OPAL case study 32: EVOLUTION project, University of Central Lancashire, UK

The education & Vocational Objects for Learning Using Technology in Open Networks (EVOLUTION) project is funded by HEFCE/JISC/HEA and facilitates access to a range of materials for the wider Higher Education and Further Education communities through an open access repository.

The project will review and update existing learning materials, check copyright, IPR and licensing, add appropriate metadata and repackage in a format suitable for uploading to JORUM OPEN.

The materials have been designed to be re-used and re-purposed and therefore the project will upload component parts, including raw data files, to allow repackaging of materials. These materials will be capable of being re-packaged using freely available software and guides will be produced to facilitate this.

The methodology for the creation and re-use of materials, designed and developed by the E-EVOLVE project, has also been adopted and the EVOLUTION project provides wider access to the methodology through guides and workshops as well as uploading all component parts of the learning packages into an open access repository to facilitate re-use.

The main objectives of EVOLUTION are to:

• Encourage re-use and re-purposing of a range of existing materials by providing guidance on re-use using freely available software.
• Review and update existing e-learning materials with metadata and use/re-use guidelines
• Make available new e-learning study skills materials
• Ensure all materials can be uploaded into JORUM OPEN, http://www.employability.org.uk/ and the UCLan repository
• Upload 50 learning packages and their component parts into the repositories
• Upload case studies, guides and related materials concerning use and re-use of materials to the open access repositories
• Provide opportunities to share design and development process with other JISC projects and the wider HE and FE community through peer evaluation and review