Beyond Research: OpenCourseWare in the

Institutional Repository

Heather Leary, Dr. Brett Shelton, Marion Jensen

Utah State University

What is an Institutional Repository?

• Collection of scholarly and intellectual

output from an institution

(usually a university or college)

• Collected and digitally accessible materials

Why is an IR important?

• Provides worldwide exposure of content

• Digital preservation

• All content of an institution in one place

• Accessible (open access)

Who has an Institutional Repository?

http://uspace.utah.edu/

http://lib.byu.edu/sites/scholarsarchive/

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/

http://dspace.mit.edu/

What platforms are there for an IR?

What will you find in an Institutional Repository?

• Journal articles• Books & Book chapters• Theses and dissertations• Conference proceedings• Grey literature• Data sets• Learning objects• Administrative documents

How does USU view an IR?

• (Try to) refer to it as DigitalCommons@USU

• Scholarship includes more than research: teaching materials

• More than USU faculty & staff output, digital hub for materials (discipline specific repository)

DigitalCommons@USU

• Launched early November 2008• Powered by The Berkeley Electronic Press• Includes over 3,800 items• Over 18,000 downloads• With downloads from over 100 countries

What will you find in DigitalCommons@USU

• Articles• Books• Book chapters• OpenCourseWare• Images• Research reports• Presentations• Videos• Journals• Author web pages

• Government documents• Subject specific

bibliographies• Graduate theses &

dissertations• Undergraduate honors

theses

• K12 teacher PD curriculum

• Conference proceedings

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu

Why USU chose to use bepress

• Hosted– They do all the technical work so we can focus on

content

• Support and willingness to listen to their customers for software additions

• Visibility through all sites and

Why USU chose to use bepress

• Journaling software - Edikit

• Selected Works sites (professional web pages)

• Conference options

• Reporting features– Build in reports– Google analytics

What is OpenCourseWare?

• Course Materials• Syllabi• Readings• Lecture notes• Tests/quizzes• Lectures (video, audio)• And more…

• Undergraduate and graduate level

• Available for free on the web

• Worldwide

• Can be full instruction, but doesn’t have to be

But OpenCourseWare…

• Does not provide access to university faculty

• Does not provide credit courses

• Does not include materials normally protected under “fair use”

Why is OpenCourseWare Important?

• Increases educational opportunities

• Serves the public

• Leading in fundamental changes utilizing the Web for education

• Parallel venture with IR & Digital Library, but for course content/teaching

• Allow students to see course content before signing up for classes

• Provide students open access to course content Increase faculty reputation

• Leave an academic legacy for others

• Make faculty work a pillar for others to build on

OpenCourseWare History

• Started at MIT in 2001• Today over 300 institutions have OCWs• Over 9,000 courses• More schools each year start OCWs at

their institution• Worldwide -

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/• USU has third largest OCW in USA

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OpenCourseWare History

CORE (China)Johns HopkinsMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyParisTechTufts UniversityUniversia (Spanish/Portuguese)University of Notre DameUtah State UniversityAnd many more (see ocwconsortium.org)

http://ocw.usu.edu

USU OCW

• USU OCW seen steady growth since it’s launch– 270 visitors per day (October 2006)to 1800 visitors per

day (today)– Over 3 million unique visitors to the site

• It has seen some press– Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, US News

and World Report, Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today

• Start of Educommons software– enPraxis (http://enpraxis.net/) now develops

Educommons

USU OCW Timeline

• 2004 - USU OCW launched with 7 courses• Initially funded by the Hewlett Foundation

• 2006 - Utah is first to have state wide support for OCW• Funded by 1-time monies from the state

legislature to create Utah OCW Alliance• 2007 - Utah OCW Alliance is launched (150

courses, 7 schools)QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.

USU OCW Timeline

• 2007 - USU passes 50 courses

• Today we have 80 courses in 20 depts. - With long term goal to support all USU courses• Third most visited site on usu.edu domain

Starting an OpenCourseWare: A Loose Pattern

pilot OCW site

find keyfaculty

3-5courses

policies &

standards

internal outreach

morecourses

additional

resources

OpenCourseWare and Digital Commons

• Saw a need to archive OCW

• Digital Commons@USU is more than just research– Want to include teaching content

• Other repositories archive their OCW

Why Archive OCW in the IR?

• Provides yet another way to discover OCW

• Provides different ways of searching OCW– Faculty name– Year– Title– Subject

Why Archive OCW in the IR?

• New avenue for showcasing the instructional side of the University

• Archives OCW for historical footprint (all versions)

Integration Steps: OCW to DC

• Fall 2008– Began talks with the Center for Open and Sustainable

Learning (COSL) at USU– Uploaded metadata with link to USU OCW

• Spring 2009– Moved link to metadata and uploaded a zipped folder of

the course

• Ideal situation– View the course online within the Digital Commons– Also provide a downloadable version of the course

Next steps with Integration

• Waiting for EduCommons upgrade for better output of the courses

• Working with bepress to provide online viewing of the courses– They have been wonderful to work with on talks and plans

on how to best provide for OCW in the Digital Commons– As said earlier, they listen to what their customers need

Why is this important to you and Libraries?

• Knowledge about OCW

• Knowledge about EduCommons

• Knowledge about bepress and other IR software platforms

What is our Library doing to archive and provide access to teaching materials at your

institution?

• Libraries play an important role in open education (allies for OCW)

• Does your library or institution have an IR and/or Institutional Repository? Find out!– Archive your OCW in your IR– Begin collaboration work to start an OCW– Spread the news about open access for scholarly

research and educational content

Action Points

Contact Information

• Brett Shelton - brett.shelton@usu.edu• Heather Leary - heather.leary@usu.edu

• USU OCW - http://ocw.usu.edu• DC@USU - http://digitalcommons.usu.edu• DC@USU Facebook - http://tiny.cc/SX9lq