{"id":3213,"date":"2014-05-19T10:28:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T10:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=3213"},"modified":"2014-05-19T10:28:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T10:28:24","slug":"engaging-research-and-communication-ou-practices-and-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/archives\/3213","title":{"rendered":"Engaging research and communication: OU practices and tools"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week (12th May), Ann Grand and I gave a seminar at the OU on Digital Engagement. I started by giving a brief introduction to public engagement, referring to the NCCPE's EDGE tool for self-assessment, and a description of the purpose of the OU's Public Engagement with Research Catalyst project.<\/p>\n
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Ann then discussed some survey and interview studies she and Anne Adams have carried out as part of the Catalyst project. The survey work involved some additional institutional questions in the Vitae <\/a>national survey of research staff (CROS) and research leaders (PIRLS). These questions explored OU researchers' understanding of and approaches to public engagement. The interview study used a structured sample of OU research projects to look at researchers'\u00a0use \u00a0of digital tools in public engagement.<\/p>\n Following Ann, I explained the findings of some work I've been doing to identify the range of digital tools available for researchers at the OU, and the process of setting up websites and blogs for researchers and research projects.<\/p>\n During the discussion, the seminar participants were asked to identify the benefits and challenges concerned with the use of university and externally hosted blog services. University services were perceived to have longevity, credibility, accessibility, consistency and support for visitor metrics (i.e. analytics). External services were considered to provide a wider variety of templates, to be easier to create and extend, more flexible regarding the removal of content, to provide better support for mobile devices, and to benefit from neutrality for shared (public) sites. One of the conclusions from the discussion was that researchers need -- and value having -- a range of options to meet different needs.<\/p>\n<\/a>