Abstract
Written heritage preservation is a complex field that requires a holistic approach reflected in the model of comprehensive written heritage preservation management. Model encompasses key issues through five key aspects, namely strategic and theoretical, economic and legal, educational, technical and operational and cultural and social aspect. Designing an OER in this field needs to include its complexity to present the content more efficiently and purposefully to the intended end-user. To be able to achieve that end goal, it is necessary to adapt the content for the online environment. Considering the concepts within the term preservation, authors propose the creation of the content framework that can facilitate and guide the effective creation of OERs in the field of written heritage preservation. Framework includes content areas derived from the key issues defined in each aspect of comprehensive written heritage preservation management model. These considerations combined with Bloom’s taxonomy result in a quality basis for selecting appropriate educational digital tools that enable the creation of an OER specific to the field of preservation.
Introduction
Written heritage preservation education has an important significance in educating information professionals in libraries, archives, and museums, i.e., LAM institutions. This community is faced with multiple challenges of selecting, collecting, processing, interpreting, preserving, evaluating, and presenting collections found in their care. It is possible to ascertain, even from this basic description, that preservation presents an integral part of all the activities performed in LAM institutions. Therefore, written heritage preservation is a complex field that requires a certain level of proficiency from information professionals. Disseminating the theoretical and practical knowledge to future information professionals and the staff of the LAM institutions, provides them with vital skills and knowledge necessary for performing everyday preservation activities. Including this knowledge in the curricula of future information professionals is equally important as providing the possibility for life-long learning through additional educational materials available to a broader audience. Today, the ever-changing technological environment allows for the use of new tools as a means of easily accessible educational materials – such as Open Educational Resources (OER). There are numerous platforms that offer various OERs as well as initiatives concerned with offering quality and long-term accessible OERs. DECriS Erasmus
Theoretical framework
To be able to create the OER specific for written heritage preservation education, it is necessary to understand the main concepts of preservation in general. The term preservation in a broad sense, includes administrative and personnel matters essential for preservation and collection care – including the material storage and preservation, personnel policies and procedures, techniques, and methods of preserving materials and the information they contain (Krtalić & Hasenay, 2011). This general definition outlines the main issues of consequence for efficient preservation in LAM institutions. Furthering the understanding of the term preservation, it is possible to contextualize it in different levels. Strategic level corresponds to activities planned on a national or international level which include planning and suggesting different projects and initiatives concerning preservation, and organization of preservation educational programmes. Technical level refers to the methods and techniques applied to preserve various materials and to the research of their possible deterioration factors. Lastly, the operational level includes activities performed daily, for example handling the collections, collection care, etc. (Hasenay et al., 2011). These levels allow for a more detailed comprehension of the complexity of the activities which fall under the umbrella of the term preservation. These activities require a holistic approach that needs to include effective preservation management. Authors Krtalić and Hasenay (2011) proposed the comprehensive written heritage preservation management model. It highlights the importance of harmonizing the preservation with the aspects in which a certain institution functions. The proposed comprehensive written heritage preservation management model includes five key aspects:
strategic and theoretical aspect which includes planning and development of preservation programs, plans and policies at the national and institutional level and modern theoretical knowledge about preservation economic and legal aspect includes managing available financial resources, finding additional resources that will enable preservation activities, monitoring, correction and implementation of laws and regulations, etc. educational aspect includes the training of staff for regular and specific preservation activities, the inclusion of knowledge on the preservation in the curricula of education of information professionals technical and operational aspect refers to monitoring the collection condition, storage conditions assessment material deterioration rate, etc. cultural and social aspect includes applying criteria for evaluation and selection of materials for storage and preservation, creating services with added value as a contribution to social development (Krtalić et al., 2011).
