The OCWC webinar this month is on “Using Moodle for OpenCourseWare projects”. The speaker is Jenny Gray of the Open University, UK. She is the lead technical developer for the OpenLearn project. As you can see from the website, there has been a lot of customization of Moodle to provide a platform for open contents, collaboration and discussion. This webinar will be helpful for those who are planning to open an OpenCourseWare site but have not decided on what content management system to use. Jenny will talk about why using Moodle for an OpenCourseWare project makes sense, and what kind of functions and customization are possible with Moodle.
Moodle is one of the most widely used learning management systems in the world and is an open source program. Join us in the webinar and hear about how you can utilize your existing LMS to open your education contents to the world. You can also use this open source program to easily set up a simple OpenCourseWare site. This webinar is intended for all audience regardless of the technical background and is open for free to anyone interested in OpenCourseWare. To participate, go to http://breezemeeting.asu.edu/ocwc . There is no need to register.
The monthly OCWC Webinar this month is on metadata. Clay Whipkey, the Technical Director of OCWC, will speak about why we should care about metadata and what we should do with it. This webinar is intended for all administrators of OCW and individuals who are not too technically savvy but would like to hear about metadata in plain English. If you have an advanced technical understanding of things, you can still join in on the conversation after Clay’s presentation. Bring your expertise if you would like to talk about the whys, the whats, and the hows of metadata.
The webinar is usually held on the first Thursday of the month, but we will hold it on the second Thursday this month on the 14th. You can join the webinar at http://breezemeeting.asu.edu/ocwc. The webinar starts at 10AM EST, but the meeting room will be open from the day prior to the meeting. If you need to check your technical specifications, you can come into the meeting room before the scheduled time and check make sure that you can view the browser window properly. See you all then.
The next OCWC webinar will be held on December 3rd at 10AM EST. We have Larry Cooperman, Director of the University of California, Irvine OpenCourseWare project, giving a talk on how to increase visibility of an OCW project. The UC Irvine has implemented a “hub-and-spoke” system of OCW distribution. Search engine optimization is partially accomplished through a network of Web sites that link back to the original OCW course hosted at UC Irvine. In this webinar, Larry Cooperman, Director of UC Irvine’s OpenCourseWare project will describe this architecture and some surprising results in terms of visibility. The webinar will also briefly review UC Irvine’s model for OCW sustainability.
The January webinar will be on metadata by Clay Whipkey of the OCWC, followed by a webinar on Moodle, given by Jenny Gray of Open University, UK. The OCWC webinars are held on the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in participating in the webinar, please email your name and affiliation to feedback@ocwconsortium.org.
!Presta atención!
El Consorcio OCW enviará el próximo mes diversos correso electrónicos que requieren tu atención. Estamos intentado mejorar nuestros servicios a lso miembros, y necesitamos tu participación. Por favor, toma unos minutos para responder a encuestas y consultas que recibas. Juntos podemos construir un Consorcio más fuerte y sostenible en el futuro para el OpenCOurseWare en todo el mundo. ¡Gracias!
Llegar a las comunidades locales. Se buscan voluntarios de traducción.
La comunidad OpenCourseWare ha valorado siempre compartir ideas a una escala internacional. EL Consorcio ahora supera los 250 miembros que hablan muchos idiomas. Para llegar a más gente de comunidades locales invitamos a voluntariosa traducir las cartas OCWC, webinars, el OCWC Toolkit y otros documentos que reflejan lo que hacemos, para llegar a más y más gente. El número de octubre de la carta de OCWC se ofrece este mes a 6 idiomas. Las traducciones las han hecho fantásticos voluntarios de nuestras instituciones miembros. Si quieres prestarte voluntario en traducir, por favor escribe correo electrónico a meena@ocwconsortium.org. Son bienvenidos también más voluntarios en los 5 idiomas mostrados en la cabecera de esta carta.
Webinar OCWC en Noviembre
La limpieza de la propiedad intelectual es un aspecto muy importante para todos los que estamos implicados en OpenCourseWare. El webinar OCWC de Noviembre tratará sobre Propiedad Intelectual (PI). Terri Bais de OCWC hará una presentación de “Cómo identificar y gestionar aspectos de PI”, seguido por una sesión de Preguntas/Respuestas. Será el 5 de noviembre, a las 10 AM EDT. Por favor ingresa en el widget aquí or escribe un correo electrónico a la dirección meena@ocwconsortium.org. La charla del mes pasado de Mara Hancock puede aún verse en aquí.
Conferencias OCWC
Aquí tienes algunas oportunidades para saber de OpenCourseWare en otras partes del mundo.
· Presentaciones del Seminario OpenCourseWare en TU Delft celabrado la semana pasada puede verse aquí.
· El próximo día 22 en Boston “Publishing Course Curricula: What It Is All About and Why It Matters.”. Más información aquí.
· Desde el 4 al 7 de noviembre se celebrará la primera Conferencia Regional de Asia OCW en Seúl, Corea. Por favor escribe correo electrónico a ocw@korea.ac.kr para más información.
