Contributing resources to collection; Active use/testing As above for the 10 HEIs and the 1 FEC www.materials.ac.uk/ subject-profile/report.asp Technical input for „cuttingedge‟ elements of RSS feeds and portability; Input to „taxonomy matrix‟ Liaison with both OpenLearn and MIT OpenCourseWare; Input to the „taxonomy matrix‟ Identification of resources for „harvesting‟ outside of UK; Project dissemination, to be beyond the project lifetime and with „reach‟ outside UK; www.materials.ac.uk/pub/ case-cambridge.asp www.materials.ac.uk/pub/ case-bradford.asp www.iom3.org www.twi.co.uk www.eea.net www.alumatter.info JISC and HEA projects: www.icbl.hw.ac.uk MATTER e-learning sites: www.matter.org.uk www.openlearn.open.ac.uk Granta‟s CES EduPack: www.grantadesign.com www.fems.org Euromat conferences: www.fems.org/euromat/ www.unt.edu/ICME/ MRS links: www.mrs.org 6.2 Partner Communications All partners have agreed to implement a Consortium Agreement based on JISC templates. The strength of commitment from all partners is indicated by statements in Letters of Support (attached). The Project Team will engage with partners, through visits to UK institutions (approx one every week), and by 3 Consortium meetings; the former ensuring the project links directly to institutional strategies. 6.3 Stakeholder Analysis Critical to success will be engagement with external agencies, both throughout and beyond the project: External Stakeholder Interest / Stake HE Academy, JISC and CETIS Project funder; Project findings provide case studies of the implementation of open resources for learning Other OER funded projects in this call; Cross-referencing of lessons learned between projects, OpenLearn and MIT OpenCourseWare ensuring greater impact across the HE sector Senior Management in HEIs and FECs Development of institutional strategies on e-learning, release of resources, and the marketing of programmes Academics teaching Materials Comprehensive core curriculum of subject-based resources; Tools and processes for resource use / sharing Subject organisations and agencies Promotion of the discipline for learners, enhanced by effective resources Industry and employer bodies Providing opportunities for learners to become better qualified and prepared for work Individual learners and prospective Easy access to high quality relevant learning resources students relating to Materials 6 7.0 Dissemination and Evaluation 7.1 Communications Plan Project outcomes / outputs are to be disseminated to external stakeholders by the following activities: Dissemination Activity Website for the project Project blog - for all partners to interact UKCME annual bespoke training courses Themed section at specific events (e.g. Euromat09 international conference) UKCME dissemination mechanisms and portals Project links established on the websites of consortium partners Symposium at project end, hosted by the IOM3 Publication of findings and experiences in reports Sharing of practice with other funded OER projects Promotion of „good practice‟ beyond the project „Roadshow-type‟ visits to HEIs and FECs, inclusive of evaluating RSS feeds Articles in academic and industry publications Audience Project Team; Partner Consortium; Academy/JISC; Stakeholders; Public Project Team; Partner Consortium; User community Materials Student Representatives; New Materials lecturers; Postgraduate demonstrators National & international members; Materials academics All stakeholders All stakeholders Regional and national bodies; Directors of UG studies Partner Consortium; Academy/JISC Academy/JISC; Stakeholders All stakeholders Partner Consortium; Stakeholders; Materials Students Project Team; Partner Consortium; Academy/JISC 7.2 Evaluation Plan The project will be internally evaluated as part of an overall reflective process, using techniques developed over academic year 2008-09 for the STEM Group of Subject Centres by David Baume: Factor to Evaluate Strategies for engagement with Partner Consortium Technical developments Dissemination outcomes Main piloting process Whole project Sustainability Questions to Address Method(s) Measure of Success Is the methodology clear and working well? Team review of outputs Are the „taxonomy matrix‟ and user interfaces appropriate for learners? Have these been successful in engaging the wider community? Has the project team adapted the technology to maximise learner engagement? How successful has the project been for learners, stakeholders; and what lessons have been learned? Have we put in place robust plans for project sustainability? Peer review; User surveys Partners on board, and generating resources directly useful to the Team Systems interoperable and working 7 Questionnaires and interviews User logs; Questionnaires Written project report and case studies from users UKCME website Critical dialogue with the project after