As agreed with Education Committee, we are planning to retire the Online Resource Bank (ORB) service at the end of the 2017/18 academic year, after the resit examinations in September 2018.
Why are we doing this?
There are several reasons behind this, but the primary ones are:
- Majority of departments are now using Moodle, which offers more engaging learning activities;
- Limited resources available to support ORB, both in terms of hardware/software and pedagogy;
- Improving the student experience and reducing cognitive overhead by presenting learning materials in a single location and in a consistent manner;
- Enabling the use of more engaging learning tools which require no special technical skills;
- Moving towards a single point of entry for learning materials, reading lists, lecture recordings, and coursework deadlines.
When is this happening?
ORB will be retired on the 14th September 2018. At this point ORB will no longer be available to students, and all existing signposting will instead point to Moodle.
Staff will continue to have access to materials stored in ORB via existing publishing methods, but will be unable to add new materials or change existing. Staff access will be withdrawn and the service fully retired on 14th January 2019.
What support is available to help the move from ORB to Moodle?
We are offering support via various routes:
- The Technology Enhanced Learning Team (TEL) will be running ORB to Moodle drop-in sessions throughout the summer. Staff can book themselves on these sessions by visiting HR Organiser, and searching for TEL or Moodle training.
- The Learning Technology Team (LTT) will be approaching departments with a high number of ORB users to arrange basic Moodle training sessions, and helping move past examination papers to a new home.
- Staff will be guided to relevant training videos offered by Lynda.com.
What happens if I do nothing?
Students will lose access to materials held in ORB on the 14th September 2018.
Where can I get further information?
Any enquiries about ORB’s retirement should be directed to the Learning Technology Team (ltt@essex.ac.uk).
