In the era of shared educational resources and increased open access publications, the use of Institutional Repositories is becoming more and more relevant. Whether course materials, textbooks, syllabi, video lectures and conferences, educational resources can be shared with a community of on-campus and off-campus students, and can be made available to a global audience as well. The potential of institutional repositories to help foster change within the academy is significant. Join us for a presentation and discussion of Otterbein’s Institutional Repository- Digital Commons @ Otterbein! You will learn and brainstorm with our peer faculty on how to make use of this tool to enhance teaching, learning and research.

1. Enhancing
Teaching,
Learning,
and Research
DIGITAL COMMONS @
OTTERBEIN

2.  Started with IR committee in 2012
 Bepress purchased in May 2014
 Officially launched in October 2014
 Early adopter among private, liberal arts schools
 Evolving project
 Current highlights include Doctoral papers, student
honors and distinction projects, master’s theses, SYE
student projects, faculty scholarship, events like
Leadership Hour, etc.
A LITTLE HISTORY

4.  An Institutional Repository meets the needs of the institution
 Archiving function:
 “Scholarly research, creative activity and other full-text learning resources
that merit enduring and archival value and permanent access” Western
Kentucky University
WHAT IS AN IR AND HOW DO WE USE IT?
IR Blackboard E-Portfolio
Permanent archive that can be used in
providing course content
Temporary course content X
Open Access X Partial Open Access
Discoverable by multiple means X Partially discoverable
Teacher & student driven Teacher driven Student driven
Stable content X X

5. THE VALUE OF AN IR IN TEACHING,
LEARNING AND RESEARCH
 Open textbooks, guides, or other archival course material
 Digital Collections
 Essential role in E-Learning
 Self-archiving faculty research
 Publishing undergraduate and graduate research
 Theses, dissertations, Honors and Capstone Projects
 Journals and creative projects
 Conference presentations
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Student Research Posters, Presentations and
Papers
IRs

6. Discoverability in search engines and
discovery layer
Departmental review
Student enrollment, retention and success
Ranking web of Universities
Other collections:
Digital stories
Photographs
Conference proceedings
Seminars
THE VALUE OF AN IR IN TEACHING,
LEARNING AND RESEARCH

7.  OPEN ACCESS Collections from University of
South Florida -- digitized textbooks
 Five Colleges of Ohio Digital Repository – This
Ohio consortium merged their digital
collections together into one repository
 Undergraduate Research Commons -- A
showcase of outstanding undergraduate
research
 Illinois Wesleyan – Examples of peer reviewed
undergraduate journals
 Bowdoin College – Archives image gallery and
more
WHAT ARE OTHER SCHOOLS DOING?

8. MSAH PROGRAM

9.  Required completion of Thesis or
Practicum project
 Thesis papers have always been
submitted - few thesis projects
 All students required to complete a
oral defense of project
 Spring 2015 - copy of oral
presentation submitted for practicum
 Future plans: video presentations for
posting
 Goals:
 1. Share students work
 2. Give other students ability to view
students works
GRADUATE STUDIES

10. SYE 4007 EXPERIMENT

11. We use the Commons within
a program?
Like SYE?
WHAT IF?

12. We think seriously about SYE’s SLOs,
particularly one we have trouble
meeting, measuring?
Goal 1: You will apply the knowledge, skills,
and values developed through your major and
general education to develop solutions to
meet contemporary challenges/problems.
SLO: You will prepare a learning legacy to
leave to future students.
WHAT IF?

13. We film SYE final group projects and upload
the videos and papers to the Commons?
WHAT IF?

14. You follow through on questions
Consultations
Meetings
Permissions
Forms
Logistics, logistics, logistics
WHAT IF?

15. Somehow, some way, everyone
works together to make it
happen?!
WHAT IF?

16. Make SYE more clear to future students and to
faculty; promote internally & externally
Actually does leaves a legacy: future students
can cite earlier projects, not go back to square
one
Encourages students to create more
professional products
Communicates interdisciplinary nature of
groups and student responses to contemporary
problems
Use as assessment tool
Use as recruitment tool
ADVANTAGES

17. Make abstract part of assignment
Make possible posting part of class, syllabus,
and assignment from beginning
Have students be responsible for uploading
Work more with students on public nature of
their work: formatting details, professional
touches, surface polish
LESSONS

18. Tension between exemplary and
representative (SYE asks students to quickly
learn something new & apply expertise &
skills from different disciplines to create
solutions to problems – their group projects
are not the work of individual disciplinary
specialists)
Work for SYE Advisory, faculty: best group
project in each class? best across all classes?
competition? how use for assessment?
CHALLENGES

19. How ensure quality of work, evaluate
before posting?
How is it funded?
Is there room on server for large quantity
of youtube videos?
CHALLENGES

20. OPPORTUNITIES

21. QUESTIONS?