Abstract:

Educational technology has been growing exponentially for well over a decade and information scientists, educators and administrators all value the importance of robust and sustainable tools for e-learning projects and experiences. This group from the Masters in Management and Library Science (MMLIS) degree program at Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California has a relevant practice of using an Open Education Resource (OER) for improving the e-learning projects and experiences that serves the MMLIS program in the Capstone course, internally as the end of program assessment tool, as a career search resource for students and endless tool for digital humanities projects, virtual exhibits, digital archiving and career tracking.

Switching from using a document organizing software that was not user friendly, visually unattractive, and not particularly useful beyond the course to a dynamic digital humanities OER that builds media rich, visually appealing content, and can be retained by the students beyond graduation, benefits all stakeholders. Additionally, the Scalar software allows users to follow and highlight their career as it progresses, publish digitally, and create virtual exhibits, all beyond the softwares intended use to write in a digitally native program.

This presentation and paper will describe in detail how the MMLIS Capstone course uses the e-portfolio to be born digital in the OER Scalar digital humanities software that changed the utility of how graduates showcase, publish and highlight their work during and beyond our program. Multiple perspectives form a compelling success story of how to leverage innovative OER's to benefit your stakeholders.

From our alumni "the creation of a digital portfolio using the Scalar software provided a competitive advantage in the job search market. As prospective employers sift through the high number of submissions for job posting, the need to differentiate oneself becomes challenging. The creation of the Capstone e-portfolio provided the opportunity to elevate and stand out in a subtle context without overwhelming prospective employers with a large number of pages in a CV". The inclusion of a link to the digital Scalar portfolio provides employers the ability to dive deeper into a candidate's abilities well before any type of formal interview or when comparing candidate qualifications.

In conclusion attendees will leave with innovative examples of how to use this free OER in unconventional ways including e-portfolios, virtual resumes, virtual exhibits, career mapping, training manuals, digital archiving, budget tracking, e-books and born digital publishing.

Keywords:

E-portfolios &Learning Experiences, Open Educational Resources, Digital Humanities, Library and information Science, Online Learning, Accreditation.