Information pack for new OERTen members

OERu

Towards more affordable education for all students worldwide

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About the OER Tertiary Education Network (OERTen)

The OER Tertiary Education Network (OERTen) is an international innovation partnership of accredited universities, colleges and polytechnics collaborating on the implementation of the OER university concept.

The OERTen is coordinated by the OER Foundation, an independent educational charity that provides leadership, international networking and support for educators and educational institutions to achieve their objectives using open education approaches. The OERu and the WikiEducator network of educators are flagship international initiatives of the OER Foundation.

OERTen members are silver or gold contributing partners of the OER Foundation and participate in the decision-making for the implementation of the OERu initiative.

Purpose of this information pack

Aims

The purpose of this information pack is to: Help new members find relevant information and resources about the network and the OERu initiative Provide suggestions on the first steps your institution should take after joining the network Provide information on collaboration technologies used to facilitate the OERu network and how your institution and staff can participate.

Getting started

Content coming soon, should cover:

• Creating accounts on the different platforms
• Marketing -- press releases about membership and how the OER Foundation profiles organisational membership internationally
• International communication -- i.e. appraising management and staff about the project

Communication and collaboration technologies

The OER Foundation subscribes to a philosophy of “open philanthropy” which encourages transparency and international community collaboration. We use the following technologies to support communication and collaboration:

1. Public OER university discussion list
2. WikiEducator for collaborative planning and development of project documentation
3. Personal social media.

Details of collaboration technologies

Technology	Purpose	Details
OERu discussion group	The main community communication vehicle of the OERu for all major discussions. (Suggestions and discussions relating to the editing of specific planning documents should be posted on the relevant talk pages in the wiki. See below.)	This discussion list was established by participants of the inaugural meeting of the OER for assessment and credit for students project which established the foundations for the OERu concept. The list is hosted on Google Groups and membership continues to grow. As an open list anyone can apply to join. The OER Foundation will send an email invitation to key staff at your institution to join the OERu list. Anchor partners are encouraged to invite interested staff members at their institutions to join the list. The OER Foundation suggests that you nominate a representative from your institution to be allocated manager rights on the list. (Send the name and email address to wayne@oerfoundation.org). The OERu is a low-traffic list. The default setting is to receive an email notification for each post. However, list members are free to edit their membership settings regarding how they are notified or how they access the discussions. Members can also unsubscribe from the list by sending an email to: oeru+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. This is an open public list and the content of posts is not moderated. As a professional group, self-promotion and trolling with the intention to provoke emotional responses are not appropriate. Administrators and group managers reserve the right to remove objectionable material or unsubscribe members who do not adhere to accepted standards of professionalism. As a mechanism to avoid spam, prospective members are required to request an invitation to join. Initial posts from new members are “moderated” to confirm they are legitimate discussants.
WikiEducator	Project planning, collaborative development of OERu documentation and design, development and hosting of OERu learning materials.	We use the WikiEducator platform for: Collaborative planning and implementation of projects Open planning of meetings Design and development of OERs for use by the OERu Professional development and training.
Personal blogs	Publishing of individual perspectives and reflections about the OERu	We encourage individuals to blog about OERu developments. The OER Foundation harvests and publishes a blog feed of OERu related posts using #oeru on the portal page in WikiEducator. If individuals from your institution plan to blog about #oeru, we request that they register their blogs so that the OER Foundation can aggregate their OERu posts.
Microblogging	A stream of digital consciousness and ideas about the OERu. Micro bloggers should use the #oeru tag.	The OER Foundation recommends that the community use the identi.ca free microblog service for posting about #oeru because notes on this site are published under a default Creative Commons Attribution license. This facilitates legal reuse aligned with the OER philosophy. Due to open content licensing issues, the identi.ca site is the OER Foundation's preferred service for legally aggregating feeds from the #oeru timeline.

Important web links and resources

OERu homepage	Portal node of the OERu on WikiEducator. This is the open planning hub for the OERu concept. Planning documents are drafted and discussed in the wiki pending final decisions of the Management Committee of OERTen.
5 Things you should know about the OERu network plan	A short 2 page document which summarises the essence of the OERu network. Used for recruitment of anchor partners, internal communications and informing the international higher education community about the network.
OERu: Towards a logic model and plan for action	Detailed report documenting the context, problem and logic model for implementing the OERu.
International media and selected presentations	Archive of international media coverage and selected keynote presentations discussing the OERu.
Inaugural planning meeting for the OER for assessment and credit for students project	International planning meeting which was streamed internationally attracting +200 registered participants from 46 countries. Video recordings of the meeting highlights are available.