1. Template Sections for completion:
Case Study Title:
U-NOW, University of Nottingham
Case Study Country:
UK
Type of organisation described by the case study, address of organisation,
hyperlink to organisation, hyperlink to case study source:
HE
http://unow.nottingham.ac.uk/
Case Study Contributed by:
Andreia Inamorato dos Santos
Sections 1-10
1. Mandatory - A brief summary of the institution to be used as a case study
About 500 words please on a description of the institution, its OER history
and approach.
The initiative aims to serve as a window onto the courses provided by the
University of Nottingham, and to increase learning opportunities for learners
who cannot undertake formal qualifications. It also aims to advance
pedagogy across the academic community. Open courseware is a term used
to describe collections of educational materials that are freely available on
the Web, often available for translating and repurposing. Funded by JISC.
The U-Now materials are licensed under the Creative Commons license
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike UK 2.0 Licence
(BY-NC-SA).
2. Quality – OER/OEP
How does the institution approach quality in OER? Is there any current
indication of a quality concept or process? Does the institution perceive
quality from the perspective of the quality of open educational resources or
the quality of open educational practice? How does the institution show
quality through OEP versus quality of OEP? What methods, concepts and
practices are used to enhance the quality of OEP?
Resources are offered in the form of PDF, Word documents, podcasts and ZIP
files, and are offered on a variety of subjects: history, physics, psychology,
business, mathematics, languages, film studies etc. Interoperability: These
materials are not IMS common cartridge compliant. Quality control remains a
responsibility of the academics.

2. 3. Innovation
How can OER/OEP innovate educational practices? What current innovative
practices are there in the institution? Please do not regard innovation from
just a technology perspective!
4. Policy
What are the current OER/OEP policy arrangements at institutional and
national level across Europe/the World?
In the case of Nottingham University it falls into the OER UK national initiative
funded by JISC.
5. Actors
What actors are involved in OER/OEP? Is there any evidence to show that
OER actors do not always promote OEP but “only” access to OER?
• Academics
• University decision makers
At the moment the initiative is promoting access, aiming for take up and
reuse.
6. Initiatives
What OER/OEP initiatives can be evidenced? Is there any evidence to show
that OER initiatives do not always promote OEP but “only” access to OER?
See above, number 5.
7. Open Educational Practices
Can you identify some case studies/ descriptions which form the illustrative
base for a more general model of OEP?
8. Tools and Repositories
What tools and repositories are being used to deliver OER/OEP? For example
GLOW, Connexions
Their own repository, which is not IMS common cartridge compliant.
9. Strategies
Can you identify any strategies for organisations to use OER/OEP? Can you
identify any business models that promote OER/OEP?
There is a strategy for academics to send in resources, but no apparent
strategy to promote use within the university. The repository seems to target
an external audience, but also aims advance pedagogy in the academic
community.
10. Current barriers and enablers

3. What are the barriers to the use of OER/OEP? Is there any evidence to how
these barriers have been overcome? What are the enablers to the use of OER/
OEP?