LENS Access and Contribution Policy

The LENS community offers access to a web-based collection resources designed to support the development of masters level programmes focusing on adult literacy, ESOL and numeracy.  It is intended to contribute to the development of scholarly discourse, research and education in the areas of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL. LENS offers participating university colleagues access to a web-based collection and discussion community with integrated feedback and discussion tools, which aims to contribute to the development of scholarly discourse and research.

At the heart of the LENS collection lies a commitment to the development of scholarship and of a professional community of practice in the area of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL.  Recognising that the development of such a professional community of practice requires a cohesive group of people with a common sense of purpose to work together on a set of constantly evolving artefacts, LENS has been designed as a space for the development of a community and its artefacts, rather than as just a database of resources. With this in mind, and for reasons of Quality Assurance, LENS is not an open community.  Only LENS members will be given access to and use of the collection of resources. 

The NRDC core LENS member universities are:

• Institute of Education , University of London
• Lancaster University
• Nottingham University
• University of Sheffield

These four core member universities have created the initial collection and are active in the management of the LENS community. It should be noted that access to the resources held in LENS does not of itself confer rights to use those resources - the Intellectual Property Rights for each learning object need to be respected.

New member applications

 In reviewing new LENS membership applications, the LENS quality management group will take into consideration the following:

• Does the university have expertise/publications in the area of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL? 
• Is it already running courses in adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL, and at what levels?
• What contribution is the university offering? How does it complement the learning objects already populating the collection, particularly with regard to scope and quality?
• Is the university committed to working collaboratively to further develop the field of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL?

Annual review of contributions

In order to ensure that contribution levels from all LENS members are equitable, the NRDC LENS quality management team will meet once a year to review the contributions.  Should a LENS member be found to be contributing very little, they will be sent a reminder of the ethos of the LENS community, and encouraged to contribute more.  Should a LENS member fail to contribute, their access to LENS would be reviewed, warnings issued, and ultimately membership access will be terminated if members fail to keep up their contributions.

Student Access and Contribution

There is currently no student access to LENS.  However, LENS membership may be widened in future to offer access to all students enrolled on adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL courses within the universities forming part of the LENS community, giving access to a subset of resources within the collection, including LENS working papers.  They will also be encouraged to publish their best work in LENS for students, teachers and researchers in other universities to access.