Report into the National Teaching Repository: An Open Educational Resource with Proven Reach and Impact across the Global Higher Education Community

The Global Higher Education sector has well established processes and procedures for storing and disseminating original research. In addition to the usual mechanisms used by publishers and funding bodies, individual researchers often have access to their own institutional repository where submitted copies of such work are stored and disseminated for all to access. This increases the visibility of such work, and often serves as a means of measuring the impact of individual pieces of work, and indeed researchers, scholars, and academics themselves. This can be through the harvesting the number of downloads, or times something has been accessed – or even the number of times a piece of research is cited by other authors and researchers. There is a clear body of evidence that shows the importance of teaching being both research informed, and research led. Outside of purchasing text books, and reviewing reports from think-tanks and regulators, it has always been very hard to find proven examples of teaching materials which have been developed by expert practitioners with proven results and impact. If one is fortunate enough to find such works, and even more fortunate to be able to access them, then it is almost certain that the original author will receive little recognition of the impact and influence of their work. The ‘National Teaching Repository’ was born out of the desire to facilitate a space for proven and successful teaching materials to be disseminated whilst ensuring that the original authors can evidence the reach and impact of their work in the process – something which researchers have been able to benefit from for decades. The National Teaching Repository started out as a UK based resource, but very quickly it has proven that its reach and impact is truly global. It has established supporters, contributors, and users from around the world, but it continues to expand on a weekly basis. It embraces inclusivity by providing no barriers to access content, it is free to use for anyone with access to the internet, and its use drives better teaching which in turn supports staff development to ultimately provide better opportunities and support for higher student attainment, achievement, and outcomes.