dissemination activity Impact of the release of the open resources on learners Outputs taken up and developed further by other projects Outcomes / outputs taken up beyond project end 8.0 Value for Money and Business Sustainability 8.1 Impact vs Budget 8.1.1 The following are key features extracted from the Budget statement given next in Section 9.0: a. Matched funding is far in excess of funds sought from Academy/JISC; percentage contributions over the project lifetime are 61% from all Partners compared to 39% from the Academy/JISC. b. Also, the 20 Consortium Partners provide matched funds of £85,000 (being 50% of funds sought). c. The Host Institution has waived FEC charges, and is covering the input of 2 senior academics; given the clear benefits to the University of participating in the project (see Section 8.1.2 below). d. The Partner Consortium comprises a range of organisations (universities, college, professional body, subject associations, industry, computer-based learning bodies and international subject federations). This provides cross-referencing of issues in relation to the open release of resources. e. The extensive Partner Consortium extends links beyond England, to include specialist expertise from other regions of the UK, and from leading Materials educationalists in Europe and America. 8.1.2 Benefits for the Host Institution and participating Partners are as follows (see Letters of Support): a. They contribute to a „one-stop-shop‟ core repository of resources for the Materials curriculum. b. They share technologies and lessons learned from others in the consortium, thereby testing new mechanisms / modes for online learning. c. They are able to influence and shape the development of policy in their institutions / organisation relating to the open release of learning resources. d. They are able to promote their course programmes and resources to prospective students and to widen access to education for young learners and for students in the workplace. 8.2 Sustainability Plans UKCME has allocated £20,000 from future budgets (shown in Section 9.0 on Page 9) to ensure sustainability of outcomes and outputs beyond the lifetime of the project. Such sustainability activities are outlined in the following table: Project Outputs Project website Collection of core Materials curricula open resources Scenarios and cases studies of use Reports „Taxonomy matrix‟ Action for Take-up and Embedding To be maintained for at least 3 years beyond project end by UKCME Technology designed to be re-usable and also re-purposable Post-Project: The Future Project Team to ensure all deliverables are listed and/or included in both the project website and in JorumOpen; this together with appropriate archiving arrangements in place Identification of generic issues; technology independent Continuing use by project partners and by stakeholders Technical issues disseminated across wider HE communities To provide input for future projects working in this OER programme area Knowledge and experience gained disseminated through project website Promotion through conferences, mailing lists and Academy/JISC website To identify areas / encourage development of new resources in areas currently not populated in the Materials collection Further dissemination opportunities, including via Academy and JISCCETIS SIG meetings Learning transferred to other users across the Materials community Provide input for other projects working on OER-related issues 8 Reusability in other disciplines and learning communities 9.0 Budget e Directly Incurred Staff %JISC/HEA %Partners Non-Staff Travel and expenses Hardware / software Dissemination / meetings Evaluation Funds to address Institutional barriers to the release of resources Expenses to engage in Programme-level activities (at least 10 days) Consultancy: MELT Consultants: Portable interactive teaching packages Consultancy: David Brook: Training and SteelUniversity snapshots Consultancy: Cambridge Summer Student work Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% TOTAL £ TOTAL £ £9,000 £2,000 £3,000 £1,500 £10,000 £1,500 £10,000 £1,500 £2,080 £40,580 Directly Incurred Total (C) (A+B=C) £164,825 Directly Allocated TOTAL £ Estates Other Directly Allocated Total (D) 0% 100% £29,962 £ £58,087 Indirect Costs Indirect Costs from Heriot-Watt University Total Indirect Cost (E) 0% 57% 100% 43% £101,579 £11,720 £113,299 Total Project Cost (C+D+E) Amount of Funding Requested Institutional Contributions (Indirect Contribution) UKCME contribution to sustain resources for years 2 and 3 Institutional Contribution from Heriot-Watt University Matched funding from Consortium Partners £336,211 £174,827 0% 100% 100% GRAND TOTAL (C+D+E + Institutional Contributions) £446,282 Percentage Contributions over the life of the project JISC/HEA 39 % No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and