Abovementioned aspects show how preservation management should be organized and each one of them can be perceived as a first step in achieving the goal of effective and purposeful preservation management in all LAM institutions. This goal can be attained by the synergy of all key aspects. It is therefore important to assess the current context of an institution to be able to decide which of the key aspects is the proper first step in the preservation management process. This comprehensive model can become a basis for determining the knowledge or content base included into education curricula and various educational materials. Since preservation management is a complex field, educating future and current professionals in this field presents a challenge. It requires a broad perspective that encompasses all the above-described activities. Another challenge imposed by information and communication technology on education in general, and education in the field of preservation, is the use of new tools and online learning environments. It is necessary to be aware of the users’ different needs regarding online materials and their proficiency levels and skill sets, the content base, and its presentation. The answer to this challenge can be found in the increasingly popular OERs. Their availability and simplicity of use makes them a viable tool for preservation education.
Open educational resources
OERs can be simply defined as technology-enabled, freely available educational resources accessed by interested users whether they are teachers, students, or other interested parties for non-commercial purposes (Butcher et al., 2011; Pawlowski & Bick, 2012). There are multiple platforms and initiatives with the goals of providing access to sustainable and long-term accessible OERs. It is important to point out that they need to bear in mind the needs of the endusers, their different learning styles and levels of proficiency including the outcomes of the educational resources. It is also necessary to consider the granularity of OERs since they can be big and small meaning that there are numerous materials deemed an OER. OERs include different forms of educational resources that vary from learning resources or objects created specifically for educational purposes. They include multimedia or simulations, textbooks and articles, software tools, Open Educational Practices (OEP), instructional designs, curricula, lesson plans freely available sources that serve as accompaniment to some lessons or different openly and freely available resources (Pawlowski & Bick, 2012). One of the obvious characteristics of OERs, is that they are freely/openly available. This implies that anyone at any time can use them however they like. It is important to emphasize that they are not in the public domain because they are usually protected by an open license. One of the better-known and used open licenses is the Creative Commons which gives the authors of openly available materials the ability to share their work in a manner they see appropriate. This means they can allow the reuse or distribution, copying of the resources or changing them without asking for permission etc. (Butcher et al., 2011). Considering these open licenses and permissions they grant, Wiley (2014) proposes the 5R activities which would allow for the OERs and their content to remain open. These activities refer to the possibilities or permissions for the users to
retain – download, copy and own copies of the content reuse – use the content in different ways revise – adapt the content to users’ needs remix – combine the content with different open content redistribute – share the copies of original or remixed content) (Wiley, 2014; Green, 2017).
While creating an OER it is necessary to have in mind 5R activities because the content creators need to be aware of the end users and their possible needs to create a learning environment particular to them. While designing an OER the creators need to be aware of its different dimensions – digital and pedagogical. Digital dimension refers to the information and communication technology, its rapid evolution and changes it brings with it. Today, there are multiple ways in which end users can communicate, learn, create, recreate and share content. Their behaviour in an online environment is different than before and their learning strategies need to be taken into consideration. The impact of information and communication technology is also evident in the studentteacher communication, preparation of educational materials and educational methods facilitated by the newly available technologies. The pedagogical dimension of OERs is equally as important since it pertains to the OER content and educational methods used to enable the transfer of knowledge to the students. In this instance there is a shift from face-to-face teaching and learning to distance learning or resource-based teaching and learning (Butcher et al., 2011). Teachers are now the ones that select and create content intended for the students. This means that the process of selection and creation of educational materials can be more complex than the traditional ways of teaching and learning. It is expected that the students can achieve the intended learning outcomes through online educational materials. Considering the pedagogical dimension of OERs and the planned learning outcomes, it is possible to consider Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide for designing a specific OER enhanced by implementation of various online tools.
Bloom’s taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy established in 1956 relates to the cognitive domain of learning. It refers to information processing as it follows the process of thinking from Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). In this concept every step in the process of thinking was described by a noun – knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Knowledge represents the base for LOTS and evaluation is the highest ranked and infers HOTS. This taxonomy was revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl. The nouns are replaced by verbs that constitute the following six key elements:
remembering refers to retrieving the knowledge from long-term memory understanding refers to creating meaning from various messages applying means that it is possible to carry out a certain procedure analysing refers to the possibility of being able to break the material into smaller parts and to determine ways in which they are connected to each other and to the whole evaluating means that it is possible to make a judgment based on certain criteria creating refers to the process of combining elements to form a whole that is functional and to reorganizing different elements to create new patterns (Picciano, 2021).
