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Astles, Paul and Matthews, Catriona
(2023).
URL: https://altc.alt.ac.uk/oer23/
Abstract
At the Open University there is a very active, open access, blog. The blog is used to disseminate examples of best practice within learning design and share resources that are freely available to use, for all, on a creative commons license. This abstract is going to explore two themes in relation to our use of the blog. Theme 1, how we use the blog to create and develop a community of practice. Theme 2, how the blog is managed and updated to keep it current.
Creating and developing a community of practice related to the blog is a continuous task. Through discussions with colleagues and regular ‘calls for submissions’ we manage to collate and create a thriving community of interested parties who contribute to the blog. Cross-departmental and multi-author collaboration on these posts support multi-disciplinary understanding and breaks down silos of knowledge (Dunleavy, 2014). Outside of this ‘contributing community’ the blog has a diverse audience who may visit for a variety of reasons and understanding those is something that we must grapple with to maintain a flourishing network. One way we expand the blogs community is by sharing our blog on the team twitter account. This helps to drive discussion and reach a wider, cross-institutional audience. Many institutions transitioned towards learning at a distance during the pandemic and there is a growing bank of evidence related to the benefit of accessing high quality evidence-based resources and information to upskill and advantage the recipient (Taylor et.al, 2020).
Updating and maintaining the currency of the blog is vital to ensure that those accessing and using the open resources can be confident that they are in keeping with a current knowledge base. The blog site is not just a blog, but also a multi-faceted page with an evidence-based resource bank and archive of practice. It helps to promote an evidence-based approach to practice sharing and create opportunities for ‘collaborative knowledge construction’ (Korhonen et.al. 2019). Encouraging the reader to collaborate with their peers (Scoles, Christie and Morris, 2020) and develop their own thoughts is a vital tool to empowering them to develop, along with those they interact with. Each blog post contains an element of something that the reader can take away and use in their own practice. This may be something physical like a resource to use and adapt for their own context. It could be a way to reflect on a particular issue and develop discussions with their peers and the community of practice we are trying to foster. The community of practice therefore turns full circle and informs future contributions to the blog, supporting the evolution of the resources and ensuring the currency of information for those visiting the site.
In the presentation we will expand on the context of the blog and explore the benefits and challenges of creating a high quality, open blog in relation to the two themes introduced.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
