This presentation on "Developing My Online Professional Learning Network" is the final submission by Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton for a virtual symposium which is an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC. The slides and audio track were initially created on 13 November 2013. An updated version was made in

1. Slides available under a Creative Commons
CC-BY licence
Abridged version
Hyperlinked Library MOOC Virtual Symposium:
Developing My Online Professional
Learning Network
Brian Kelly
Innovation Advocate
Cetis
University of Bolton, Bolton, UK
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/

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What am I taking away
from the Hyperlinked
Library MOOC?
Processes for planning the
development of my Online
Professional Learning
Network.

3. A New Job …
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cc

4. … and New Challenges
Need to:
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Build links with new colleagues
Respond to the challenge of working from home
(everyone is normally an online contact!)
Develop connections relevant to my new role
Explore ways in which existing contacts may
provide useful in the new job
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5. The Hyperlinked Library MOOC Helped
The Hyperlinked Library MOOC
assigned helped:
“practical assignments for
applying the experiences that you
are having while considering the
lectures and content as well as to
motivate you to create artifacts
that have relevance in your
professional life. ”
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6. The Hyperlinked Library MOOC Helped
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7. The assignment was published
on 6 November 2013
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8. Goals for my OPLN
The specific requirements are to produce:
A Goals Statement: which will clearly indicate what you
hope to accomplish in your OPLN.
My online professional network will provide a soundboard
for my ideas, a way of finding out about what my user
communities may want and what they find interesting, a
means of helping to identify new funding opportunities
and, last but not least, a way of having fun in my
professional activities and ensuring that my work is
interesting and stimulating.
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9. Scope of my OPLN
The specific requirements are to produce:
A Defined Scope: brief narrative that can help define
the scope of where you will be culling your resources.
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I have identified the following groups which I will need to
engage with in order to support my work at Cetis.
• Broad communities: Staff at Cetis and the University
of Bolton; key national event organisers and
committees and funding bodies
• Subject areas: The e-learning community;
the learning analytics community; the standards
community; the accessibility community and
the openness community

10. Key Resources for my OPLN
The specific requirements are to produce:
A Resource Network: essentially, lists of resources that
meet your goals and scope.
I have identified a set of key resources which I will use to
engage with my communities.
• Mainstream tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Slideshare,
mailing lists, ….
• Other tools: e.g. Skype
• F2F opportunities: Such as conferences & other
events
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11. F2F Connections
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The Old Man and Scythe, one of the
ten oldest public houses in Britain
(image from Wikimedia Commons)

12. Network Maintenance Plan
for my OPLN
The specific requirements are to produce:
A Network Maintenance Plan: This will provide answers to
questions such as: How will you maintain your online
professional learning network? When will you adjust it? At
what points will you actively add to it or delete from it?
My new job will provide an opportunity to prune my
professional network, removing Twitter accounts, blog
feeds, etc. which are no longer relevant to my new role
(unless, for example, I still gain value for the personal
connections).
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13. Visualising My OPLN
The coggle.it tool was
used to provide a
visualisation of my OPLN
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Visualisation created by coggle.it

14. Review
My takeaways:
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The value of planning for an Online Professional Learning
Network
The need to maintain the network – and even delete contacts
in the network (though this may be painful)
But we mustn’t forget the face-to-face contacts
For further thoughts, please see my blog at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/