The difference in this revised Bloom’s taxonomy is also in the fact that the activity of creating is valued higher than the activity of evaluating. Each of these key terms has accompanying verbs that can be used to create learning outcomes for each order of thinking skills (Picciano, 2021; Churches, 2008). In 2008 Andrew Churches updated the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy into Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. It includes not only the cognitive domain, but also cognitive elements accompanied by various methods and tools. Churches (2008) also updated the verbs that go with each of the six key elements of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to reflect the new technologies and tools. Some of the new digital verbs are uploading, sharing, editing, searching, bookmarking etc. Collaboration has been added as a new element, separated from six key elements and their belonging verbs since it is seen as a skill used to enhance the learning process.
Understanding the complexity of the field of preservation, concept of OERs and Bloom’s taxonomy provides a basis for creating a content framework for OER designed particularly for the field of written heritage preservation. It enables the presentation of educational materials for designated users. This also means that complex and simple concepts will be appropriately showcased thus avoiding, for example, simple presentation of complex issues and vice versa.
Designing the content framework
The proposed content framework is based on preservation content areas clustered around the Bloom’s taxonomy levels of thinking skills which correspond to the proficiency levels that the students need to achieve to gain knowledge in the field of preservation. The main challenge is to map the complex content in the field of written heritage preservation. Basic or fundamental proficiency level corresponds to the first two thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy i.e., remembering and understanding since it is connected to having fundamental knowledge of the concept of preservation. It is a solid base for upgrading the student’s knowledge levels as well as creating content. Intermediate proficiency level corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy thinking skills of applying and analysing. It is assumed that a student on an intermediate proficiency level already possesses fundamental knowledge in the field of preservation, hence the design of educational materials on this proficiency level will be more complex. Advanced proficiency level is the highest and it corresponds to highest levels of thinking skills in Bloom’s taxonomy – evaluating and creating. It is expected that the students on this proficiency level will be able to engage with more complex issues in the field of preservation. It is also assumed that they already possess the knowledge and the skills characteristic to the basic and intermediate proficiency levels (Fig. 1). It is necessary to take Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy into consideration because OERs as tools for education imply the use of new media, tools and technology to achieve their intended goal.
Preservation proficiency levels according to Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Keeping in mind the desired outcomes of OERs and the end users’ proficiency levels, creators of educational resources can be guided by Bloom’s taxonomy and its six key elements. These elements provide essential insight into creating the content for educational resources by gradually guiding the intended user through lessons or other educational materials (Picciano, 2021).
Bloom’s taxonomy can be combined with the comprehensive preservation management model, mainly with its five key aspects which detail the main preservation issues in LAM institutions. This provides the possibility of creating “knowledge/content base” for preservation education from which OERs can be created. Key aspects of the comprehensive written heritage preservation model can be analysed in more detail to gain insight into issues that fall under each aspect. This creates a possibility of detailing the field of preservation and preparing the content for implementation into an OER using the adequate educational methods and tools to achieve a quality OER in the field of preservation. Following sections detail the key issues in each aspect of the comprehensive written heritage preservation model.
Strategic and theoretical aspect includes five key issues: context in which the institution operates, planning and development of preservation programs, preservation policy, institution comparation “benchmarking” and theoretical framework of the issue.
Context in which the institution operates requires Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of understanding and analysing. It concerns the national and institutional level in which the institution operates, the mission and the vision of the institution, organization of preservation on the national level, (non)existence of national preservation strategies and the way it influences the institution.
Key verbs in this issue are interpreting, classifying, comparing, exemplifying, characterizing, structuring, and connecting. Planning and development of preservation programs is an issue that coincides with Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of understanding, applying, and creating since it is required to be able to explain and exemplify the basic concepts of preservation planning, to apply knowledge and skills to design and perform a preservation program.
