If we Build it, Will they Come?: Considerations for the Creation and Maintenance of Local Learning Object Repositories

Abstract

Over the past few years, libraries and institutions of higher education have created a significant quantity of digital learning content. From this wealth of instructional materials has come the need to consider the sustainable management and open sharing of these resources for long-term use and maintenance. In this poster, members of a cross departmental team who created and now maintain a local learning object repository will address experiences from the past 2.5 years of their work.

Core questions including:

• How do you scope a project plan for a learning object repository? • How do you determine acceptable format types? • How do you develop workflows for maintenance of learning objects that must be updated? • What are the licensing and intellectual property considerations for learning object repositories? • How can you engender and maintain positive, effective collaboration for large scale projects like learning object repositories that remain in an iterative state of development?

While the team initially intended to create a learning objects repository with a fluid timeline, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the team’s schedule to shift. The team rapidly created numerous online learning resources and housed them in the library’s online learning objects repository, dubbed OLOR for short. The OLOR provides open access, library-related “learning objects” for the UWaterloo academic community and anyone with an interest in accessing them.

This poster aims to highlight the: • Initial comparison of other university library online resources; • Scope of the content held within the repository; • Organizational model of the OLOR; • Lessons learned and implemented; • Ideas for future implementation.