Give your collection a boost
To ensure that 107 higher education institutions make use of OERs and support this process, it is necessary to have a wide range of high-quality OERs as alternatives. Existing collections of OERs contribute to this, but are often not yet a good alternative to other (paid-for) educational resources. In addition, existing collections that are not currently available for (semi-)open publication can also contribute to this goal. In practice, the owners of these collections often encounter one of the following problems:
- The materials are not (re)used
- Collection is not promoted
- Collections age, making them less current and relevant
- Collection is not findable
- Administrator/owner does not have enough time to keep collections up to date and expand them
- The appearance of learning materials is not professional
With this scheme, we offer collection owners the opportunity to improve: boost the collection of digital educational resources. This will make them more findable, accessible and reusable.
The 11 collections participating in the scheme
As part of the Boost your collection scheme, we organised a Dragons’ Den (as known from TV) on Tuesday 26 November, in which collection owners looking for funding and support had the chance to pitch their needed collection “boost” to a panel of experts in the field of OERs. These 11 collections will receive a boost over the next six months.
Case Cracking Video’s – International Case Academy – Hogeschool Rotterdam
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences has a dream: to introduce as many students as possible to case-based education. The HR wants more mbo, hbo and wo (inter)national institutions to be able to use this method. There are already videos explaining the method, but that does not mean teachers can start using it right away. With the boost, the HR wants to make the video collection easier to find and more usable by creating a manual and webinar. The plan is to place the videos on the HR media site and in edusources, the platform for OERs.
SDGs (incl. IDGs) – Avans University of Applied Sciences
Avans University of Applied Sciences wants a boost for their collection of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) learning materials. Avans wants to openly share their 50 SDG learning materials with others via edusources. Furthermore, they find that instructors are uncertain about how to share OERs properly. Instructors need advice, for example on CC licensing. Applicants want to be able to better guarantee the quality of learning resources by regularly evaluating them for quality and topicality. And they seek cooperation to work towards a sustainable world and integrate sustainability into education. Contacts are already in place with the HAN, Fontys Universities of Applied Sciences, Radboud University, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Community Domain Applied Science – DAS Foundation
Ten universities of applied sciences with programmes in the natural sciences have, with help from SURF, created the online DAS Platform Open Educational Resources on which they now share 31 educational resources. They want to expand this to ensure, among other things: more variety in teaching methods; and intensified cooperation with the field. The applicants’ plan is for the 10 courses to openly share five new digital educational resources each. Student assistants will check sources and copyright with the help of the Copyright Information Point. The materials will be made findable through Edusources.
Virtual patients for clinical reasoning – Radboud UMC and Erasmus MC
Through medischonderwijs.nl, eight university medical centres now offer members access to 1,670 e-learnings with virtual patients. They want to migrate their collection to edusources because their website system is being phased out. They then want to simultaneously do a quality check, expand and update the cases, make the collection more findable and searchable through better metadata, and set up a true subject community. The aim is that soon all medical schools will participate, making this education cheaper for the institutions.
Sharestats – EUR, UvA, VU, UU
The UvA, VU, UU and EUR jointly developed Sharestats.nl in which they openly share 5,000 test questions in 2020. The aim is to reduce teachers’ workload and give students a chance to practice. The four universities want to expand the collection by having 3,600 test questions translated from Dutch into English. They also want to add instructional materials and make the website available for Ans (a test application) and Wooclap (an interaction tool). The website has been added to edusources, but is not yet found very well, so the subject community also wants to promote the website more.
https://github.com/ShareStats/itembank
https://www.sharestats.nl/
Prime Catalogue – TU Delft
At TU Delft, some sixty lecturers teach mathematics, who together produce learning materials of very high quality. The best learning materials are shared with a CC-by commercial licence on the platform Prime Catalogue. This platform has existed for ten years and ocenten and students at TU Delft use the catalogue extensively, but the platform would like to cooperate with other universities and build a subject community around Prime Catalogue. In this way, they can contribute to a better connection between mathematical knowledge and the requirements of technical courses. In addition, they want to expand the catalogue with materials that are not created by TU Delft, but are effective and fit well with existing offerings.
Nutritional Epidemiology – Wageningen University
The principles of epidemiology have not changed John Snow, the application in education has. The E-modules Nutrition and Health from this collection are teaching materials for 13 recognised courses in NL and BE, but can also be used in e.g. medicine courses and for training professionals from business and healthcare. The boost will be used to convert the existing modules into more user-friendly software, making future maintenance less labour-intensive. During the conversion, the look-and-feel will be modernised, some modules will receive a content update and copyright issues will be checked and resolved. Afterwards, the collection will be made openly accessible, e.g. on edusources.
