World War One Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings Evaluation Report

The collection of online open educational resources World War I Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings was evaluated for its relevance to teaching and learning in Higher Education, with special reference to the University of Oxford. The principal areas of investigation were: 1. The overall value to lecturers of World War I Centenary… as an assemblage of educational resources with a Creative Commons licence that permits educators and students to download, reuse, and share the materials according to their needs. 2. The extent to which the collections provide resources for teachers to reappraise the way in which the War is taught, through addressing themes that are relatively neglected in education. 3. The pedagogic value of digital resources created specifically for the collections: a) resources created from existing open materials, and b) short essays contributed by academic and non-academic experts published in the medium of a collaborative blog. The evaluation took place between July and September 2012. Two principal research methods were adopted: interviews with eight lecturers and one librarian at the University of Oxford, and a workshop with 17 participants comprising lecturers and graduate teaching assistants from Oxford and other universities, and educational outreach officers from organisations working in the field of World War I. The principal disciplines represented were history (various branches) and literature