Opening up an interuniversity collaboration among Catalan university academic staff: The case of CIRAX pilot experience

The openness movement supported by the development of information technologies, the empowerment of knowledge-sharing communities of practice across the network, as well as the need to ensure higher quality education, provide the framework for the "Col-laboratori interuniversitari de recursos d\´aprenentatge en xarxa" (CIRAX) program. The CIRAX project aims to promote and consolidate a teaching community which should be active in the creation, updating and sharing resources, and learning practices. The tool for achieving this goal is a repository-in-collaboration where resources could be shared, well-catalogued and well-managed. In light of the experience, we have identified the factors that influence sharing and reusing resources and which have been tested on university teaching staff of introductory math courses. Among these factors, we have observed a high degree of sharing practice but constraints on reusing, due to prioritization of time and a lack of information regarding open licenses. The first year results allow us to establish essential lines of action in order to consolidate and enhance this experience within the mathematical teaching community at the Catalan university system: a) simplify the prototype and its workflows; b) articulate the shared resources in a normalized and clear way; c) develop strategies for consolidating the community and dissemination of information; and d) enhance the institutional recognition of teaching practice.