- Re-versioning existing resources using optical character recognition where they do not exist in digital form;
- Implementing the necessary processes for producing print-on-demand texts.
Technical expertise. This set of skills is tightly connected to the skills of materials design and development. Increasingly, resource-based learning strategies are harnessing a wide range of media and deployed in e-learning environments, facilitated by the ready availability of digitized, openly licensed educational content. This requires skills in:
- Advising institutions on the pros and cons of establishing their own repositories, as well as advice on other possible ways of sharing their OER;
- Creating stable, operational Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and content repositories;
- Supporting educators to develop courses within already operational or newly deployed VLEs;
- Developing computer-based multimedia and video materials.
Expertise in managing networks/consortia of people and institutions to work cooperatively on various teaching and learning improvement projects (including an ability to adapt to challenging environments – for example, power outages, physical discomfort, difficult personalities, institutional politics – and remain focused on the task at hand).
Monitoring and evaluation expertise to design and conduct formative evaluation processes, as well as longer-term summative evaluation and/or impact assessment activities that determine the extent to which use of open licensing has led to improvements in quality of teaching and learning, greater productivity, enhanced cost-effectiveness, and so on.
Expertise in curating and sharing OER effectively. This includes:
- Technical skills to develop and maintain web platforms to host OER online, as well as to share the content and meta-data with other web platforms;
- Ability to generate relevant and meaningful meta-data for OER;
- Knowledge of and the skills to deploy standardized global taxonomies for describing resources in different disciplines and domains;
- Website design and management skills to create online environments in which content can be easily discovered and downloaded.
Communication and research skills to be able to share information about OER, in the form of web updates, newsletters, brochures, case studies, research reports, and so on. This will include the full spectrum of skills required for such communication activities, from researching and documenting best practices, core concepts to graphic design and layout expertise.
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