estates charges, and staff included No FTEs 3.2 e Generic rates used (following University Guidance) 9 £20,000 £5,071 £85,000 Partners 61 % Total 100% Which Staff All Directly Incurred and Directly Allocated staff listed 10.0 Project Personnel The following are the ten staff of the Project Team, with details of their expertise and experience: Professor Peter Goodhew (PG) is Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Liverpool; Director of UKCME; Founder and Director of the MATTER software team, developed from a TLTP2 project; Author of six textbooks and several educational software packages; Fellow of the HEA; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and on Committee of Education & Training; Director of Learning and Teaching for the Dept of Engineering at Liverpool; Council Member of the CDIO consortium; Board member of the HEA; and active teacher still delivering innovative modules. Dr Tim Bullough (TB) is Senior Lecturer in Materials at the University of Liverpool. He has been an Academic Advisor to UKCME for the past 4 years, and Project Co-ordinator for the „National Subject Profile in Materials‟. He runs sessions at the annual New Materials Lecturers and PG Teachers events for UKCME. He was the first academic at Liverpool to use the University's VLE for large-scale formative assessments, and for managing PBL teaching activities in Materials developed in collaboration with MATTER. He received a University Teaching Fellowship for his VLE activities, and has won the University's Sir Alastair Pilkington prize for Teaching Innovation. Adam Mannis (AM) is Project Manager and Subject Adviser at UKCME. His experience is in management of change within HE institutions, student empowerment and engagement, the embedding of learning technologies, and employer engagement strategies. Prior to joining UKCME, he managed applied research projects involving consortia of European universities and industries, and also developed indicator-based evaluation frameworks for use in sustainable urban regeneration. Dr Diane Taktak (DT) BEng Mechanical Engineering, with PhD in Biomedical Engineering. She has experience of project management in academia and industry, with control of sizeable budgets and of staff. She has attended courses in project management and in the use of Microsoft Project, and has worked for UKCME since January 2007 with a key role in the National Subject Profile in Materials. Dr Tatiana Novoselova (TN) PhD in the physics of metals and materials science. She has more than 15 years HE work experience, through roles within research in materials science and software development. Her most recent position includes design, development, maintenance and promotion of interactive e-learning web-based software for materials science, engineering and related subjects. Beverley Gaskell (BG) holds a degree in Hispanic Studies. She spent 3.5 years working as Project Administrator before setting up her own translation and DTP company in 2003. Since September 2006 she has been Translations Co-ordinator for www.steeluniversity.org, an e-learning site for students, academics and industry. This role also involves contribution to the development and maintenance of the site, inclusive of dealing with related IPR and resource clearance issues. Johanna Kehusmaa (JK) BA in Business Studies and MSc in e-Business. She has several years experience managing commercial and educational websites, including the project management of design and technical development work, as well as marketing and content creation for the sites. She joined UKCME in 2003, and is responsible for the Centre‟s 2 websites and other IT-related projects. Susan Doyle (SD) BA Sociology and Social Policy, with many years in publishing and higher education administration. She joined the UKCME at its inception in January 2000, and then took on the role of Centre Manager in September 2005. She is responsible for the Centre‟s operational management, the production of printed resources, and the day-to-day management of its activities. Lisa Rogers (LR) [Heriot-Watt University, ICBL] has 3 years experience through various JISC projects in resource description, accessibility checking, preparation and placement of resources within appropriate “web 2.0” platforms and packaging of resources into JORUM. Dr Phil Barker (PB) [Heriot-Watt University, ICBL] has worked supporting the use, description and evaluation of computer-based learning resources for 15 years, working on various nationally funded initiatives and projects. Currently he works for JISC CETIS on metadata and digital repositories. 