View source for Cathy Swift Interview Notes - September 21, 2009

''Conducted with [[User:EGraeff|Erhardt Graeff]] and [[User:WikiSysop|Carolina Rossini]] via telephone on September 21, 2009, '''concerning MERLOT's work on indexing and reviewing OER.'''

== Interviewee ==
*'''[http://taste.merlot.org/merlotstaff.html Cathy Swift]'''
**Director of Academic Partner Services, [http://merlot.org/ MERLOT]
**Email: cswift [at] calstate [dot] edu

== Notes ==
===Questions about Self-Image===
''Relative to...''
* Textbook Adoption at States / Curriculum
* OER Projects
* Textbook Publishing Industry

===How does MERLOT see Itself in this Space?===
* Free resource
* No cost to including one's own materials
* Most of their materials are teaching resources
* Only a few textbooks
* ROLE: Catalog Materials
* Educators can enter specific topics to search for on MERLOT
*: All materials pertain to education not just a Google search
* They concentrate on higher education but also have K-12

===University Affiliation===
* California State University system (founding arrangement)
* K-20 education (community college foci)
* Minnesota Schools and Colleges and Universities (pay a partnership fee)
* Tennessee Board of Regents
* 5 person management team work for Cal State
*:Cathy works for Cal State full-time on MERLOT

===Peer-Review System===
* Peer-reviewers have to be active teachers (real world deployment of the teaching materials)
* Peer-review metrics: Quality, Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool, Ease of Use
* No funding to create incentive system for peer-reviewers
** People can apply to be a peer-reviewer
** Offer training to new peer-reviewer
** Honor-based system
* Five or more reviews per year, people get listed as a member of a topical Editorial Board
* Also complimentary registration at MERLOT's 
* TENURE INCENTIVE: Write letters for peer-reviewers as a tenure-document
* Don't use any published standards outside their own (PROBLEM?)
* Each year they give a “Classics” award for outstanding material in each topic area
* Sort materials by quality rating
* Rely on partners to promote materials

=== Sustainability and Partnerships===
* Applied for Grant w/ Connexions
** Informal relationships with NSDL
*** Agreement to do a federated search of their material
* Doing professional development atop training for MERLOT
* Partnership system
** Pay for 25,000 dollars a year (membership)
** contribute several people
* Licensing content scheme
* "Sharing" is the mindset

=== Site Statistics ===
* http://www.merlot.com - statistics right on site
* Unsure about usage stats, no sign in required
* ''January - June 2009''
** 150,000 visits per month
** Average person spent 6 minutes on the site
** 1.7 million+ visits per year

= Navigation =
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[[Category:Educational Materials]]