3D print models – VU Amsterdam
In the Special Collections of the Vrije Universiteit are rare clay tablets and clay nails some 5,000 years old. These are interesting for history teaching and Object-Based Teaching & Learning (OBTL), for example, but too fragile to use. With 3D print models, they can. The VU wants to expand and refine the collection of print models of clay nails to give them both an educational content and quality boost. The applicants want more 3D scans made and of higher quality, for which they want to hire a company. They want to put the 3D scans on edusources where there are already some clay nail scans. The VU applicants also want to create a handbook on how to 3D print the scans.
https://edusources.nl/materials/3067a277-4f52-4893-afaf-c71032cb45a7/3d-print-modellen-vu
Vital soils for rural and urban areas – Saxion University of Applied Sciences – Lecture Platform Bodem Sturend
The collection on vital soils is relatively young and widely distributed. The Lectoren Platform Bodem Sturend wants to offer the existing collection open access via edusources to teachers and students for (further) training and education. So that the soil field has an easy reliable entry point for up-to-date soil knowledge. A lot of knowledge is collected at the five universities of applied sciences in the platform, but offering these results to teachers in a usable and findable way is a challenge. The soil network is large and close-knit, so the potential for open sharing and reuse is huge.
Information Literacy – Inholland and Wageningen University
Over 500 materials are now available in this collection. The subject community wants to use the boost to curate the current materials for correct metadata and timeliness, among other things. The future version of this collection will also continue to feel the boost by establishing and maintaining improved, possibly (semi)automatic, procedures for linking the materials to the taxonomy information literacy and metadata. This is necessary to enable and even encourage reuse of the OERs in the future.
Student support – Avans University of Applied Sciences
The Avans Student Guidance community already has a large collection of student guidance educational resources around ten themes. The plan is to make this collection more findable and usable both for teachers inside and outside Avans by also putting the collection on edusources. They also want to make the collection better known to students and lecturers. Finally, they want to set up a subject community student counselling as there is not yet one in edusources.
Assessment criteria Dragons’ Den
1. Impact on education
The proposal has an impact on the subject area and/or the end user.
2. Sustainability
The idea is sustainable and future-proof (collection remains relevant/usable).
3. (Re)use
The proposal contributes to improved (re)usability of the collection.
4. Feasibility
The idea is feasible within its duration and with the available resources. The cost-benefit ratio of the proposal is favourable.
Evaluation committee
Sylvia Moes (advisor open educational resources & innovation manager education at SURF/Npuls), Sjieuwke Dankert (project manager Open and Online Education at SURF) and Menno de Waal (leader Transformation Hub Digital Educational Resources at Npul and advisor educational innovation at ROC Graafschap College)
Panel Dragons’ Den
Pascal van der Kaa (programme manager Educational Innovation at ROC van Amsterdam and former expert on Open Educational Resources at Npuls), Jan-Bart de Vreede (domain manager Open Educational Resources and Metadata at Kennisnet), Bolinda Hoeksema (manager library information specialists at HU) and Stijn Bos (founder Project Tulip and doctor lecturer AMC)
Questions?
Questions about the Boost your collection scheme? Email leermaterialen@npuls.nl
Overview Boost your collection scheme
Objective
The aim of the Boost your collection scheme is to improve (= boost) existing collections of digital educational resources in secondary and higher education, so that the educational resources become more usable and reusable.
Which collections may participate?
Existing collections (with a collection owner) of digital educational resources of publicly funded Dutch educational institutions for mbo, hbo and wo.
Process Dragons’ Den
- During the Dragons’ Den, collection owners pitch how they want to boost their collection and what they need to do so. This can be a financial contribution and/or a contribution in the form of direct support from Npuls.
- After the pitch, the panel engages with the collection owner to clarify the boost and impact and possibly negotiate the necessary funding and support.
- The panel decides (not publicly) which pitches will be honoured and announces the result.
- By signing the Boost your collection agreement, those involved agree to implement the Boost your collection proposal and deliver the results.
Funding and support
- The panel decides during Dragons’ Den how much funding and/or support in the form of mentoring hours each collection will receive, depending on the pitch/support request.
- There is a maximum of 200,000 euros of incentive money to distribute in this scheme and support in the form of guidance hours from the Npuls transformation hub Digital Educational Resources.
- The panel can award a maximum of 50,000 euros per boost.
- Funding will be disbursed in 1 lump sum when honoured.
Systems
- Deployment of edusources, SURFsharekit and Wikiwijs Maken of Delen is advised. Possible licences + technical guidance for set-up can be part of the support. Npuls finances the licence costs if institutions have not claimed a licence fee in the past.
- Collection owners can also use other (storage) systems, as long as these can be accessed via standards (preferably OAI-PMH) and are metadata according to a suitable standard (preferably (NL)LOM). The institution itself must then supervise any conversion of educational resources technically (team edusources can advise on this).
Duration
The implementation of the boost within the institution runs from 1 December 2024 to 1 July 2025.
Support during the scheme
Depending on the content of the pitches, Npuls will design a guidance programme for participating collection owners after the Dragons’ Den.
Measuring and monitoring
Upon delivery of the results, an evaluation will take place to assess whether the agreed targets have been met.
Conditions
- This is a collection of existing educational resources.
The result of the boost contributes to the free reuse of the collection. - Per participating collection, there is a collection owner from a publicly funded Dutch educational institution for mbo, hbo and wo.
- Management of the collection lies within an organisation (e.g. an institution, sector group, professional community).
- The collections with educational resources in the (storage) systems used by collection owners can be accessed via standards (preferably OAI-PMH) and are metadata according to a suitable standard (preferably (NL)LOM).