LORO (Languages Open Resources Online):
Academic and stakeholder engagement
Anna Comas-Quinn
Lecturer in Spanish, The Open University
Educational Repository Exchange Community Start-up
meeting – Southampton, 2 September 2009
Languages at The Open University
• English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Welsh &
Chinese (beginners to final year undergraduate)
• Students: 7000+ language students
• Course developers: 50+ academics plus support
staff
• Teaching staff: 330 part-time tutors
Aims of the project
• 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 to the Language Box so that materials
deposited in LORO can be automatically shared more
widely through the Language Box.
Project outcomes
• 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.
Stakeholders
• Internal: teaching staff (tutors), staff tutors
(managers), course developers (academics and
managers), students, Faculty & University, technical
staff
• External: University of Southampton, language teacher
community, JISC & JISC community
Engaging academic stakeholders
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).
Engaging academic stakeholders
Tutors
• Keep informed (announcements, presentations at Staff
Development events, Newsletter)
• Environmental assessment (130 respondents to survey,
65 applicants to fill 33 places in focus group
discussions)
• 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.
Engaging external stakeholders
University of Southampton
• Providing a user test case (benefits realisation)
• Populating the Language Box
Language Teacher Community
• Increase attractiveness of Language Box (good
quality OU materials – iTunesU)
• Dissemination through tutors at their other institutions
Any questions?
Contact FELS-Repository@open.ac.uk
or
Anna Comas-Quinn
LORO Project Manager
A.Comas-Quinn@open.ac.uk