LORO (Languages Open Resources Online):
A Repository for the Department of Languages
Anna ComasQuinn & Hélène Pulker
Department of Languages, FELS
The Open University eLC Work in Progress event, 5 th November 2009

• April 2009 to June 2010 (key deadlines: October
2009 and January 2010)
• Collaborating with Southampton for the technical development
• JISC grant of £29,069, with a substantial part set aside for AL involvement

• To create an online repository, based on the Language
Box, that will allow course developers, tutors and staff tutors easy access to tutorial materials for all languages and levels.
• To link LORO (internal to the OU) to the Language Box so that materials deposited in LORO can be automatically shared more widely through the
Language Box.

• Users are able to access all materials for all levels and languages, and share their own materials with the user community.
• A cultural change in tutors’ practices and courseproduction systems.
• Dissemination to the language learning and education community

• Collections for beginners’ courses (starting in
November) already uploaded (see http://loro.eprints.org
)
• LORO OU ready for content to be migrated (see http://loro.open.ac.uk
). SAMS integrated so that users automatically have their own OU LORO account.

Course developers & staff tutors
• Ensure key decisions relating to LORO are backed
(and enforced) by Faculty and Department.
• Involve in project, demos, presentations & testing
(several members in the steering committee and all members of the project team).
• Keep them informed (announcements, updates, presentations, Newsletter, put LORO in the agenda of all key meetings).

Tutors
• Keep informed (announcements, presentations at Staff
Development events, Newsletter)
• Recruit project staff from pool of tutors (researcher, uploader/testers, peer supporters, trainers, etc.)
• At a later stage, involve tutors in dissemination activities at their other institutions.
• Environmental assessment

• Survey of current practices (course teams & staff tutors)
• Online survey to all tutors
• Focus groups
• Report of findings

• Tutor profile: ICT expertise and experience
• How they work with tutorial resources (finding, managing, storing, sharing)
• What they knew about repositories, attitudes, barriers and enablers to use.

• Invitation via email (purpose of language repository project)
• Online questionnaire
• 330 tutors
• 7 languages, including English

• 129 responses (anonymous)
• Across all languages
• 3 years or more experience at the OU
• Interest in taking part in focus groups

• 3 groups x 11 participants
• on Elluminate
• Minor payment

• Effective tool (time and geography)
• Self-selection
• Brief training
• Occasional sound problems and delay
• Rich discussion captured (oral and chat)
• Challenges (recordings, ethics)

• ICT expertise generally high (but low awareness of repositories)
• Tutors reuse resources (from course teams and the internet mainly)
• Resources are often modified
• Low level of sharing amongst tutors
• The idea of an online languages repository is very well received

• Professional development (feedback from colleagues)
• Time saving
• Authorship & showcasing your work
• Student support

• Quality and usefulness of resources
• System must work (search, browse, structure, file formats)
• Time consuming
• Lack of remuneration
• Reciprocity
• Recognition and authorship

Contact FELS-Repository@open.ac.uk
or
Anna Comas-Quinn
LORO Project Manager
A.Comas-Quinn@open.ac.uk