Learning Materials
Scran Learning Materials
Case Study
1. Author details
| Name: | Deborah Brunton Rob Barnes Hazel Coleman |
| Job title: | Lecturer, History of Medicine Software Designer, Learning and Teaching Solutions Editor |
| Institution: | Open University |
About the authors:
Deborah Brunton has taught history and history of medicine in various universities for 12 years. She researches into 19th c. public health. She has devised workshop training in basic IT for 1st year university students. Since joining the OU she has worked on building an interactive CD ROM which will form an important part of a new history of medicine course. Her IT skills are all self taught and therefore somewhat limited.
Rob Barnes has been developing educational software for over eight years. Firstly, at the University of Portsmouth where as part of a team, he helped to develop GeotechniCAL, a Site Investigation CAL package funded by the TLTP. He then worked at the University of Idaho developing laboratory simulations combining general course materials with video and 3D animations of laboratory procedures. Since joining the OU, Rob has developed numerous IT components for courses within the Faculty of Arts.
Hazel Coleman has worked as an editor of books, journals and learning materials for more than twenty years. Currently at the OU, she works as part of a course team, making sure that material supplied by several different authors fits coherently with the rest of the course and works well as a piece of distance-teaching material. Freelance for many years, she has worked on a wide variety of material for a range of clients, from editing literary fiction to creating science worksheets for primary schoolchildren. Her level of IT skills is quite high.
2. The materials
Two sets of interactive exercises, based around photographs and a short piece of text. They ate designed to teach students about using photographs as historical sources, and to explore the roles and work of nurses.
These materials were devised specifically for Scran. A slightly different version (probably with less emphasis on teaching students how to read photographs) will appear as part of the materials for a second-level university course.
Why did you want to create these materials?
To improve our expertise in developing CD ROM materials, to use Scran resources.
How will your materials benefit learners?
They will be an integral part of a course, teaching students not just about the history of nursing, but about the use of visual sources.
How will they improve on previous methods of teaching this topic?
They open up a whole new area of visual materials, and a new set of questions and issues within the history of medicine. Previously, students could only learn about hierarchies through secondary written sources, and the nurses role through primary and secondary written sources.
3. Creating the materials
- Selection of materials and drafting of text by Deborah Brunton.
- These edited by Hazel Coleman. OU colleagues also commented on the materials.
- These materials turned into software by Rob Barnes. Further scrutiny and revision by Deborah Brunton.
What tools did you use?
Director 8
What additional support did you need in creating the materials?
The materials were created by a combination of academic, computing and editorial staff working collaboratively.
What are the main skills required in creating materials like this?
Academic, computing and editorial.
Describe any difficulties you experienced and how you went about addressing them.
None.
What would you do differently next time?
Nothing.
What hints and tips would you offer to a colleague planning to create a similar resource?
Allow more time that you think you will need: devising ICT teaching materials takes much longer than standard paper-based materials.
