Supporting the 'Sharing Institution' - Practical Steps Towards a More Open Teaching and Learning Culture

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-05-19 03:00 PM – 04:30 PMInstitutional repositories for research output have developed progressively over the last few years. Although a primary motivation is Open Access both institutional and academic needs must also be met in order to foster this spirit effectively. There is now a greater emphasis on creating a more open culture for teaching and learning and institutions are again beginning to play their part more readily. On a larger scale, there are pioneering global examples of courses being preserved and complex learning materials being deposited in national and international databases. But what does fostering a more open culture in the practice of teaching mean for the institution itself and its academics? The virtual learning environment has given greater opportunities for effective administration of courses but in other ways it has had the opposite effect on sharing and re-use. There is potential for institutional solutions which are complementary to the global landscape. In this paper we report on the practical experiences and issues met, in setting up a institutional resource, EdShare, as a vehicle for sharing educational materials more easily in a multi-disciplinary institution. With constructive feedback from faculty, within the EdSpace project, EdShare has migrated into a more visual, web 2.0 style, resource with a flexible deposit process promoting 'micro-sharing'. It now offers a range of sharing options to support the teaching workflow in an encouraging atmosphere. Other features will support the growing emphasis on multidisciplinary teaching and collaboration - both internally and externally.JIS