Key verbs in this issue are explaining, exemplifying, applying, using, performing, designing, devising, and making. Preservation policy of a certain institution regulates the way in which collection preservation will be conducted and is an important part of every LAM institution. This issue requires Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of remembering, applying, and creating since it is vital to recall previous knowledge in the field of preservation to be able to describe and identify the key elements of a preservation policy. It is also required to be able to apply previous and current knowledge in the field to create a preservation policy corresponding to the requirements of a particular institution.
Key verbs in this issue are describing, identifying, applying, creating, and making. Institution comparation, “benchmarking” is a way in which a certain institution can assess the way it conducts the process of preservation in relation to other institution that can serve as a good example. It corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of understanding, analysing, and evaluating since it requires comparing two concepts or ways of operating and being able to criticize and judge the obtained results.
Key verbs in this issue are comparing, characterizing, judging and testing. Theoretical framework of the issue includes the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of remembering, understanding, and analysing. It is necessary to be able to identify relevant knowledge and literature in the field of preservation and how it can be applied to the institution.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, naming, locating, finding, interpreting, concluding, recounting, classifying, comparing, structuring, and connecting.
Economic and legal aspect
Economic and legal aspect includes five key issues: financial management, finding additional financial resources, monitoring legal documents and copyright, implementation of legal documents and changing of legal documents.
Financial resources management is a complex issue which corresponds to mid- and higher-level elements of Bloom’s Taxonomy i.e., applying, analysing and evaluating. It concerns the application of general procedures of financial management to financing preservation activities, structuring the available financial resources, overseeing the costs and the financial management process as a whole, etc.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, using, comparing, structuring, connecting, judging, and overseeing. Finding additional financial resources is an issue in the economic and legal aspect which corresponds to the elements of Bloom’s Taxonomy situated in mid- and higher-level as the previous issue, namely applying, analysing, and evaluating. It requires the abilities to discern the possible financial resource used to finance preservation activities.
Key verbs in this issue are carrying out, performing, judging, discovering, planning, and devising. Monitoring legal documents and copyright concerns the legal context of the institution and its preservation activities. It corresponds to the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy i.e., remembering. It is not a complex issue since it requires the abilities of recalling the key concepts in the field of preservation in accordance with the legal context, recognizing the legal documents applicable to the institution.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, listing, identifying, recalling, naming, locating, and finding. Implementation of legal documents is a more complex issue in the economic and legal aspect since it corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of applying and evaluating It is required to able to evaluate legal context regarding the institution, applying the laws, regulations and various standards to preservation activities conducted in the institution.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, using, verifying, monitoring, and testing. Changing legal documents is an issue that corresponds to Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of evaluating and creating. It is deemed complex since it requires judging and criticizing the legal context of the institution on a national and institutional level making decisions for changes and the reasons why change is necessary.
Key verbs in this issue are criticizing, judging, discovering, planning, devising, and making.
Educational aspect
Educational aspect can be parsed into five key issues: defining preservation knowledge corpus, inclusion of knowledge in formal education, staff training and education, user education and production of educational materials.
Defining preservation knowledge corpus is a complex issue in the educational aspect since it refers to discerning what knowledge and literature is considered fundamental in the field of preservation and which knowledge is considered more advanced or more specific. It concerns identification of key concepts of preservation, knowledge and skills needed for collection care, etc.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, naming, interpreting, concluding, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying, characterizing, sketching, structuring, connecting, checking, criticizing, judging, discovering, designing, devising, and making. Inclusion of knowledge in formal education is an issue that implies the importance of including the knowledge of preservation in the formal education of future information professionals. It is necessary to present the key concepts of preservation as well as being able to evaluate the existing preservation education. This issue corresponds to Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of applying and evaluation.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, using, executing, performing, testing, and monitoring. Staff training and education is an issue that deals with the level of knowledge that the staff of LAM institutions already possesses in the field of preservation and the ways in which their knowledge can be enhanced. It is necessary to be able to assess the level of knowledge of handling and storage of materials, everyday activities that include preservation activities and planning educational activities that allow for better understanding of the preservation importance. This issue corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of applying and creating.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, performing, planning, devising, and making. User Education is an issue that includes determining how users perceive preservation and do they possess the knowledge of proper handling of collection. It is necessary for the staff to be able to transfer that knowledge to their users through organizing various educational activities or educational materials. This issue corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of applying, analysing, and creating.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, performing, organizing, sketching, structuring, planning, devising, and making. Production of educational materials is a vital issue that concerns already available educational materials and their assessment, designing new educational materials intended for users and staff of LAM institutions. This issue corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of analysing and creating.
