Dawn Leeder

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RLO production life-cyclebenefits challenges

• Dawn Leeder
• Director, UCeL
• University of Cambridge

2 June 2005 University of Cambridge
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Format for presentation

• What is UCeL - Dawn Leeder
• background
• What are RLOs and how are they made - Dawn Leeder
• why do we need RLOs
• what are RLOs
• how do we make RLOs
• What are GLOs - Raquel Morales
• why do we need GLOs
• what are GLOs
• how do we make GLOs

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UCeL founded in 2002

• create RLOs for health professional education
• Focus on content creation
• content unlocked
• developed into RLO
• used and evaluated
• Multidisciplinary, distributed
• medicine, nursing, midwifery, health
• geographically distributed
• Subject areas
• statistics, research skills
• epidemiology
• anatomy physiology

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• Interactivity engages

browse investigate explore choose do
stop start watch listen
TEACHER-CENTRED
STUDENT-CENTERED
PASSIVE
ACTIVE
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• But!

browse investigate explore choose do
stop start watch listen
TEACHER-CENTRED
STUDENT-CENTERED
PASSIVE
ACTIVE
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NIH (not invented here)

• Resources are
• Small
• Mix and match
• Reusable

• Courses are
• Large
• Fixed
• All or nothing

SUBJECT SPECIFIC SUBJECT GENERAL
COURSES RESOURCES
INSTITUTION SPECIFIC INSTITUTION NEUTRAL
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So need to create reusable learning objects
(RLOs)
...but what are they?
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All learning objects are reusable
...but some are more reusable than others..
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What is a RLO?
media assets (aka information objects)
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What is a RLO?
media assets (aka information objects)
activity
assessment
links
based on a single learning objective
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Features of reusability
What features make RLOs reusable? What are the
desirable qualities of RLOs? Discuss in pairs -
5 minutes
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Features of reusability

• What features make RLOs reusable?
• What are the desirable qualities of RLOs?
• small, self-contained
• generalisable across courses, institutions
• engaging, interactive
• platform independent, easily accessible
• freely available
• difficult subject areas
• made collaboratively - ownership
• based on real need - inclusion/relevance

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7 step production life-cycle
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RLO production Step 1 Content creation
unlocking content content created by subject
expert using template - RLO specification
based on single learning objective contains
activity and assessment peer review - quality
assurance facilitated by UCeL content creation
workshops hands-on, one day workshops brainstorm
learning objective create content in
groups discuss and evaluate digitally archive
results
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RLO production Steps 2 5 peer review
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RLO production Steps 3 4 Development testing
RLO development content spec developed into
RLO distributed production (post-Fordism) media
ingredients assembled (images, audio, animations
etc) Macromedia suite - Dreamweaver, Director
Flash MX technical check - functionality peer
review - second stage facilitated by UCeL
residential developer training programme intensive
week-long course hot-house learning lab
environment get up to speed with templates, tools
and software share skills, tips and tricks RLOs
delivered to web
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Steps 6 7 Use and evaluation

• 29 questions to determine
• Baseline
• comfort with computers
• use of web
• Usability
• navigation
• control
• ease of use
• Look and feel
• aesthetics
• Content
• level
• appropriateness

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Conclusion
RLOs are powerful drivers for change But -
technology is NOT enough Need a community of
practice to ensure use, reuse and
sustainability RLOs constantly evolving,
becoming fitter for purpose