10 Professor Peter Goodhew UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool L69 3GH 25th February 2009 UKCME project to Academy/JISC ‘Open Educational Resources’ programme Dear professor Bradford College is keen to participate in the proposed Open Educational Resources project directed by the UKCME and I confirm our full support for this programme. We are fully convinced of the necessity for a subject-based project such as this; one which will create a ‘one-stop-shop’ repository containing a range of quality assured open access electronic resources. Bradford College agrees to contribute £10,000 (equiv.) of matched funding to the OER project. Our support will principally be in the form of staff time and expertise, with Richard Brown and his team within the Metallurgy and Materials Section of the College participating in the various project meetings and forums. They will also work closely with the UKCME to identify appropriate resources for open release. The College has a track record of creating innovative blended learning resources aimed at supporting distance education, particularly in the area of work-based learning. As a result, in addition to staff time we will contribute a unique set of electronic resources to the project, many created in partnership with industrial partners (most notably the international company Bodycote PLC). Through the active partnerships forged with the UKCME by Richard Brown and the Metallurgy and Materials team, the College has been instrumental in the development of a several pioneering Materials-based Foundation degrees. We are convinced that by furthering our links with the UKCME and other consortium partners, our contributions to this OER project will impact positively on and further shape College strategy in relation to open and distance education. A key benefit for us will be the legacy of innovative pedagogical approaches and materials this project will create and make available; and which will have a life far beyond the one-year timeframe of the project. In addition, there will be greater opportunities to highlight the value of further and higher education to under represented groups, particularly those in industry / the workplace. On behalf of the College, I wish you every success with this project. Yours sincerely David Smith Dean of Higher Education, Bradford College, Great Horton Road, Bradford. BD7 1AY Professor A Lindsay Greer Head of Department Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy Professor Peter J Goodhew, FREng UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GQ 27th February 2009 Dear Peter We are pleased that you are proposing to collate the teaching resources available in the Materials discipline and to encourage their wider use. We are happy to offer the materials we have developed here for open access by the community and are delighted that you are able to help us with the necessary work, including the issues associated with open access rights. We would therefore like to be partners in your OER bid. Participation in this pilot project will involve us in committing some resources, mainly the time of one or two of our staff. I estimate that the full economic cost of this commitment would be in the region of £10k and I can confirm that we would not seek to recover this from UKCME. I wish this project well. There are some excellent learning resources for Materials, available in many of the world’s universities. It is important that they be brought together, made accessible and used for the benefit of the whole community before they are lost or become outdated. Yours sincerely Lindsay Greer Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy University of Cambridge Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ Tel: +44 (0) 1223 334308 Fax: +44 (0) 1223 334567 Email: [email protected] www.msm.cam.ac.uk Christopher Hall MA DPhil DSc CEng FRSC FIM Professor of Materials Director [email protected] Centre for Materials Science and Engineering and School of Engineering College of Science and Engineering The University of Edinburgh The King’s Buildings Edinburgh EH9 3JL United Kingdom Professor Peter Goodhew UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool L69 3GH Tel +44 (0) 131 650 5679 Fax +44 (0) 131 667 3677 2nd March 2009 UKCME Bid – Academy/JISC ‘Open Educational Resources’ Programme The School of Engineering and Electronics at the University of Edinburgh is excited to be supporting your Open Educational Resources project, led by UKCME. If successful with funding from the Academy/JISC, we would be willing to commit part of the time of Dr Jane Blackford to the project. We would envisage this being equivalent to 1 or 2 days per month (approximately £5k), to contributing to meetings, to work with UKCME staff visiting the School and institution, and to explore issues of making our electronic teaching resources more open and accessible. Dr Blackford has already developed a range of e-learning resources and case study teaching materials, in collaboration with postgraduate students and through joint teaching funds from the institution and