21.1 Educational development at otago polytechnic

Otago Polytechnic has adopted a Creative Commons Attribution copyright license and has been using the Wikieducator platform with other popular media sharing services to develop and publish Open Educational Resources and Practices . This article outlines some of the steps that the Polytechnic has taken, as well as some of the challenges being faced, and a vision for the future. It should be noted that this article has been written from the perspective of the author, and not necessarily from Otago Polytechnic as a whole.

This article has been written on the request of Ken Udas, editor of Terra Incognita a web journal by Penn State University .

A wiki version of this article is available here.

Contents

1. About Otago Polytechnic
2. The Educational Development Centre
3. Staff development, weblogging, digital literacy
4. Vision for staff blogging
5. A change in the Organisation’s Intellectual Property Policy and Practices
6. Working with Wikieducator
7. A Wikieducator development structure, page templates and staff development
8. Vision for content developed on Wikieducator
9. Risks and foreseeable issues
10. Conclusion

About otago polytechnic

The Otago Polytechnic is a public New Zealand tertiary education institute that graduates around 4500 students per year. It is centred in the city of Dunedin with campuses throughout the Southern (mostly rural) region of Otago including Cromwell, Wanaka and Queenstown, and supports a small number of Community Learning Centres in various regional towns.

Otago Polytechnic focuses on skills based, technical education and occupational training, offering a range of New Zealand accredited degrees, diplomas and certificates. ( Wikipedia 24 Nov 2007 )

The educational development centre

In 2006 Otago Polytechnic established an Educational Development Centre for staff development, online and flexible learning development, and research into educational development.

By mid 2006 the Polytechnic established a contestable fund for Departments and staff to apply for assistance in developing flexible learning opportunities in their courses, including skills and knowledge in teaching and/or facilitating flexible opportunities for learning and formal recognition. This fund is called the Flexible Learning Development Fund and is mediated by the Educational Development Centre (EDC).

By the end of 2006, 3 EDC Programme Developers were helping to manage around 20 course and programme development projects initiated by staff through the fund, as well as through research grants. The following article is an individual account of progress in this effort by one of the Programme Developers.