Effective Use of MERLOT:

An Overview

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

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.

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 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

© MERLOT 2008 Barbra Bied Sperling

Find materials in Find materials in MERLOT MERLOT

Search and browse MERLOT

Search MERLOT Members

Search MERLOT Materials

Federated Search

RSS Feeds in MERLOT

Any search can become an RSS feed

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

Organize your Organize your materials:materials:

Personal CollectionsPersonal Collections

How can Personal Collections be used?

Use Personal Collections to create topic lists for Academic Continuity All materials in MERLOT Basic courses in Business, Biology,

etc. Can be delivered totally online or as a

hybrid course We are seeking from our members,

the creation of more course topics for Academic Continuity

How do I create a collection?

Where can I find personal collections?

Personal Collections

Copy a collection as your own

Peer Review Process in MERLOT

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

• Editor (may be co-editor)• Board Members• Associate Editors• Peer Reviewers• Organized like journal editorial board• Build the Collection• Build the Community Peer Review

(volunteers)

MERLOT Editorial Boards

Editor

Associate Editor

Associate Editor

Associate Editor

Ad Hoc Reviewer

Ad Hoc Reviewer

Ad Hoc Reviewer

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

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

GRAPE Camp• Once a week for 3 weeks – meet online. • Homework• Workspace• Assign to Editorial Board• Mentored on first review

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

MERLOT’s new authoring MERLOT’s new authoring tool: Content Buildertool: Content 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 more to There is so much more to MERLOT … MERLOT …

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

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