Key verbs in this issue are organizing, sketch, structure, design, devising, and making.
Technical and operational aspect
Technical and operational aspect includes six key issues: defining, monitoring and regulation of microclimate conditions, collection condition assessment, organizing preservation management, material storage and handling, application of (specific) preservation methods and techniques, risk, management and disaster preparedness.
Defining, monitoring and regulation of microclimate conditions is one of the more complex issues in the material and operational aspect since it implies a multitude of abilities and knowledge. It is necessary to be able to use previously learned knowledge about the optimal storage conditions of various materials and the proper ways of monitoring the microclimate conditions. It is required to be able to draw conclusions from data obtained during the process of monitoring the conditions, giving recommendations and planning appropriate actions to ensure the stability of the storage environment. This issue encompasses all the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, listing, describing, interpreting, concluding, explaining, applying, executing, comparing, organizing, experimenting, judging, testing, monitoring, designing, constructing, planning, devising, and making. Collection condition assessment is also one of the most complex issues in this aspect since it requires recalling the knowledge necessary for understanding the materials from which the collections are made, and methods used to assess the collection condition. It is necessary to be able to apply the learned knowledge to apply appropriate assessment methods which will yield useful results. Based on these results, it is required to be able to create and plan further activities that ensure the proper storage and handling of the collection. This issue corresponds to all six of Bloom’s Taxonomy elements.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, naming, locating, finding, interpreting, concluding, classifying, comparing, applying, using, executing, performing, organizing, characterizing, structuring, connecting, checking, judging, testing, monitoring, designing, planning, devising, and making. Organizing preservation management is recognized as a more complex issue that includes various elements such as organizing preservation activities according to the institutional needs, monitoring and evaluating preservation activities already performed, determining responsibility for the preservation etc. It corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of remembering, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating.
Key verbs in this issue are listing, describing, identifying, applying, using, performing, organizing, structuring, connecting, criticizing, judging, monitoring, planning, and devising. Material storage and handling is an issue in the material and operational aspect that concerns the activities of preservation in everyday collection handling and storage. It corresponds to the Bloom’s taxonomy element of applying since it is a practical issue in which it is necessary to be able to apply and use the knowledge in everyday activities.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, using, and doing. Application of (specific) preservation methods and techniques is a specific issue and it corresponds to Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of remembering, applying and creating. It concerns recognizing the appropriate methods and techniques applied in the processes of conservation and restoration, applying these methods and designing new methods.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, identifying, finding, applying, using, doing, designing, planning, devising, and making. Risk management and disaster preparedness concerns unexpected situations that can affect the institutions, collections, staff, and the users. Therefore, it includes multitude of abilities that enable the institution to be prepared for unexpected events. It is necessary to be able to identify the surroundings in which the building is situated, local weather characteristics, possible threats such as traffic, pollution, thieves etc. and plan accordingly to avoid and lessen the possible risks. The institution needs to have a well devised plan for disaster preparedness to avoid potential damages to the users, staff, and collections. The activities in this issue are in accordance with Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of remembering, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, identifying, naming, locating, applying, using, comparing, organizing, connecting, hypothesizing, judging, discovering, monitoring, planning, discovering, and making.
Cultural and social aspect
Cultural and social aspect includes five key issues: selection and preservation, valuation of services, creating and offering new services, valuating preservation, raising awareness of importance of preservation.
Selection and preservation is the most complex issue in the cultural and social aspect since it deals with the criteria for selection for preservation. It is imperative to have such criteria because this is the way of preserving collections which have certain values in the institutional, local, national, and international context. This issue encompasses the whole Bloom’s Taxonomy from understanding to creating since it is necessary to recall key concepts in preservation, understand the context in which the criteria will be made, apply the criteria to the collection, analyse the existing criteria, evaluate them and in the end create a set of criteria.
