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Protecting Raw Digital Resources for Later Use and Reference

By IGI Global on Jun 2, 2011
IGI Global would like to thank Shalin Hai-Jew for contributing this article detailing the various benefits of retaining raw digital resources. Dr. Hai-Jew's newest publication, Constructing Self-Discovery Learning Spaces Online: Scaffolding and Decision Making Technologies, will become available this Winter. An excellent resource for any library, her edited research volume, Virtual Immersive and 3D Learning Spaces: Emerging Technologies and Trends, is currently available in the IGI Global Bookstore.

In most instructional design projects, the instructional designers and subject matter experts (SMEs) will end up collecting a variety of raw digital resources. These raw resources are snippets of video and "b-roll" footage, digital imagery, audio files, and plenty of third-party research. These are the most elemental pieces used to design the digital learning objects and online learning experiences.

Oftentimes, at the end of a project, the SMEs and faculty members are not particularly interested in keeping the raw materials. In a sense, they just want to leave these materials on the mental "cutting room floor" to be discarded. However, the argument for keeping raw digital files is manifold. Some of the reasons follow, in descending order from most important to least.

Potential use / re-use in the future. First, the original raw files may have use in the future. The video captures that may not end up in the final edited product may still have historical value. It may have value in future updates to the course.

Informational value. Given that raw digital information is the least-lossy (without the information loss resulting from various file compressions and the editing-down of file sizes), this raw material has informational value. Such raw files cannot be somehow reverse engineered from the processed digital files, so having the original raw captures is important.

It is also hard to anticipate when one needs to refer to a file in the future for later reference. Just saving the time investment alone in seeking out research information is sufficient grounds for saving this research.

The benefit of memory. Third, it helps to maintain a professional memory about the raw digital file captures. This assumes proper metadata handling. Who did the captures? What are the digital copyright and intellectual property releases? Who signed the media releases for the interviews or presentations or demonstrations captured in the digital video, still images, or audio files?

The low cost of digital archival. Lastly, the cost for saving digital materials is very low. Plenty of digital memory—in the form of server space, external hard drives, and internal hard drives—may be purchased for fairly low cost. There are also ways to store contents in virtual "clouds" for easier access from any physical location with Internet connectivity.

In a complementary way, there is the high cost of recreating the resource, should that be necessary. It's important to think about digital resources not just as a stand-alone video interview or a series of still images; rather, a video requires plenty of setup time and processing. The event that was captured may be impossible to set up and re-do.



MIT's DSpace is an open-source code for digital repositories that are hosted on local servers. This resource promotes the open sharing of contents. (Note: The inclusion of this screenshot does not imply any sort of relationship between the blog post and the DSpace organization.)

Management of Archived Digital Resources


Metadata labeling. It helps to have some sort of clear metadata scheme to make sure that resources are properly labeled and described. These labels include clear information about contents, bylines, copyright, and other details.

Proper intellectual property rights. If there are third-party research resources, there are differing restrictions on whether such resources may be stored and distributed beyond personal use. To be legal, it will be important to read the fine print. Then, there are the open-source works with varying levels of releases. These often restrict commercial uses of original created works, so those standards will have to be adhered to. If bylines have to be run with the uses of such open-source resources, then those attributions also should be listed. Hired works need to be properly documented as such, often with full into-perpetuity uses of the digital files. Self-created works also need to be well documented, with the university owning all rights (usually). Some universities may allow the faculty members and SMEs some limited rights if they transfer to other jobs, but that seems to be something negotiated at a departmental level.

Digital repository. Protecting raw digital files for later use and references often tends to be local to a course. The raw files may be stored on the learning / course management system (L/CMS) related to the course, for example. More sophisticated universities may have digital repositories linked to the particular instructor or to a college or even a learning domain.

The management of these resources will entail making sure that the resource is updated to future forms of the digital objects. For example, if a file has a risk of becoming obsolete because of its technological file version and form, then it's incumbent on those maintaining the files to update the files to the present form. Many old-style CDs have video file types that are fast becoming unreadable, with a critical need for updating.

Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew is the editor and author of several excellent resources published by IGI Global. To learn more about each book, please click on the links below.
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