What is user generated content?

What is user generated content?

When is it content user generated and when is it "professional content"? 

We are currently working on designing a quality concept for user generated content. It iwll probably invlve a dialogue-oriented validation and review process between the articipating actors.

But first steps first: Where does User generated start and where does it end?

Our idea was to think it might be helpful to put up a polarity here: User vs. Expert, or: user vs. Professional. We were thinkling that somewhere along the line of this continuum between a 'user context' on the one pole and the 'profesional context' on the other pole there would be the very range in which we are interested as a project.
Our aim is to identify this very range. The range in which we cal content user generated content. We acknowledged that rather than beein a clearly defined spot, it is a zone with a center and a periphery.

When doing research about this we found some interesting models which pointed out that there are 'degrees' of more 'user generated' but still not completely fullfilling all criteria - and less 'user generated' but still fullfilling some criteria.

Our reasoning was that the matter is not yet decided copmletely and that therefore we have to work with scenarios.

Our 5 scenarios are university related. They start  with adescfribing the range on the above mentioned continuum which is clearly NOT user generated (Scenario 1) and reach all the way into the zone of the continuum which is clearly user generated (scenario 5). They are all HE related but cover the context of informal learning, i.e. students working for their own sake, or professors, providing content which is not entirely 'professional' but rather a quickly researched study aid, as well as professionals creating content when they are in a user role, i.e. taking part as students in a training programm.

The matter is tricky but can be solved through the scenario approach.

Thus: What a "user" is, is really depending on the context in which the person is situated. A student can be a user, but also a professor in a university can be a user, when he is put in the learner role in a training s/he is participating in.

Some food for thought when reading our document below...

User generated  Content -  what is that?

A Research sketch

By Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Cornnelia Helmstedt

Our definition of user generated content in the university sector refers to learning resources/content/information produced by end-users for end-users and has the following features:

• the content is - at least theoretically - accessible over the Internet;
• It reflects a "certain amount of creative effort" (no copy-paste);
• It is "created outside of professional routines and practices" (i.e. there is no official request from the university’s side like in exams or seminar papers; in this sense, it makes a difference if evaluation is requested by the university (no UGC) or organised by the students in a private blog (UGC).

The following scenariosillustratethe possible contentcreatedin HE :

2.3.2 Scenario 1 : Professional Content

Thomas U. Public, assistant professor at the European University, publishes his scientific  article  “Academic staff views of quality systems for teaching and learning: a UGC case study“ in apeer-reviewed– a not open access -  journal.

As in this Scenario professionals create content for professionals, therefore the content can be classified as Professional Content.

2.3.3 Scenario 2 :Pre-packagedAuthoritative Content

In a literature class on U.S. fiction led by Anne Schmidt, the lecturer uploaded a sequence of content for the next 4 weeks phase in her course to the learning environment   All students in the class were required to download and read, as well as answer the questions in the given and suggested format prior to attending face-to-face class discussions.

In this scenario, a professional has created pre-packagedauthoritativecontentfor her students. This sharable content doesn’t demands any creative effort from the students; also it is created inside the professional routines and practices and cannot be sorted as User Generated Content.

2.3.4 Scenario 3 : StudentProfessional Content

Students studying German and Spanish courses in distance education mode are supposed to upload their essays to a repository accessible for the supervisor and assistant supervisor for review and grading.

In this Scenario, the student created content has officially been requested from the university and will be evaluated by the professors; it can be classified as StudentProfessional Content. It involves some weak notion of user generated content, but is very guided in a closed and strict environment.

2.3.6 Scenario 4 :GuidedLearningMaterial

This scenario covers all content which has been created by professional teachers as learning materias for their learners. It involves work by a professional but is often created “ad-hoc” and does not constitute peer-reviewed or “finalised” materials.

The scenario can be subdivided into 2 cases:

a) For his course in General Psychology Dr.  Miller has published the syllabus, discussion reviews and responses to frequently asked questions on the learning platform.  In this case content has been produced by a professional prior to the course beginning. Although the content is available online, it’s not supposed to be “prosumed” by the students nor has it been created outside from professional routine: It’s GuidedLearningMaterial.

b) For his course on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), the associate professor Mathias L. Caine prepares a link list and an idea scratch about the SCM topics discussed in the last session on the way to his seminar as basis for further reading and discussion.

 In this case  the materials are  especially created for the course by a professional but much more loosely structured. They also constitute Guided Learning Material, but differently connotated.

2.3.6 Scenario 5: Student performance content

At the law faculty Professors Paul A.  Meyers’ courses make use of a wiki maintained by students, with the goal to create encyclopedia entries on a variety of subjects related to law, criminal justice, sociology, and criminology. In the Online Wiki of Criminal Justice learner-generated content can be readily shared in virtual “public spaces” and to a broader audience. The wiki’s ease of use enables students to create a huge variety of content within a short timeframe. In addition to generating and entering initial content, students also perform the roles of editing, revising, and organizing the content, which becomes part of the shared pools of resources accessible to all learners. Although all site content was initially written by students from Professor Paul A. Meyers’ course, the site is now available for educators to use for class assignments and other students outside the institution are allowed to register and contribute.

In this Scenario, the content generated by the users is Student performance content, produced from students for students; therefore it can easily be classified as User Generated Content.

The following  table differentiates between five major types of content in HE:

 Table 2: Content Categories in HE (C.H.)