Using Learning ObjectsMeta-Data in Education:

An Introduction to MERLOT

Barbra Bied SperlingManager of Technical Development, MERLOT

California State University, Office of the Chancellor

bsperling@calstate.edu

MEITAL 2009: The Open Knowledge World

7th Annual MEITAL National Conference

Presentation Outline

• Introduction to MERLOT

• Joining MERLOT

• Contributing Material

• Other services

MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

Structure of MERLOT• Staff (Cal State University)• 3 Full time (2 of these are Tech Team)• 3 Part time (including Executive

Director)• Project Directors (10% of time)• Represent Partners• Set direction of MERLOT

• Editors of Disciplines (25% of time)• Communities• Peer Review

• Editorial Board Members (10% of time)• Peer Review• MERLOT Projects

• Volunteers

MERLOT Supports Creative Commons

MERLOT strongly endorses and recommends Creative Commons

licensing to encourage the sharing and reuse of online

learning materials while protecting Members’ work from

misuse and abuse.

MERLOT gives faculty…

• A vision, direction and a process for the integration of instructional materials in hybrid, online and f2f courses• A formidable resource for professional

development• A mature collection of ready to use materials• Opportunities for collaboration with MERLOT

users and authors worldwide.

MERLOT Makes Faculty Work Easier

• One stop shopping to good material• An easy way to get hybrid and online

courses off and running• A great way to reach students where they

are at - online!!• A way to provide real-world, classroom-

tested materials just in time

MERLOT Repository

* October 1, 2009

Registered Members*– 74,468+ growing @ 1,000/month

Materials– 21,220– 2,798 ~ Peer Reviewed– 9,269 materials in “Personal

Collections”– 3,292 materials with member

comments

Usage~ 150,000 average unique visits per

month

Always find what’s new

© MERLOT 2008 Barbra Bied Sperling

Who Are You?

• How Many First Timers in MERLOT?•Who Knows What MERLOT Stands For?•Who Has Used MERLOT to Find Online Learning Materials?•Who Has Included MERLOT in Course Instruction?

Are you a member of Are you a member of MERLOT? MERLOT?

MERLOT Is Here For You To Use

Become a member (its free) Discover and Contribute learning materials

Create Personal CollectionsAdd AssignmentsWrite Comments

Why should you join MERLOT?Create personal collections

Contribute materials, comments, learning exercises

Develop a personal profile and create a CV

Share online expertise with others

Receive peer recognition

Become a guest speaker

Join an Editorial Board - Become a Peer Reviewer

Find others in a discipline

How do I join MERLOT?

We don’t require much information

All members identify affiliation when registering in MERLOT

Identify professional affiliationCurrent Use - Partner “Dashboard” analyses

Future Use – customized, institutional MERLOT home page

Affiliations Identification

Specify your affiliation when joining

Edit your affiliation in your profile

View partner affiliation participation

Once you join, you have a profile

I’m logged in, now what?

Updating your profileUpdating your profile

Update your profile

Want to change what you just added?

We will save these for a future presentation.

Update your profile

Find materials and Find materials and members in MERLOT members in MERLOT

Search and browse MERLOT

Search MERLOT Members

Federated Search

Federated Search - results

RSS Feeds in MERLOT

Any search can become an RSS feed

MERLOT Web Serviceshttp://www.merlot.org/merlot/signWebServicesForm.htm

Simple Search

Advanced Search

Contribute material

Register (Join)

LMS Partnerships

• Blackboard

• WebCT

• ANGEL Learning

• Desire2Learn

- Web services are server functions - not end-user functions

- A “client application” must be written as an end user front end

-Simple Search web service

MERLOT Web Services

- Advanced Search web service available to Partners, and for a fee

- Contribute web service and Join web service in Beta

MERLOT Advanced Search

It’s important to It’s important to share:share:

Contribute to MERLOTContribute to MERLOT

Contribute learning materials

All you need are a few details:

Enter a title and URL for the material Describe the material, material type,

audience and keywords (even include formatting with the text editor)

Identify the subject category and language(s)

Add author information Any extra information to help a user

including creative commons

The finished product! Detail view

Member commentsMember commentsand and

Learning ExercisesLearning Exercises

Add a comment or learning exercise

Member Comments

Learning Exercises (previously known as assignments)

Organize your Organize your materials:materials:

Personal CollectionsPersonal Collections

Personal Collections

How do I create a collection?

Where can I find personal collections?

Do you like someone else's collection?

And there’s still so And there’s still so much more to much more to

MERLOT…MERLOT…

Recognizing Your Efforts

Ribbons of recognition

Provides recognition for faculty capabilities and performance

Provides accountability for institutions

Provides academically acceptable mechanism/process that is motivational

How you get recognized in MERLOT

• Contribute materials

• Add comments

• Submit assignments

• Create personal collections

• Join the VSB

• Become a peer reviewer

• Author materials

Differences - MERLOT vs. Journal

• Evaluate teaching materials, not research articles.

