Best Practices

Bryn Mawr College will be hosting the second annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference on May 20-21. This conference was designed as an opportunity for faculty and instructional technology staff who are experimenting with blended learning to share resources, techniques, and findings -- with a particular focus on how blended learning might work in a liberal arts college setting. Our definition of "blended learning" is quite broad, encompassing in which: 1) students get feedback on their learning outside the classroom through computer-based materials or activities, and 2) the classroom component informs or alters how an instructor uses class time. Advance registration is required, the conference fee will be waived for affliliates of colleges that were partners on the NGLC Blended Learning grant study. See the conference website for more information or follow us on Twitter at #blendLAC. 

Educational clearinghouses with massive databases of resources provide access to different types of OERs covering multiple subjects and using multiple. This Blended Learning group is created to currate resources which we consider particularly useful for approaching specific problems, but there are thousands of other resources available. This post will direct instructors and students to two of the more comprehensive sites.

Resources covered:
OER Commons
Open.Michigan

OER Commons tracks down and currates resources which they consider to be the best OERs available. They currently have over 44,000 available. Their resources include labs and activities, video lectures, and readings. OER COmmons also features a section called "Teaching and Learning Strategies" which help instructors new to OERs how to find the right resources and implement them. In addition to some of the more complicated browsing structures, those looking for something in particular can search by subject areas, grade levels, and material types.

Blended and computer-based learning raises new questions, for many students and faculty, about intellectual property and data usage. Most institutions have their own, explicit copyright policies which spell out exactly what the institution considers to be acceptable and unacceptable use of material. For specific questions about what's allowed at your institution, consult that policy first. LINKwithlove also provides resources and facilitates discussion about creating and promoting best practices for dealing with intellectual property in digital platforms. This post will address the basic question: Does copyright apply to computer-based educational materials like tutorials, quizzes, and animations in my courses?

Generally speaking, current copyright law assumes that the author/creator of a work possesses an exclusive legal property right in that work from the moment of its creation, and the work cannot be bought, sold or traded without that author/creator's consent. Laws makes no distinction between materials created and/or published digitally and those created and/or published on paper. Computer software or code is among the forms of expression protected under US copyright law. However, you have a few options for incorporating computer-based materials into a course: