A_L_T: ILSIG On-line: First on-line Inclusive Learning SIG (ILSIG) meeting for all members. We will be discussing the... http://t.co/GDMnX9pD
via Twitter / A_L_T
A_L_T: To wht extnt shld learning design be spprtd computationally? ALT free webinar 22/2/12 c. Laurillard and Downes http://t.co/MdeB3EDU
via Twitter / A_L_T
“@rashford: Another nice SlideShare presentation : Social Network Technologies for Learning (2) http://t.co/VByclfmP by @downes” #mscidel
A_L_T: ALT comment on the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Strategy Statement "Opportunity, choice and ex... http://t.co/sAxo1BmF
via Twitter / A_L_T
http://t.co/kuyDU31I Wired Campus reports that students are using Facebook to help with assignments #mscidel
An online training course to help disseminate good practice in research data management developed at the University of Edinburgh is now free to use by PhD students, early career researchers and digital data users at all UK universities. Are you ready to release your resources openly? Find out in our new resource.
The non-credit, free online course has interactive units focused on key concepts of data management including video clips of senior academics talking about data management challenges.
There are also practical exercises in handling data in four software packages widely used by researchers in different fields, which learners can download and work through at their own pace.
Simon Hodson, programme manager at JISC, the technology consortium for UK further and higher education, said: "When we listened to the delegates at our recent conference on data management, it was obvious that many universities feel the need to embed good practice much earlier in the careers of their researchers than they do currently. The fact that this course is available through an open license for repurposing and rebranding will help other universities benefit from the good work that Edinburgh has already done."
The Data Library team at EDINA, a JISC-funded UK national academic data centre based at the University of Edinburgh, produced the materials over the course of the past year as part of the JISC Managing Research Data programme.
The team chose to deliver the course online so that learners could engage with it in their own time. This means it has the potential to reach a wider community, by releasing it as an open educational resource.
Use the Open Access week hashtag to search for more updates on open
#oaweek
Robin Rice, data librarian at the University of Edinburgh and EDINA, said: "The online course supports statements about good practice in research data management with real life stories and scenarios. It is designed to be fun, relevant, useful, interactive and timely (FRUIT!) for those pursuing a research project. The accompanying software modules for data handling skills give a deeper grounding within particular analysis environments."
They worked with the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Studies, the School of GeoSciences and the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology to target the resources towards their doctoral training programmes.
Schmoller, Seb and Slater, John (2011) ALT comment on the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Strategy Statement "Opportunity, choice and excellence in higher education". ALT. (Unpublished)
A_L_T: To wht extnt shld learning design be spprtd computationally? ALT free webinar 22/2/12 c. Laurillard and Downes http://t.co/MdeB3EDU
via Twitter / A_L_T
Finishing IDEL section 1, finally. Can't wait to start writing on VLE & PLE challenge. Is Moodle really such a thrill to use? #mscidel
The academic monograph is under threat. Increased costs and lower print runs are impacting on the principle means by which researchers share their knowledge and disseminate their findings. The gold standard for academic excellence in many disciplines, the effective dissemination of the monograph has major implications for the UK’s research base and its international standing.
Palgrave Macmillan, Taylor & Francis, Berg Publishers, Liverpool University Press and University Wales Press are also project partners. Each has submitted pairs of similar monographs for the project pilot. With one title in each pair randomly assigned to either the experimental group (available through open access) or the control group (available through the publishers’ standard routes to market) the pilot will, over the next three years, gather and compare sales and usage data for each group. The resulting data will provide an invaluable evidence base for the use of monographs under contrasting modes of access.
Further activities – such as annual benchmarking surveys, focus groups, interviews and surveys with research funders, authors, publishers, libraries and researchers - will allow investigation into whether an open access model for scholarly monographs could take hold in the minds of humanities and social sciences scholars, what funding policies and technical processes would need be developed to support an open access model and what the impacts of an open access model would be on key stakeholders.
David House, Chair of JISC Collections and the OAPEN-UK Steering Group, said: “It’s in all our interests to have a vibrant and innovative humanities and social science research environment. But for this we need to have scholarly communications models that match the rapidly-changing demands of the twenty-first century. This project is taking some bold and imaginative steps to look over the horizon and to explore a new publishing model. We hope OAPEN-UK will be a stepping stone towards informed decision making by a wide range of stakeholders.”
See OAPEN-UK for further information or contact Caren Milloy, Head of Projects.
Open access week 2011 is full of inspiration on the benefits of free immediate access to the results of scholarly research. Now more than 30 compelling stories have been collected together from across Europe showcasing the transformative effects of open access.
They come from over 11 countries and are told by a wide variety of stakeholders, from individual researchers and journal editors to publishers and companies, and cover a multitude of disciplines.
Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary at JISC, said: “It’s interesting to see that even though these stories represent a diverse range of initiatives, some recent, some historical, they all share a common thread. That thread is that they have all been collaborative exercises – with people looking to share the benefits of their work beyond their own institutions.”
One example is First Monday, a 15-year-old open access journal about the internet.. It was launched in May 1996 and is now one of the longest established, most respected peer reviewed journals of the internet. By August 2011 it had published 1,133 papers in 181 issues, written by 1,469 different authors representing institutions in over 30 different countries. It is read in 180 different countries.
Another story tells of how a repository can successfully build relationships with publishers. Pedocs is a German educational science archive that uses an innovative cooperation model with German publishing houses to make available freely and openly a wealth of high quality pedagogic literature. Set up in 2008, in the last three years it has developed cooperative relationships with more than 25 small and medium-sized German educational literature publishing houses.
The stories can be found on a dedicated, easy-to-use website and are open for comments and ready to share. They are not only free for all to read and refer to, but they are also licensed under a creative commons licence. To allow for easier re-use the stories will be available for download and use in other publications and websites.
The Knowledge Exchange consists of :
|
Read more about the Knowledge Exchange
BBC News - New York schools enter the iZone http://t.co/7gIyqMgl PLE taken f2f! #mscidel
Open Source LMS; 10 Alternatives to Moodle http://t.co/mC0ffZ2r #mscidel
Learners, educators and citizen scientists will benefit from an 18 month digitisation programme launching today which will bring back to life scientific medical archives, historical records and health reports.
JISC will be investing £5.6 million in 23 projects across 30 universities and cultural heritage organisations to bring selected archives out of the vaults and onto computer screens, specifically with the aim of creating resources for wide educational use. These archives will be publicly accessible too which means citizens scientists, school pupils and the general public will benefit as well as historians, medics and biologists in this growing UK collection of digital resources for research, teaching and learning.
Alastair Dunning JISC’s programme manager explains why this work is taking place and the reasons for continuing to unearth national archives to make them accessible for everyone.
“JISC believes that publicly-funded archives and collections should whenever possible be made openly available for people to be able to see, reuse and access.
“These new collections vary greatly. King’s College London are leading a project to digitise the entire 86 volume corpus of the Survey of English Place-Name, while the University of Bradford are running ‘Digitised Diseases’ which seeks to bridge the gap between modern clinical medicine and the use of historic medical collections by digitising pathological skeletal specimens from world renowned archaeological collections in Bradford and London. The new collections to be digitised also include over 150 years worth of annual reports summarising the health of Greater London’s population, held by the Wellcome Library.”
This programme of work supports the findings of the Seizing the opportunity for online learning for UK higher education report which recommended, the use of online learning to enhance student choice and meet learners’ expectations; realignment of training and development to support academics to play a leading role in online provision; and the development and sharing of open educational resources to enhance efficiency and quality.