• MERLOT has Peer Review Training

• Actual Peer Review appears on MERLOT site, so

can read what has been evaluated

• Write an appreciation letter at end of year

• Invitation to join Board with 5 reviews.

• Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire

MERLOT Editorial Discipline Boards

Organized like journal editorial board

• Editor (may be co-editor• Board Members• Associate Editors• Peer Reviewers

MERLOT Editorial Boards• Biology• Business• Chemistry• Criminal Justice• Engineering• English• Faculty Development• Fire Safety• Health Sciences• History• Information Technology• Library and Information

Services

• Math• Music• Physics• Psychology• Statistics• Teacher Education• Technical Allied Health• World Languages

• Agriculture• Communication Sciences• Professional Coaching

2 Stage Peer Review Process

• Triage• At least 2 Individual Reviewers complete

the review• Editor combines Review into Composite

Review• Composite Review is sent to Author for

approval• Once Author approves, post the Review

Current• Editorial Boards• Build the Collection• Build the Community• Peer Review (volunteers)

• Additional Services• Personal Collections• Virtual Speakers Bureau• JOLT• MERLOT Voices

MERLOT Editorial Boards

Editor

Associate Editor

Associate Editor

Associate Editor

Ad Hoc Reviewer

Ad Hoc Reviewer

Ad Hoc Reviewer

GRAPE Camp

• 3 weeks• Online• Homework• Workspace• Assign to Editorial Board• Mentored on first review

There is so much There is so much more to MERLOT … more to MERLOT …

Share a material with a friend

Report a broken link to us

MERLOT CommunitiesMERLOT Communities

MERLOT Communities

Discipline Community Portal

Teaching Commons – Partner Portal

MERLOT Online MERLOT Online Journal:Journal:

J O L TJ O L Thttp://jolt.merlot.orghttp://jolt.merlot.org

© MERLOT 2009 TechEd 2009 - Sorel Reisman67RIDING THE WAVES OF INNOVATION • cenic09.cenic.org

MERLOT Online MERLOT Online Newsletter:Newsletter:

The GrapevineThe Grapevinehttp://http://

grapevine.merlot.orggrapevine.merlot.org

© MERLOT 2009 TechEd 2009 - Sorel Reisman

Need Guest Experts? Need Guest Experts? Virtual Speakers Virtual Speakers Bureau can helpBureau can help

Find other Guest Experts that can

help you or become a VSB

member yourself

Virtual Speakers Bureau

Virtual Speakers Bureau profile

MERLOT’s MERLOT’s New Authoring Tool: New Authoring Tool:

Content BuilderContent Builder

MERLOT and Carnegie

• Carnegie Foundation KEEP Toolkit• Previous Use: MERLOT Snapshots• Snapshots are a type of learning material• Offered Toolkit as open source software• Carnegie service to end in October• MERLOT and Carnegie announce MERLOT

support of KEEP users• MERLOT to integrate/customize KEEP software

MERLOT

Content

Builder

There is so much There is so much more to MERLOT … more to MERLOT …

Directly Search Quickly search MERLOT’s 20,000+

higher education learning material repository

Simplifies learning material review for mobile users

Display Hit list titles with abbreviated

descriptions Easy to view materials without mobile

browser

Review Full MERLOT description in browser Quickly select important learning

materials

eMail Directly send learning material

information to yourself and/or colleagues for later use in teaching and learning

MERLOT Mobile Search

• Totally independent application• “Cosmetically” integrated w/MERLOT application• Hosted on commercial server site• Terms of Service usage are a supplement to

MERLOT Acceptable Use Agreement (AUP)• All forum posts fall under Creative Commons

License described in MERLOT AUP – non commercial, attribution, non derivative, share-alike

• Joining Voices requires separate “join”• Not required to be MERLOT registered member

MERLOT Voices

http://voices.merlot.org

www.youtube.com/MERLOTplace

Proprietary channel and URL No ads MERLOT-created playlists MERLOT’s video repository Visit MERLOTPlace at http://youtube.com/MERLOTPlace

MERLOT YouTube Channel

3-D MERLOT in Second Life

MERLOT 3-D Campus

2008 –MERLOT released CLIVE - Center for Learning in Virtual Environments - Partner Community Teaching Commons

Collaboration between MERLOT, U of Oregon Center for Advanced Technology in Education

CLIVE Portal

To put into practice, in VEs, what we preach

Chose Second Life as exemplarPartnered in development with MERLOT Corporate Partner, Sify Technologies

Announced MERLOT 3-D Campus at MIC 09

MERLOT 3-D Campus

The 3-D Campus

MERLOTIsn’t just about wine.

We have a huge harvest in our vineyard.Come and taste!

רבה תודה