Your Attention is Needed!
Over the coming month, the OCW Consortium will be sending out several e-mails that need your attention. We are trying to improve our services to members, and we need to hear from you! Please take a few moments to respond to the surveys and inquiries when you receive them. Together we can build a stronger Consortium and a sustainable future for OpenCourseWare around the world. Thank you!
Reaching out to local communities: Translation volunteers wanted
The OpenCourseWare community has always valued the sharing of ideas on an international scale. The Consortium now has over 250 members who speak numerous languages. In order to reach out to more people in local communities, we invite volunteers to translate the OCWC newsletter, webinars, the OCWC Toolkit, and other documentary evidence so that what we do reaches out to more and more people. The October issue of the OCWC Newsletter is offered in six different languages this month. The translations were done by wonderful volunteers from our member institutions. If you are willing to volunteer your time in translating, please email meena@ocwconsortium.org. More volunteers in the five languages shown on top of this newsletter are also welcome.
OCWC Webinar in November
Intellectual property clearance always presents a big issue for all of us involved in OpenCourseWare. The OCWC webinar in November will be on Intellectual Property. Terri Bays of OCWC will present on “How to Identify and Manage Issues in IP”, followed by a Q&A session. It will be on November 5th, 10AM EDT. Please sign up on the widget here or email meena@ocwconsortium.org. Last month’s talk by Mara Hancock can still be seen here.
OCW Conferences
Here are some more opportunities to hear about OpenCourseWare from around the globe.
* Presentations from the OpenCourseWare Seminar at TU Delft last week may be seen here.
* On the 22nd in Boston is “Publishing Course Curricula: What It Is All About and Why It Matters.” More information can be found here.
* From the 4th to 7th of November, the first Asia Regional OCW Conference will be held in Seoul, Korea. Please email ocw@korea.ac.kr for more information.
The September OCWC webinar is on collaborating with students to generate OCW materials. Many appreciate and value OCW material because it is a production of those who possess the highest form of knowledge in their own respective fields. There are many world renowned scholars who have opened their courses to the public, and they are an inspiration for numerous reasons. While acknowledging their contribution, we must pay close attention to the student collaboration initiative. Students also have good knowledge of their discipline, and for them to collaborate with faculty to produce OCW material gives them a stake in their own learning, and this is significant for various reasons. Instructional specialists stress that a student making a course portfolio via frequent communication with a faculty member enhances learning on the student’s part. OCW project managers stress the cost efficiency involved in producing OCW contents. For my money, it is a great investment for the future. It is always a great investment when we encourage our students to partake in a meaningful activity, think about intellectual property in digital contents, and just get them ready to lead the initiative on OpenCourseWare. Who knows? In a couple years, one of these students could become a faculty member who takes the lead in opening up education.
This month’s speaker is Garin Fons from the University of Michigan. UM’s dScribe team collaborates with graduate students to produce contents for their Open Michigan project. An active member of OCWC, the dScribe team has offered to open OERca, its platform for collaboration to the OCWC community. Come to the webinar to hear about the processes and the system of dScribe. The webinar is on September 3rd at 10AM EDST(GMT-5). You may sign up by emailing meena@ocwconsortium.org.
The first OCWC Webinar was held yesterday. Tom Caswell, the project manager for the latest release of eduCommons, presented on some of the key features of the new release. As eduCommons is a Content Management System designed specifically for OCW projects, you may want to check out the key features at http://www.eduCommons.com if you are thinking about starting an OCW project. If you missed the webinar yesterday, you can view it here . Question and answers are not recorded, but you can see Tom’s presentation.
This is the last release to be funded by the Hewlett Foundation. eduCommons will now be an open source software for the community to further develop. If anyone is interested in participating as a developer, please visit http://educommons.com/dev for more information or contact Tom Caswell at caswell [dot] tom [at] educommons [dot] com. He is also looking for volunteers to translate eduCommons into different languages. eduCommons is translated into more than 10 languages now, and if you would like to offer your gift in languages, please let Tom know.
If you are new to the community or if you are contemplating starting an OCW project within your organization and want to learn more about it, attend our Webinar! If you are an experienced OCW project manager, then participate in the discussion and share your insight with the rest of us. Each month, we have an expert in various fields of OER projects giving a 20-minute-talk. We will follow with an informal discussion on the subject. We hope that sharing the expertise and facilitating more discussion within the community will strengthen our projects and activities.
The schedule for webinars is as follows:
8/6 The New eduCommons (Tom Caswell, OCWC)
Sept. Student generated contents in OCW (Garin Fons, University of Michigan)
Oct. Activities of Opencast (Mara Hancock, UC Berkeley)
Nov. Issues in Intellectual Property (Terri Bays, OCWC)
All webinars are held at 10AM (GMT-5). Please register at www.ocwconsortium.org. Please hurry as positions are limited. Hope to see you there!
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