[Open-education] UK: Jorum retirement - OER "versus" open access

Tue Nov 3 12:24:58 UTC 2015

IMHO a very perceptive comment from Nancy Graham of LSE in the UK. The key part is 

“I’ve now shifted my focus from OER to Open Access and the difference in terms of supporting services (institutional repositories, research information systems) and funding is quite incredible. 
In HE the drivers behind having to upload outputs and engagement in openness in general are crucial and it’s always been a bit of a shame that OER doesn’t have that same level of push.”

Paul

Paul Bacsich
Coordinator, Open Education Working Group - http://education.okfn.org/blog/
Senior Consultant, SeroHE

From: Graham1,N 
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 11:57 AM
To: OPENEDSIG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK 
Subject: Re: Jorum retirement - Update

Hi Siobhan

Thanks for this comprehensive information and especially for the list of other platforms, that will be incredibly useful.  I’m going to ask that it’s linked to from the Information Literacy webpages on teaching resources.   

I was initially really saddened by the news of Jorum's retirement and have been reflecting on it ever since.   All the Jorum folk I’ve worked with over the years have been really dedicated and brilliant advocates of all things open.  

I'd just like to add a couple of points to the existing comments that I’ve seen on this list:

The UKOER projects (and Jorum’s role in those) over the past several years have had many really positive outcomes and for many institutions and individuals, there will have been positive changes, both big and small, to their open practice, so I hope this continues to be celebrated despite Jorum’s retirement.  For example, some HEIs now have OER policies (GCU, Leeds...) and many individual academics, librarians and other support staff will have a better grasp of CC licencing of their own material and where to go to find open material.  Certainly in the HE library sector there is a big demand for upskilling in this area.

Due to a change of role and institution I’ve now shifted my focus from OER to Open Access and the difference in terms of supporting services (institutional repositories, research information systems) and funding is quite incredible. In HE the drivers behind having to upload outputs and engagement in openness in general are crucial and it’s always been a bit of a shame that OER doesn’t have that same level of push.  However, recent discussions around a possible Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) make me think that we may be on the brink of a similar course of action for teaching outputs. We’re currently looking at our repositories and despite the learning object section being fairly dormant we’re very mindful that in future teaching materials may need to be hosted in order to scrutinised as part of assessment of teaching. 

In this context I think Jisc does need to be future proofing relevant services and harnessing expertise that we all might need in the event of a TEF. I know funding is always limited and we can’t have services in place ‘just in case’ but I hope that other services (like the Content and App store) are being developed with things like a TEF in mind.

Best wishes,

Nancy 

Nancy Graham

Research Support and Academic Liaison Manager

Academic Services Group |Library Services

London School of Economics and Political Science

10 Portugal Street, London WC2A 2HD

Tel: 020 7955 7946 | Email: n.graham1 at lse.ac.uk 

ORCiD: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-2510

From: Open Education Special Interest Group [mailto:OPENEDSIG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Siobhan Burke
Sent: 27 October 2015 13:20
To: OPENEDSIG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Jorum retirement - Update

(Apologies for cross-posting)

Dear Colleagues,

Since the retirement was first announced on 24th June, the Jorum team have been developing a plan of activities to ensure the successful retirement of the service and ensure that this is communicated to our users. This message forms part of that activity.

To ensure that ongoing communications are shared and available at any time, the team have created a new section on the Jorum website:

http://www.jorum.ac.uk/retirement/

Here you will find sections covering the main activities that the team will be focussing on up to the final retirement of the service:

·         Survey and assessment of alternative OER platforms

·         Jorum content audit and assessment

·         Jorum content migration

·         Archive and retire the Jorum service

The team has already begun work on these activities and the list of possible platforms is already available. We intend to support any of our depositors in retrieving their resources and we will make available support and guidance for this before the end of 2015. The other activities will be ongoing through the remainder of the 2015 – 16 academic year. 

Jorum content audit and assessment

Jorum has over 16,000 resources shared over its 13 year life span. But not all content will be suitable to continue for various reasons. Some of these have already been identified. For example, resources with weblinks will not be migrated due to the poor user experience when these links fail or no longer exist. However, we will want to continue to make available any resource that was shared as part of a Jisc-funded project, e.g. the UKOER projects.

The team have already begun to consider the content available in the Jorum repository and its suitability to migrate to Jisc’s new Content and App store. The team will be working alongside colleagues in Jisc Futures to ensure the best content is available from across our collections and subject areas. Once we have determined our criteria, they will be added to our website and communicated. This will determine the remaining content to assess. Due to the likely number of resources involved, we expect to require input from subject specialists and perhaps also from you, the community. We therefore welcome input to this process and recommendations for migrating any content to the Content and App store.

This work will be carried out up to and including April 2016.

Jorum content migration

Once suitable Jorum content is determined, the team will work with Jisc colleagues to make this available in the Jisc Content and App store. More information will be made available as developments occur.

Archive and retire the Jorum service

When the Jorum service is retired, there will no longer be a web presence of the service. Any content which is not transferred to the Jisc Content and App store will be available only on request from an offline archive.

Timeline

      Activity
     Detailed Activity
     Date Completed

      Survey & assess alternative platforms
     List now available
     October 2015

      Content audit & assessment
     ·         Content examined and analysed

      ·         Decision Framework produced

      ·         Advice available for retrieving existing content

      ·         Jorum content audited e.g. for currency; usability; etc. 

      December 2015

      April 2016

      Content migration
     ·         Engage with Jisc colleagues to determine content suitability

      ·         Content migration to Jisc Content and App Store 
     April 2016

      Archive & retire Jorum
     ·         Deposits will cease

      ·         Service archived & switched off

      September 2016

If you have any queries about any aspect of this message or our approach, then please do get in touch.

Best wishes,

Siobhán Burke

      Siobhán Burke
      OER Service Manager (Jorum & Hairdressing Training)

      T 0161 413 7522
      Skype @SiobhanBurke19
      Twitter SiobhanBurke19

      6th Floor, Churchgate House, 56 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6EU

      jisc.ac.uk 

      Jisc is a registered charity (number 1149740) and a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England under Company No. 5747339, VAT No. GB 882 5529 90. Jisc’s registered office is: One Castlepark, Tower Hill, Bristol, BS2 0JA. T 0203 697 5800. jisc.ac.uk

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