To find out more about this latest phase of digitisation projects visit: http://bit.ly/sMFWnJ and to view existing online content already available visit: http://bit.ly/to2sds
A_L_T: #altc2012 ALT's Liz W., Maren D., and Seb S. are in Manchester to look at layout and logistics for http://t.co/Y7ecxE59
via Twitter / A_L_T
Another perspective on personal learning environments :-D the 'portable livingroom' http://t.co/2Yj8VXX8 via @_omr #mscidel
A_L_T: http://t.co/0V7q7I1l Laurillard & Downes learning design - a 90 minute ALT webinar at 1700 on 22 Feb 2012 - bookings now open
via Twitter / A_L_T
A_L_T: Reminder: ALT-supported 20 min survey on Learning Design Support Tools - scenarios of use & uptake influences http://t.co/bBOxkffJ
via Twitter / A_L_T
A_L_T: There is an extensive range of Open Access support resources on the OAIG web site #openaccess. http://t.co/bbIPtegR
via Twitter / A_L_T
JISC welcomes the UK Open Access Implementation Group’s (OAIG) reports and new repositories resource pack released today.
The Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research report (PDF) and the Open Access Fees Report show the outcomes of research into the benefits of open access to commercial companies and findings from a consultation on the practicalities of paying for open access publication.
Taken together, these present a major step towards releasing UK research to underpin the nation’s prospects for growth both now, via direct innovation, and into the future, via a more efficient and effective research infrastructure.
Professor Martin Hall vice-chancellor at the University of Salford and chair of the OAIG says, “The report ‘Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research’ shows how commercial companies would benefit from reduced costs, less time wasting, and shortened development cycles by having greater access to UK research outputs.
“It shows how UK universities can make a direct impact, and much needed contribution to business growth and sustainability, by making their research outputs more easily discoverable and translated into the language recognised by businesses as relevant to them.”
The evidence suggests that these benefits would flow across a wide range of sectors of the UK knowledge economy, and supports previous research which estimated benefits in the order of £100m per year.
Neil Jacobs, JISC programme manager for JISC’s digital infrastructure says, “There is certainly work to do to translate academic research into innovation and growth, for example in promoting research expertise and providing trusted and skilled brokerage services. JISC through its business and community engagement programme is providing some of the tools and methods for this to happen, but without open access to the research findings themselves, this work cannot be fully effective.”
Open access requires action by universities, funders and publishers to work together to make this happen. The OAIG has commissioned JISC Collections to produce an ‘Open Access Fees Report’ which consulted with these groups and other organisations on the arrangements whereby payment is made for open access publication.
Professor Martin Hall, OAIG chair, notes that, “During this consultation process there was a lot of agreement that open access journal publishing is making an important contribution, both to widening access to UK research, and to the success of UK publishers. However, there is still practical work to do to smooth the way for researchers, universities, funders and publishers.
“The ways forward identified in this report are both practical and the product of consensus. The UK Open Access Implementation Group will continue to press for expanded access to UK research, to meet our nation's need for innovation and growth based on a strong public science base."
A new repositories resource pack is also being launched today to help universities take immediate action to support wider access to UK research, by ensuring that as much of their research output as possible is made openly available via their institutional repository. The resource pack brings together all the information and guidance that UK universities might need in taking the policy decisions and practical steps for this to happen.
Follow the discussion online #jisc #oaig
William Nixon, digital library development manager at the University of Glasgow and co-ordinator of the resource pack, explains, “The resource pack gives the solutions to barriers which the OAIG have identified in setting up, managing and maintaining a repository as well as an institutional publication policy. This resource can also give senior managers and leaders within universities enough detail to influence and engage the rest of their teams in making these decisions.”
Members of the OAIG have agreed a 2012 strategy to help implement the recommendations from these reports and build on the past 12 months of its work. This strategy includes:
RT: @anzbau: Prismatic identity - We're like diamonds. 4chan's Chris Poole:FB & Google Are Doing It Wrong http://t.co/nYAZcyvo #mscidel
A government with a central education system has access to content control. Is Dreyfus really addressing the most painful issue? #mscidel
Why Education Needs to Get Its Game On http://t.co/FBsluDwY via @mashable #mscidel another Digital Native argument or is this serious?
RT @lukaspalecek: Korea's schools going fully digital! BBC: http://t.co/6xwn6LCB Too far too fast? Or are we late? I sure love reading on my tablet. #mscidel
Korea's schools going fully digital! BBC: http://t.co/6xwn6LCB Too far too fast? Or are we late? I sure love reading on my tablet. #mscidel
