Summary

Individual projects generally found themselves as the experts within their institutions on OER release. Thus they lacked guidance and support from their institutions, but benefited from national services. JISC Legal was particularly mentioned as important, and IPR guidance at both national and institutional level appears the most needed support for ongoing work.

Projects have provided guidance and support materials themselves, generally aimed at other individual academics, or at learners. Here the range of topics is wider, covering legal, technical, and pedagogic guidance. Most of these materials are available from the project websites and linked from the new JISC OER Infokit

Detailed questions and evidence

What guidance and support needs to be offered (a) nationally (b) at institutional or even departmental level?

Support for staff releasing OERs needed at:

• National level: for IPR (openSpace) – UK frameworks or guidelines
• Institutional level: for IPR (EVOLUTION) – a handbook suggested; tools and technologies for easy OER production without technical skill (EVOLUTION)

Which support mechanisms are appropriate for different stakeholders?

Individual projects have been providing guidance and support for:

• Teaching staff in:
• downloading, reuse, and creation of new OERs via workshops (EVOLUTION; ChemistryFM), resource on project website (openSpace; EVOLUTION; ChemistryFM;);
• social networking for community building mainly via training videos (MMTV http://www.multimediatrainingvideos.com/studentvideos.html);
• legal issues including licensing via resource on project website (openSpace)
• Learners/users in:
• use of the OERs, via resource on project website (openSpace http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/how-guidance/oer-usage-guidance , http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/how-guidance/terms-use; ChemistryFM);
• repurposing (openSpace);
• use of tools (openSpace http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/how-guidance/equipment-and-software-youll-need; Java Breadboard http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/jbb/front-page/archive/documentation/user-guides/userguides; MMTVhttp://www.multimediatrainingvideos.com/studentvideos.html);
• technical manuals (Java Breadboard http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/jbb/front-page/archive/documentation/user-guides/userguides);
• guide to the materials (openSpace http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/ma-professional-writing/how-unit-works);
• academic behaviour (openSpace http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/how-guidance/netiquette , http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/how-guidance/plagiarism )
• Developers:
• technical manuals and information on website (Java Breadboard http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/jbb/front-page/archive/documentation/user-guides/userguides)

What forms of evaluation are most appropriate and how best can benefits be assessed?

For most individual projects evaluation has largely been subsumed into stakeholder engagement and ongoing development. This topic is discussed later under "Quality Issues" and "Stakeholder Engagement"