Key verbs in this issue are recognizing, describing, locating, finding, classifying, comparing, applying, organizing, characterizing, judging, planning, and devising. Valuing services is an issue that corresponds to the following elements of Bloom’s Taxonomy – understanding, analysing, and evaluating. The lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is intended for the activities needed to understand the context of current services and their success in enriching the designated community of a certain institution. Higher level elements are necessary for research of the designated communities’ satisfaction with existing services, analysing the results, and evaluating the services.
Key verbs in this issue are classifying, comparing, organizing, connecting, judging, testing, and monitoring. Creating and offering new services is an issue that requires the elements of applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating situated in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This indicates a more complex issue that includes applying already known facts derived from valuing existing services to creating new services which enrich the user experience and contribute to the social development on the local, national, or international level.
Key verbs in this issue are using, structuring, connecting, testing, discovering, monitoring, designing, planning, devising, and making. Valuing preservation is recognized as one of the key issues in cultural and social aspect since the preservation process adds value to the collections. It is important to recognize the value that collections have, differentiate between various values, to determine the importance of preservation for the society in the local, national, and even international context. It is a complex issue that corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of understanding, applying and evaluating.
Key verbs in this issue are classifying, comparing, organizing, connecting, judging, testing, and monitoring. Raising awareness of preservation importance is a crucial issue since not only future and current information professionals need to be aware of preservation importance, but they need to be able to convey it to the users and public by example, by educational activities and interpretation of heritage. These are the reasons why this issue corresponds to the Bloom’s Taxonomy elements of applying and creating since the abilities to apply the knowledge in the field of preservation are necessary in conjunction to other concepts to plan activities of raising awareness.
Key verbs in this issue are applying, using, planning, devising, and making.
This analysis of the key issues enables an overview of the complexity of each aspect relating to the content areas they include. It also provides a glimpse into the level of complexity of the concepts that need to be showcased in an OER specific to the field of written heritage preservation. This implies the need for a more elaborate approach to the content areas regarding their presentation.
Tools
There are numerous openly available online tools used to enhance an OER and ensure appropriate content presentation. This means that simple content requires tools that accompany it in a simple and useful way to not overcomplicate the learning experience. In the same way complex concepts and content areas require the use of tools that are not going to be too simple and that can perform more complicated tasks. There is also a possibility for the use of the same tool in both simple and complex content areas. It is important to emphasize that in this case the teacher is the one that needs to impose simpler or more complex tasks and activities. In this sense, for further analysis we used the approach taken by Churches in Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (2008) that has merit in the fact that it can be used to achieve the goal of properly showcased content areas in the field of written heritage preservation.
1.
describing the legal context in which the institution operates, identifying the key components of the preservation policy, recognizing the importance of preservation, listing the methods and techniques applied in the process of preservation, naming possible threats in the process of risk management, locating the relevant online resources, finding the relevant and current literature, recalling the main concepts in the field of written heritage preservation.
Proposed activities and tools that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation are:
quiz or an online test (Moodle, H5P, Plickers, Kahoot) flashcards (Quizlet) bookmarking (internet browsers) web searching (search engines, online library catalogues etc.) revision (GoogleDrive, DropBox, OneDrive, Office365, Evernote, YouTube, etc.) referencing tools (Zotero, Mendeley).
2.
classifying the factors that unfavourably affect the collections, comparing the process of preservation management in different institutions, interpreting the basic concepts of written heritage preservation management, concluding how theoretical knowledge can relate to the preservation activities, summarizing the basic concepts of preservation planning, explaining the criteria of selection for preservation, exemplifying optimal conditions for material storage, recounting the context in which the institution operates.
Proposed activities and tools that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation are:
infographics (Canva, Piktogram, Venngage, Visme, Office365, GoogleDocs, etc.) quiz or online test (Kahoot, Plickers, H5P) discussions (forums, online chats, social media) mind mapping (MindMeister, MindOnMap, FreeMind, various online tools).
