This case study looks at two mass-use open practice initiatives: iTunes U and the Open Educational Resources university (OERu) as investigated by SCORE research fellows Terese Bird and Gabi Witthaus of the University of Leicester. The projects were called SPIDER (Sharing Practice with ITunes U Digital Educational Resources) and TOUCANS (Testing the OER university Concept and Aspirations: a National Study) respectively.
SPIDER studied and described the iTunes U implementations of four universities – The Open University University of Nottingham University of Oxford and University of Leicester (which is preparing to launch iTunes U) – and investigated the use of open learning materials distributed by iTunes U. In TOUCANS baseline data about the OERu were gathered via web-based research and interviews with 14 representatives of the participating institutions. These data were then presented to stakeholders in the UK higher education (HE) sector via the blog and at conferences.
Both researchers maintained blogs and presented regularly at conferences throughout the projects and in this way elicited further discussion around the issues among colleagues in the open education community.
These case studies were created by SCORE (Support Centre for Open Resources in Education) fellows as part of the joint HEA / JISC Open Educational Resources study; pedagogical development from OER practice.
