This presentation will reflect on how the University of Edinburgh’s strategic commitment to OER has enabled the institution to reuse and repurpose resources created both within and outwith the institution, in order to create new and innovative learning materials in a wide range of formats.

In 2014 the Reid School of Music launched the Fundamentals of Music Theory MOOC. This course introduces the theory of music, providing students with the skills to read and write Western music notation, and to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. Since its launch, over 200,000 learners have participated in the course.

To ensure course materials could be re-used and repurposed, high-quality videos from the MOOC were released under open licence through the University’s Open Media Bank, where they can be downloaded and accessed by all.

With support from the University of Edinburgh’s Learning Design Service, content from the MOOC was repurposed to create a new blended learning course for undergraduate students. The University’s ELDeR learning design approach is adapted from the University of Northampton’s CAIeRO process. ELDeR is a creative, supportive and collaborative process, where participants tackle problems together, resulting in better solutions and strengthening the team. Key improvements to the music course include the addition of learning outcomes addressing students’ critical and contextual awareness of the course content, new content addressing global decolonisation issues around music theory and music education, an extended resource List, and a course textbook accompanying the video lectures repurposed from the MOOC.

A team of Music students are now working with colleagues from the School of Music and the University’s OER Service to repurpose this course content into an open e-textbook. The project will explore the potential of providing access to free, accessible, adaptable open textbooks, in a convenient and reusable open format, ideally suited to hybrid and online learning. As an exemplar of Open in Action, this project is particularly timely as institutions are facing rapidly increasing e-textbook costs as they move away from print materials in response to the COVID pandemic and longer-term trends in academic publishing. Meanwhile our student partners will have the opportunity to develop valuable digital and copyright literacy skills and experience of working with OER across a range of platforms.

During this presentation our student partners, together with colleagues from the School of Music and Information Services, will reflect on their experience of engaging with Open in Action through the evolution of the Fundamentals of Music Theory course in its various open formats. Participants will be able to engage with this initiative through our dedicated project blog, the University’s OER Service, the Coursera MOOC and a wide range of freely available open resources.