UKCME. This OER project would be a great way for her, along with colleagues in the School, to further our working relationship with UKCME; and in no small way potentially impact on institutional policy regarding issues of OER. We are delighted to partner this project, and wish you much success in the bid process. Yours sincerely Professor Christopher Hall Department of Materials Imperial College London South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6733 Fax: +44 (0)20 7594 6736 Email: [email protected] www.imperial.ac.uk/materials Bill Lee DPhil FIoM3 CSci CEng Feb 12th 2009 Head of Department Professor of Ceramics UKCME OER Bid Dear Peter Thank you very much for inviting us to take part in this proposal. The Materials department at Imperial College has undergone a very significant increase in manpower and resources in recent years. We have developed thematic areas such as bio-materials, nuclear materials and modelling and have brought in new staff to support the associated research and teaching. We have developed a lot of teaching materials/resources to support these new areas and have also introduced new teaching materials/resources into our traditional teaching areas. We are very pleased to share these materials and resources with our colleagues in the UK Materials educational community to assist in the teaching of our subject area and to optimise the learning experience for our students. Finding a time-efficient mechanism that facilitates the sharing of experience, techniques and resources is of course the ‘holy grail’ and we are delighted that you have proposed a project to develop a mechanism to do just that. We are therefore pleased to join you as a partner in your OER bid. We recognise that participation in this pilot project will involve us in committing some resources, mainly the time of one or two of our staff. If your bid is successful we are happy to commit part of Dr David McPhail’s time of around 2 to 3 days per month, equating to approximately £10K over a twelve month period and I can confirm that we would not seek to recover this from UKCME. We very much hope that this project is successful. Access to teaching and learning resources from other Materials departments will improve the quality of teaching of our staff and the quality of the learning experience of our students. We hope and believe that the resources we have developed and will share will be of benefit to colleagues in other departments. Yours sincerely Professor William E Lee Head of Department School of Materials The University of Manchester Grosvenor Street Manchester M1 7HS +44(0)161 306 9300 www.manchester.ac.uk Professor Peter Goodhew FREng UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool L69 3GH 18th February 2009 Dear Peter Academy/JISC ‘Open Educational Resources’ programme The School of Materials at The University of Manchester is excited to participate in this Open Educational Resources (OER) project being directed by UKCME. We feel that a collection of electronic resources, open to all in the subject, is a high priority in the promotion of Materials. To-date, there is no one source for the full range of curriculum resources within the subject. UKCME’s experience of e-learning and its links with multiple stakeholders, including the Higher Education Academy and JISC, will make this happen through this dedicated project. Critical to the proposed OER project will be the sustainability brought by UKCME to the open resources released. This is to be welcomed, along with the fact that the project is devoting adequate resources to issues of metadata and subject taxonomy for ease of user navigation. If the OER bid is successful, we would be willing to commit part of the time of three academics from the School; Professor Bob Cottis, Dr James Marrow and Mike Bailey. Their input to the project would be equivalent to 1 or 2 days per month each, approximating to £10,000 in matched funding support from us. They would be committed to participating in the development of the OER project in partnership with other consortium partners, and to securing the release of a variety of learning resources from across the School. They would also take part in visits from UKCME project staff, and would look at the processes involved in the institutional release of open access content / resources. Cont/ Professor R J Young School of Materials All three of these colleagues have participated in a variety of UK and European educational development projects focused on the Materials discipline, and have expertise in the development and use of computer-aided systems for learning and teaching. In addition, they have contributed to elearning strategies within HE, and to the development of distance learning applications to the teaching of curriculum areas, in particular corrosion science and applications, physical