Claire Rae, Glasgow Caledonian University
Our library team at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) are passionate about all things ‘open’ in education and research. We are enthusiastic about supporting our teaching colleagues in thinking about open educational practices (OEP), and the creation of open educational resources (OER). In the summer of 2024, we reviewed the OEP and OER support services we offer, and decided a refresh of services was required. The goal of our refresh was to provide information and guidance that complemented our existing edShare@GCU open educational resource repository service.
We undertook an ‘environmental scan’ of existing OER/OEP websites and the type of services provided by other higher education institutions. This enabled us to look at what others are doing in this area. After an extensive search, we narrowed down the material to the National Forum’s open educational resource, which we felt was exemplary and met our needs perfectly as to what we were planning to create. As a courtesy (as the content is openly licensed) and to outline our intentions before we reused any of the content, we approached the National Forum for permission.
In collaboration with the National Forum, we developed our series of webpages, based on their resource, to encourage open educational practices (OEP), and support the creation and use of open educational resources (OER). The content was repurposed to include reference to GCU’s existing services. There are four sections to the resource: Understanding open; Using OER; Creating OER, and Using OEP. Each section provides in depth information on each topic, and a list of additional resources that users may also find interesting and helpful. Our new open educational resources and practice section of the website is live and aimed at GCU staff, students, and anyone who may be interested in learning more about OER and OEP.
This experience has been an invaluable learning opportunity and an area of professional development for me. Having started with limited knowledge of OEP and OER, working with and reusing this National Forum resource has increased my awareness and knowledge across all aspects of open education. I had an idea of what open education was but the comprehensive information available has filled in many gaps. I didn’t appreciate the pivotal role that open education can play in lifelong learning and ensuring access for all. Being involved in this work has also enhanced my knowledge of the Content Management System (CMS) we use in the library. Reusing such extensive content provided an opportunity to use a wide range of web skills; upskilling while customising the content to suit our needs at GCU.
Our new resource and associated services have already been promoted through our social media accounts, and GCU staff and student communication channels.
The library plan to showcase our new resource at the upcoming internal GCU Learning and Teaching Conference. We hope these webpages will encourage OEP and OER creation, whilst also supplementing our existing open support services, including our edShare@GCU educational resource repository.
The support and encouragement provided by the National Forum’s OER and OEP development team has been very much appreciated. The reuse of their content and co-operation is a great example of the true spirit of open education.
The library team at GCU would love to hear from you. If you would like any further information on our open education (OER and OEP) support services, or the edShare@GCU repository, you can contact us at libraryresearch@gcu.ac.uk.
Featured Photo: Open is Welcoming by Alan Levine, licensed CC0 (Flickr)
