e-Curator Projects

Some of our student e-curators have now started work on the OVAM project. They are tasked with speaking to academics at their schools and compiling a list of resources which could be used as part of the museum. Once an inventory of all the resources available has been completed some of the curators will then be going on to put these together into a presentation type project. This provides a good way of improving the usability of resources by combining them with other complimentary items on the same topic, essentially creating a more complete learning resource, which students can then use to revise and learn about the area which it covers.


So far some of the projects which are being undertaken include:
- A series of narrated presentations on the organisation of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems including written information, dissection images, histology photos and animated images.
- Translation of the interactive anatomy programs from the University of Murcia on the anatomy of the bird and the pig .
- An anatomical guide to the skeletal structure of the equine forelimb in the form of a presentation with extensively labeled photos identifying skeletal landmarks, additional information relating structure to function and self-assessment components.
- Labeling and addition of self-assessment to presentations detailing whole horse and ox dissections.

JISC at the RVC

Last week, Paola from JISC visited the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) to discuss progress of the OVAM project. We briefly talked about the recent activities, including the student e-curator weekend and meetings with the publishers. Overall everything seems to be under control so far but we would not want to speak too soon! Most of the resource collection work is yet to commence but we are sure that with so many enthusiastic individuals involved it will be a success.

At the RVC museum

Triggered by the discussion about the Programme event  in Birmingham Nick attended, we talked about how many of the RVC projects funded by JISC made following projects possible, links not always easily identified. It is wonderful how so many ideas that made it to fruition then led to other ideas and projects, often quite innovative. Even OVAM project is really a follow up of Opening Veterinary Access to Literature (OVAL) and has so many connections with another project RVC is also part of, PublishOER.

The visit would not have been complete without showing Paola the "real" veterinary museum, where she could put her hands on some specimen used in teaching.

Manson Publishing Meeting

Manson Publishing is another of the partners in the OVAM project. They will be contributing a percentage of content from their texts to the museum. Manson's were also involved in the previous JISC funded Opening Access to Veterinary Literature (OVAL) project where flashcards were created using questions from some of their books.

Nick and Bara met with Matt from Mansons to discuss the details of how we will work together for the museum. Some key anatomy texts were identified which have some fantastic images and diagrams in them. These contributions will be a very important addition to the museum and will be recognised in a similar way to the flashcards in the OVAL project with attribution to the contributor and a link to their website for those interested in purchasing the whole text.

The next step in the process is for us to carefully work through the texts and identify the parts we feel will be most valuable as a learning resource for students. This will not be an easy task as we are really spoilt for choice!

Visit to Animals Inside Out

The Natural History Museum has a new exhibition by the well known German anatomists Gunter von Hagen called Animals Inside Out. We went along yesterday to have a look at their examples of plastination and skeletal structures. The exhibition starts out with a number of stunning presentations of octopuses and sharks like the figurehead (not hammer head!) shark below. With special lighting this really is a stunning exhibit - worth visiting if just for this.

Image Link : http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1007/shark-slide_109325_1.jpg   

There are also a range of plastinated domestic species demonstrating structure such as the horses lower foot, cervical vertebra. As vets we were pretty sure that the positioning of the cervical vertebra was rather un natural and there seemed to be evidence of some quite severe spondylosis too. One interesting information panel described the only anatomical difference between a sheep and a goat - have a guess (answers on an email to wikimaster@wikivet.net). The real star piece in this section was the charging bull below - though it looked rather "plastic" to me!

Image Link : http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1007/bull-gallery-slide_109426_1.jpg 

Finally, the last room had some of the larger specimens including the giraffe and the famous elephant. These must have taken years to make and were particularly impressive because muscles had been teased apart to demonstrate vascular supplies and innervation. I had hope to see a few more display items (the skeletons were nothing special) and a few of the horse structures that von Hagens is so famous for - but still well worth the visit.

Image authorised for use by http://www.bodyworlds.com 

OVAM Weekend Workshop

Last weekend we held the OVAM Weekend Workshop for all of the e-Curators from partner vetschools in the project. Overall, eleven curators attended from Edinburgh, Liverpool, Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol, RVC, Dublin, Murcia, Utrecht and Bern making it a truly international weekend. We were delighted to have students from so many places.

Everybody arrived in London on Friday evening and had a relaxed evening to get to know each other a bit. The aim of the workshop was to act as a type of forum for discussion as well as the presentation of some concepts and ideas which the curators will need to consider for in their work. On Saturday and Sunday we covered a vast range of aspects about the museum, including the background to the project and how it will fit into WikiVet, the practicalities of different design ideas and how resources will be selected, as well as people's own experience of anatomy at their respective schools. We also had a look at an example of Asset Bank which we think will be the most appropriate platform to act as the 'stack' for storage of all the digital resources which will make up the museum. Licensing issues cropped up again, ensuring that all material is correctly licensed and released with all the necessary information is going to be paramount to the success of the project. The curators helped us brainstorm possible designs and navigation routes for the museum interface, ideas such as having a 'Google' type search box, favorites pages for academics to highlight resources they feel are particularly useful and drop down menus acting as filters were all useful suggestions.

Overall we hope that the weekend was useful and enjoyable for all the students that attended and provided a good opportunity for them to meet with their peers and clarify what will be required of them in their work over the following months. We are very grateful to have such enthusiastic students, who have already contributed lots of great ideas to the project, helping to ensure that this collaboration will result in a very exciting resource indeed!

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.