metallurgy, and textiles. We are delighted to take part in this project, and wish you every success in your bid. Yours sincerely Professor R J Young FREng Head of School Tel: 0161 306 3551 Fax: 0161 306 8877 [email protected] Professor R J Young School of Materials School Of Clinical Dentistry. Professor Peter Goodhew UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GH Dean of School 3 March 2009 Telephone: +44 (0) 114 271 7803 (PA to the Dean) Fax: +44 (0) 114 279 7050 Email: [email protected] Professor Paul M Speight BDS, PhD, FDSRCPS, FDSRCS(Edin), FDSRCS(Eng), FRCPath Claremont Crescent Sheffield S10 2TA Dear Professor Goodhew Academy/JISC ‘Open Educational Resources’ bid from UKCME The School of Clinical Dentistry is pleased to be involved in your UKCME bid for joint funding from Academy / JISC, under the call of Open Educational Resources. Given a successful outcome with the bid, we would be willing to commit part of the time of Dr Chris Stokes to the project. We would envisage this being equivalent to 1/2 days per month (approximately £5k), in participating to meetings of the project along with other consortium members, and to working with UKCME staff when they would visit us – to investigate the issues around sourcing and clearing colleagues’ electronic teaching resources for promotion in a more open and accessible form for use. Dr Stokes has a successful track record of online educational developments relating to dental and biological Materials, in the School and the University of Sheffield, and nationally through the WILeN project on web-based inter-professional learning environments. He has recently explored the use of Materials-based podcasts, images and videos, contributing to our new curriculum; such resources are used in courses in dentistry, medical sciences and tissue engineering across the institution. We would be willing to contribute these, along with other relevant resources from colleagues, to the population of biological related areas of the Materials repository of this OER project. Trust that the above has outlined our commitment to your forward-thinking OER project, and we wish you a successful outcome. Yours sincerely Professor Paul M Speight Dean 2 March 2009 Professor PJ Goodhew UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GH Dear Peter, Re: UKCME Bid, Open Educational Resources (OER) I am very pleased to lend the support of MeLT to the proposal by UKCME for funding under the HEFCE/Academy/JISC Open Educational Resources programnme. As you know, I have been closely involved in the development of the aluMATTER project since its inception by the European Aluminium Association in 2001. Since then, the site has grown to over 1000 pages, containing highly interactive learning resources covering many topics relating to aluminium science, processing and applications. At present, aluMATTER is only available via a live Internet connection. One of the most common requests, and one that to date we have been unable to satisfy, is that parts or all of the site be made available in an open and portable format, in order that teachers and trainers can embed individual learning resources within their own teaching materials. I firmly believe therefore that the proposed OER bid provides a unique opportunity to tackle both the technical and legal issues to allow the aluMATTER content to become open and portable for (re)use within the UK academic community. Yours sincerely, Andrew Green Director Materials E-Learning Technologies Ltd 30 Old Chester Road • Bebington • Wirral • UK • CH63 7LQ T: +44 (0)151 645 8756 • E: [email protected] Engineering Programme Professor Peter Goodhew UK Centre for Materials Education Brodie Tower Department of Engineering University of Liverpool L69 3GH Engineering Programme Faculty of Mathematics, Computing & Technology The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA UK + 44 (0)1908 653944 http://engineering.open.ac.uk [email protected] + 44 (0)1908 653858 27th February 2009 Dear Peter Re: UKCME bid to the Academy/JISC – ‘Open Educational Resources’ The Engineering Programme at The Open University, and Materials Engineering staff in particular, wish to lend our support to your Open Educational Resources (OER) project, led by UKCME. I understand the need for such a project was articulated very strongly at the meeting of consortium partners at UKCME offices on 12th February, attended by Mark Endean, my predecessor as Director of our Engineering Programme. Need has also been demonstrated in the Materials National Subject Profile which UKCME published last year with the Higher Education Academy, where attention was given to the unique Materials-based programme offerings from The Open University. Mark, who has an established reputation for developments in online learning and distance education in Materials, will be able to act as a