JISC OER Networking Day

This whole day event was an opportunity for colleagues from a range of JISC funded projects to meet up and share experiences. Over 60 people came along from universities and institutions throughout the UK. Whilst we are all working on the same sort of things (Open Educational Resources), we don't often get a chance to get together and find out what everybody else is at.

It all seemed a bit daunting at times with poster sheets, coloured post it notes, floating tables and all sort of exercises to break the ice and get people talking. I wasn't too sure that my colleagues would have much interest in an online stash of anatomy exhibits ..... However, I found that there was a wide range of other projects which were perhaps not main streaming but nevertheless of great value to a niche audience.

The networking activities seemed to slow down as lunch approached. However by the afternoon we had reassembled into some more focussed workshop groups discussing the real issues we face about getting Senior Management buy in for OERs, problems of consent and where to keep all these resources.

My strongest impression was there seemed to be very little plans for long term sustainability once the JISC funding dries up. We discussed the possibility of developing new business models - something very close to the "heart" of OVAM but I think much more thought and attention is needed in this area by us all if the good work is to carry on.

Finally at these events one always comes away having met some interesting people. There was Zac from JISC Digital, Gillian and Susannah from MEDEV (RIP), Teresa for Cambridge and Paola of course from JISC.

Thanks to everybody for putting the event on ..... and the great lunch!

Other partners

As well as the schools which are partners in the museum there are also a number of other partners. These range from publishing houses such as Elsevier and Manson Publishing to the RCVS Trust to MEDEV. Over the last week we have been busy meeting with these partners.

We met with representatives from Elsevier to discuss what they will be able to contribute to the museum and how this in turn will benefit them as a publisher. A percentage of their material will be made available as Open Educational Resources (OER) in the OVAM with reciprocal links between the publisher site and the museum. Currently we are busy working together and selecting what the most appropriate material to include in the museum will be.

Clare Boulton from the RCVS trust has also been helping us to think about the best way to catalogue the material and categorise it in a sensible and user friendly manner, making it easily accessible via different routes via which users may enter the museum. As well as this Clare has also been helping us consider which historical anatomical resources may be appropriate for inclusion in the museum.

Delicious Bookmarks

As part of the process of collecting ideas for OVAM we are using a great site called Delicious (www.delicious.com) to bookmark relevant pages with ideas and interesting content. Once registered you can create a virtual 'stack' to which you can add links as and when you please. Each link can be tagged and described. Your stack then displays your description and a sample of text and an image if there are any and collates them onto one easily accessible page which you can easily refer to. This page is also viewable by other users of the site who may be interested in similar content or subject areas.

If you would like to see the OVAM stack with some of the things that we think are interesting go Online Veterinary Anatomy Museum: http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/MhdjUe

Mind Mapping the Museum

As we gather a more comprehensive idea of the resources available for the museum we are starting to brainstorm potential ways in which things can be organised in the most sensible, accessible and user friendly manner.

To help do this we have created some mindmaps to give a more visual idea of the structure of the museum. There will be a 'front door' to the museum where users can follow specific routes through selecting where they want to go but there will also be various 'back doors' to the content, allowing those users with a specific resource or topic in mind to reach the content directly.