A first experience of applying the CORRE model to an existing piece of learning content has been really helpful for highlighting issues and changes that will need to be made to the materials before their release as an Open Educational Resource.

The learning resource in question is the fifth element of a Moodle unit on Academic Writing and comprises an Exe learning object on ‘How to Avoid Plagiarism’. The learning resource has 21 pages of content that include text, images, and multiple-choice questions.  The main CORRE elements that impact on the conversion of these learning materials will be:

Content

Screening

* Media and Format - The learning resource is currently offered as an Exe learning object. The University has recently moved to working with Xerte for the creation of this type of resource and so it may be rebuilt in this format.  The author and other members of the original project team are also considering the release of the Xerte project file so that end users can make any institution-specific amendments that would be useful in their context.

* Structure and Layout – In places the content is difficult to read because of font size, spacing and background colour.  If the resource is rebuilt this is likely to be taken into consideration.

* Language, Learning Design – On revisiting the resource the original author has already found elements of the text that he would like to rewrite before release as an OER, such as simplifying the text in some places to make it more accessible to a wider range of students.

Openness

Rights Clearance

* Copyright – there are a limited number of third party images in the resource with no signposting to their origin.  It was decided that it would be best to replace these with CC images and guidance will be given on where these might be sourced.

Transformation – Decoupling

* Numbering of the pages/elements is currently related to the fact that this is the fifth module of a wider course (e.g. 5.1.1) and will need amending to reflect the learning resource as a standalone object (e.g. 1.1.1).

* Text that currently refers back to other elements of the Academic Writing Moodle unit will need amending

* At one point the resource opens the student’s Journal Activity for the Moodle unit as a live window for the student to record their reflections – this approach will need revisiting if the resource is to be offered outside Moodle.

* On each page there is a link back to a Glossary of Terms in the overarching Moodle unit – the author has suggested that the terms relevant only to this Academic Writing module could be reproduced within the learning resource on a separate page towards the end so that this can be linked to from each page instead.

Something that came out quite strongly from our discussions around preparing this resource for release as an OER is the impact that the process can have on future quality and a drive for redevelopment that this can set in motion for an author.  The ‘breathing space’ between its initial creation and this reassessment point can provide an author with a more objective impression of a resource’s strengths, and can more clearly highlight those elements that might benefit from a rewrite or new approach.

And from the module author’s perspective…

‘The original team look forward to receiving guidance in ‘repurposing’ a single module taken from a suite of six modules designed for a single institution where the user group is well known. We are ‘testing the waters’ by using a small, fairly self-contained module to see whether we might ultimately repurpose the whole suite in a more sophisticated form as an OER.

As a writing academic, a learning developer and a professional writer, my involvement in the project has already highlighted personal challenges. On the one hand, I embrace the scholarly tradition of ‘intellectual knowledge’ and the creation of a web (network) of sourced and credited knowledge that is the hallmark of a discipline. On the other hand, there are the practicalities of creating and sharing educational material to as wide an audience as possible.  I look forward to seeing how this dichotomy plays out in the weeks ahead.’