February 7, 2010
In his January 2010 paper titled “Using Free and Open Online Resources: Licensing and Collections“ Norm Friesen lists Connexions as one of the highest rated OER repositories.
His paper provides an “overview of the open or free resources and materials available from online collections and providers that may be of significant strategic value to schools, universities and to other organizations with educational mandates, such as museums and archives. The initial sections of this paper describe some of the most basic characteristics of open source, or more accurately, creative commons licensing for cultural and educational resources. These sections also outline criteria for the inclusion of items in the annotated listing that is provided in the remainder of the document. This listing provides details for a number of recommended collections.”
Posted in Announcements, February 2010 | Tagged Connexions, Friesen, oer, repositories | Leave a Comment »
January 23, 2010
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) seeks ”to identify and acquire state-developed/state owned open-source textbooks that are available for downloading from the internet at no charge to a student and without requiring the purchase of an unlock code, membership, or other access or use charge, except for a charge to order an optional printed copy of all or part of the textbook.” The content should be aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and ready for use in the classroom.
For details, see http://esbd.cpa.state.tx.us/docs/701/86724_1.pdf
Posted in Announcements, January 2010 | Tagged open textbooks, Texas | Leave a Comment »
January 21, 2010
One of five pilot projects implemented at the University of Malawi and University of Botswana last year was designed to create a textbook from freely available open educational resources (OER) that would cover at most of a 1st semester Communication Skills course. Evaluation of findings and lessons learned from the pilot are available at OER Africa.
The effort resulted in a 102 page Communication Skills open textbook printed at Bunda and used with the first year students. The chapters are:
1. Orientation to the Text
2. Study Skills
3. How to use the Library
4. Listening Skills
5. Reading Skills
6. Writing Skills
7. Examination Skills
The textbook is openly licensed as CC: BY-NC-SA and is available from both the Bunda College website and the OER Africa repository.
Posted in Announcements, January 2010 | Tagged communication skills, OER Africa, open textbook | Leave a Comment »
January 16, 2010
The Connexions Project has added a new item titled: “Authoring Connexions Modules using Microsoft Word Documents” to its Connexions Documentation lens at: http://cnx.org/lenses/cnxorg/documentation
This training collection was written by Connexions Featured Author, winner in the HPC Cup for High Performance Computing education, and Houston Community College faculty member, Kenneth Leroy Busbee. It is designed for new authors and can be used as self-study or as part of a workshop on creating open textbooks. A direct link to the material: http://cnx.org/content/col11154/latest/
Posted in Announcements, January 2010 | Tagged authoring, Busbee, Connexions, Training | 1 Comment »
January 5, 2010
Register with @ONE to view a free webinar on “Creative Commons Licensing and Open Educational Resources” with Jane Park Wed, 03/24/2010 – 12:00pm – 1:00pm (Pacific Time).
The webinar will address: “What is Creative Commons? How did it originate? And how did it become part and parcel of worldwide movements towards open education, open scientific practices, and open culture? ccLearn, the education division of Creative Commons, answers these basic questions, then explains how CC is integral to the future of educational practices that capitalize on transformative technologies in innovative and completely legal ways. Included is a brief overview of the licenses and examples of educational projects and organizations using CC licenses.”
Posted in Announcements, January 2010 | Tagged creative commons, oer, Training | Leave a Comment »
December 31, 2009
During the fall of 2009, Etudes, Inc. devoted extensive developer resources to provide greater accessibility support throughout its course management system, Etudes. Etudes is a customized version of Sakai which is an open source course management system used worldwide.
The new accessibility enhancements were released in Etudes this week. The adjustments and new access keys support include:
1) Elimination of all image action buttons in the Modules tool. They were replaced with textual buttons (match AT&S) that can be read by screen readers and can be easily translated internationally by institutions that have adopted our tools.
2) Extensive review and fixed gaps in tabbing / navigation support. Visually-impaired users can now navigate with the keyboard reliably in Etudes.
3) Addition of access key support (short-cut keyboard commands) for all core functions across the Etudes system.
Posted in Announcements, December 2009 | Tagged accessibility, Etudes, Sakai | Leave a Comment »
December 16, 2009
When asked what textbook she would write, Sandra Day O’Connor said “It would not be a textbook: it would be a website.“ See her website at http://ourcourts.org. Sandra Day O’Connor is the current Chancellor of the College of William and Mary and a former Supreme Court Justice.
What textbook would you write?
Posted in Announcements, December 2009 | Tagged Sandra Day O'Conner, textbooks | Leave a Comment »
December 13, 2009
ccLearn offers recommendations for publishing open educational resources on the Internet by specifying Terms of Use and copyright licenses for sites hosting open educational resources.
Posted in Announcements, December 2009 | Tagged creative commons, licensing, oer, open educational resources | Leave a Comment »