Specialist Adviser to the OER project, representing this Programme and the institution. His main interests are in creating more effective learning experiences for students in the discipline. The track-record and expertise of the established open and distance learning community led by The Open University has much to contribute to the future success of subject specific education globally. Mark will be able to build on his links with the UKCME through his involvement in your Centre Advisory Board, by contributing in an advisory capacity to the OER project. He will be able to liaise with UKCME project staff and to bring to meetings of the consortium partners lessons learned and ongoing developments arising out of our institutional commitment to open education resources, a commitment exemplified by our OpenLearn website and its many learner community features such as MyLearningSpace. Such expertise and experience from OpenLearn could add considerable value to the innovative aspects of your Materials OER bid, and would greatly benefit the collective marketing of UK higher education, one of the main objectives of this call for proposals from the Academy / JISC. Wishing you every success in your OER bid. Yours sincerely Michael Hush Engineering Programme Director From: The Federation of European Materials Societies c/o The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining 1, Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5DB United Kingdom Tel: +44 20 7451 7336 Fax: +44 20 7839 2289 e-mail: [email protected] Prof. P.J. Goodhew FREng Director UK Centre for Materials Education 2nd Floor, Brodie Tower University of Liverpool Liverpool, L69 3GQ 6th February 2009 UKCME Application for Funding to HEA Dear Peter, As you know, the Member Societies of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) take a keen interest in the promotion of education in the Materials field, and this is one of the primary aims of FEMS itself. We were very pleased when you accepted our invitation last summer to give a talk to the FEMS Executive Committee about the activities and aims of the UKCME. Furthermore, your Symposium on Education at EUROMAT 2007 in Nuremburg was a great success and we’re expecting that the repeat event that you’ll be overseeing at EUROMAT 2009 in Glasgow will be even more successful. We’d also like to congratulate you on being selected to give one of the Plenary talks at EUROMAT 2009 – this is probably the first Plenary talk at a major conference which will cover Materials Education. We were, therefore, very pleased to hear that you are proposing to collate the teaching resources available in the Materials discipline and to encourage their wider use. We have real interest in helping European educators to improve the quality and value of the educational programs they offer. The work you are proposing appears to be very worthwhile. There are some excellent learning resources for Materials, available in many of the world’s universities. They should be assembled and made accessible to the whole Materials community before they are lost or become outdated. FEMS is therefore delighted to support your initiative in any way it can. Yours sincerely, Dr Paul McIntyre FEMS Secretary OFFICE OF THE FEMS GENERAL SECRETARIAT: THE INSTITUTE OF MATERIALS, MINERALS AND MINING, 1 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, LONDON SW1Y 5DB TEL: +44 20 7451 7336 FAX:+44 20 7839 2289 Prof. Witold Brostow, President c/o Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of North Texas P.O. Box 305310, Denton, TX 76203-5310, USA Tel. 1.940.565.3262 Fax 1.940.565.4824 http://www.unt.edu/ICME/ [email protected] February 3, 2009 Professor Peter Goodhew, FREng Department of Engineering University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GH United Kingdom via e-mail to [email protected] Dear Peter, we understand you are proposing to collate the teaching resources available in Materials Science and Engineering to enhance their use. As the main international body devoted to Materials Education, we have a great interest in helping educators in every country to improve the quality and value of the educational programs they offer. The work you are proposing will help this enormously and ICME is delighted to support your initiative. To be specific, we would be glad to provide you the complete Index of articles published in the Journal of Materials Education – as you know the only international journal devoted to Materials Education – starting with Volume 1 in 1979. Once your organization comes into being as we hope, with a search engine for sure, locating pertinent articles in J. Mater. Ed. will become easy and fast. With best regards, Witold Brostow, DSc, FRSC President of the Council Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Brussels
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