3.
applying legal requirements to the process of preservation, using the knowledge in written heritage preservation in formal education, performing the educational activities intended for users, executing the process of monitoring the material storage conditions, carrying out the process of applying for additional financial resources.
Proposed activities that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation are:
simulations (Skype, Zoom, BigBlueButton – Moodle) presentations (PowerPoint, Genially, Prezi, etc.) quiz or online test (Moodle, Plickers, Kahoot, H5P).
4.
comparing the effect of currently offered services with the new services offered, organizing the educational activities in the field of preservation intended for the staff, connecting the value of preservation with the effect it can have in the community, structuring the theoretical knowledge for a certain purpose e.g., education, characterizing the main factors that influence the process of preservation management, sketching the outlines for educational materials.
Proposed activities that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation on this level are:
illustrations (Canva, inkscape, Gimp, Adobe Illustrator, GoogleDocs, Office365, etc.) flowcharts (various online tools e.g., LucidChart, Office365, GoogleDocs) quiz or an online test (Moodle, H5P, Plickers, Kahoot!) mind mapping (FreeMind, MindOnMap, MindMeister, Office 365, GoogleDocs, etc.).
5.
judging the current organization of preservation management, testing new methods in collection condition assessment, monitoring the current disaster preparedness plan, hypothesizing about possible risk factors, discovering new services of interest for the designated community, criticizing the legal and financial context on an institutional or national level, checking the material storage conditions, experimenting with different ways to storage materials, verifying legal documents, overseeing the financial resources management in relation to preservation activities.
Proposed activities accompanied with some appropriate and widely used tools that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation on this level are:
commenting (public forums, social networks, discussion boards on Moodle) research (specific search engines such as GoogleScholar, online library catalogues, web sites of different institutions – examples of good practice) surveying (online tools for surveys such as Google Forms, MicrosoftForms, etc.) journaling (Office365, GoogleDocs, GoogleSheets, various online tools for taking notes) graph (GoogleSheets, GoogleDocs, Excel, online tools for graph making) checklists (GoogleDocs, Office365, various word processing tools).
designing the educational materials for proper material handling, planning the overall process of preservation management, devising activities that will raise the awareness of preservation importance, making informed decisions in the process of changing legal documents, creating new services based on the user’s need analysis, constructing optimal microclimate conditions for material storage, discovering new theoretical and practical preservation knowledge to be included into preservation knowledge corpus.
Proposed activities accompanied with some appropriate and widely used tools that can be incorporated in the OER in the field of written heritage preservation on this level of complexity are:
design (Canva, Gimp, Corel, Office 365, Google Docs, Google Slides, Adobe Illustrator) presentations (presentation tools – PowerPoint, GoogleSlides, Prezi, Canva, Genially and various other online tools) projects (mind mapping – MindOnMap, FreeMind; flow charts) planning (Google Calendar, GoogleSheets, Excel) surveying (SurveyMonkey, GoogleForms, MicrosoftForms, LimeSurvey, etc.).
It is important to emphasize that these are not the tools in their entirety since there are more possible activities and issues in each category. There are also certain tools specific to the field of preservation such as preservation policy development tools, already existing OERs, for example open textbooks that can be included in the lists and used for content presentation in the field of written heritage preservation.
Conclusion
Designing an OER specific to the written heritage preservation needs to encompass the complexity of the field. Namely, it should be emphasized that one of the main challenges is to appropriately showcase the content, meaning that it is necessary to avoid simple representation of complex content, as well as representing the simple content in an unnecessarily complicated and in the end complex way. Proposed content framework enables the successful implementation of content in OER according to its complexity as well as its efficient design by using the appropriate tools that enhance the learning experience. It has potential for further developing levels of progression of each main issue according to Bloom’s Taxonomy but in this case the vital issue is the content complexity. The path in creating an OER on the topic of written heritage preservation showcased in this paper is based on three crucial questions – what to present, how to present it and to whom. The answers can be found in the proposed content framework since it outlines the main content areas by their complexity, the tools and activities appropriate for each content area and the end-user’s levels of knowledge and skills.
Footnotes
The main coordinator of the DECriS Erasmus