ALT-C conference 2011

Thoughts for the OVAL group – Liz Mossop

I attended the ALT-C conference on behalf of OVAL and Wikivet, which was held in Leeds during September 2011. There were several themes of interest to us.

1.    Next steps with OER – this was a key area of discussion, and one of the best attended sessions was delivered by JISC. There was discussion about where OER will go next, what happens to institutions who don’t engage, and where we go when the money runs out. It was clear that some individuals feel that OER should never have been funded – i.e. institutions should have wanted to release material anyway. However, this appeared to be quite a short sighted view, as many presentations discussed JISC funded projects which had helped in some way – whether through direct funding or just by raising awareness. The consensus seemed to be that the projects have been necessary to get the concept going in the UK HE environment, but that it will not last much longer and we need to be looking at long term sustainability. I think we have already been applying much thought to this matter within the Wikivet steering group, and the OVAL project has realised the potential of working with publishers. We need to apply further thought to see where we go with this. We should aim to be a leader in this field and demonstrate that it is possible to produce a sustainable OER model.

2.    Learning through gaming – I thought this would mean technology, but actually there are several teams looking at more basic game based learning, often involving board games. I wondered whether a Wikivet board game could be produced to introduce new students to the usefulness of the site?

3.    Social networking – Anne Marie Cunningham, a GP in Cardiff, presented about developing a social media presence and the uses and pitfalls of this. She discussed developing a digital identity. This is going to be key for Wikivet as an organisation. We also need to think about our individual identities as members of the steering group, and how we use this to publicise Wikivet.

4.    Use of QR codes – again a prominent conference feature was the use of QR codes and smartphones. These can easily be produced to link to webpages via a simple scan. There may be applications of this to help promote Wikivet on posters, or a video of the month scenario.

5.    Copyright issues – this came up quite a lot, and one aspect I hadn’t considered previously was how you can safely create a resource with differing levels of C-C licenses. The Web2Rights group presented a really useful session on this issue and their powerpoint is here. We need to think about this as an issue for Wikivet and ensure we are sticking to the rules!