2. Jackie Carter Mimas Social Science Data and Learning &Teaching Services SCORE Fellow
3.
4.
5. “ someone who makes their [work] digitally visible ..invites and encourages ongoing criticism … and secondary uses of all or any part of it (Burton 2009) “ Open scholars use and contribute Open Educational Resources” (Anderson 2009)
6. Increasing efficiency of research Promoting scholarly rigour Enhancing visibility & engagement Enabling new research questions Enhancing collaboration & community building Increasing economic & social impact of research Lack of evidence of benefits & rewards Lack of skills, time & resources Cultures of independence & competition Concerns about quality Ethical, legal, other restrictions on accessibility
This presentation is an introduction to the session on Using Open Content. I will give an overview of my experiences with and thoughts on Open Content, then ask Amber Thomas from JISC to give a JISC perspective. Four speakers will then present their stories of working with open content, and we will then proceed to ask the audience for their input. Amber will capture the ‘top tips’ for working with open content and make these available after the session.
I work at Mimas, JISC and ESRC funded Centre of Expertise in delivering and supporting data use for research, teaching and learning. have responsibility for two areas of activity – social science data and learning and teaching services. The slide here shows a success story – making the resources in the award winning Hairdressing Training service available under open licences has resulted in our being awarded funding for 2 years under the Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Lifelong Learning programme to share our expertise with Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria and assist them in responding to the skills agenda of their countries.
Report published in January 2011 Whilst this report arguably tells us nothing we did not already know with regards to the need to share resources and expertise in online learning, it is particularly timely. It captures the mood of the current coalition administration and - like it or not - we, that is the UK HE sector, will need to respond to its Six Recommendations http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2011/11_01/11_01.pdf “ The Task Force has concluded that online learning – however blended with on- or off-campus interactions, whether delivered in the UK or overseas – provides real opportunity for UK institutions to develop responsive, engaging and interactive provision which, if offered at scale, can deliver quality and cost-effectiveness and meet student demands for flexible learning”
The World is Digital; The World is Flat; and the World is Open See http://worldisopen.com/freestuff.php As mentioned in "The World is Open" book, there will be a free e-book extension with the same chapters, just different content. It will be roughly the same length. This will be coming in late August or September [2011]. Perhaps the introduction and first six chapters in August and the later six in September. These will be simultaneously posted to Scribd.com and other online sites. You can share, forward, use, or print, any of this. But these resources are restricted to noncommercial use only and may not be modified. In the "Free Stuff" site, you will already find the book prequel and postscript, the references for both books with hot links to the original articles, many book excerpts, and the Web resources for both books. Soon we will post 5 distinct sets of discussion questions. These will be related to the following 5 environments: (1) K-12 schools, (2) higher education institutions, (3) corporate training settings, (4) military training environments, and (5) informal learning pursuits. Please share your unique Web-based learning anecdotes in the section called "Stories." One reviewer says: "As everyone now knows, thanks to Thomas Friedman, the world is flat. And now, thanks to Curtis Bonk, we know that the world of learning is open. Anyone with Internet access can now connect to the world's best universities, museums, and research centers. Professor Bonk chronicles this profound shift in the global redistribution of educational resources and its implications for lifting educational levels worldwide." Milton Chen, Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation, publishers of Edutopia magazine and edutopia.org
Open content can support open scholarship Burton http://www.academicevolution.com/2009/08/the-open-scholar.html says: Because the Open Scholar reveals his or her processes, data, and procedures, this can bridge the great divide between research and teaching. Not only does the whole model invite collaboration (including drawing upon students and uncredentialed participants), but it allows the modeling of best practices that can help newcomers understand the whole field in question, not just the specifics of a given study. Anderson in his keynote at ALTC2009 talked about ‘the negligent academic’ as one who does not look for OERs.
RIN report – published Sept 2010 – considered open scholarship and the pros and cons http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/data-management-and-curation/open-science-case-studies New RIN/NESTA project looks at a series case studies examining what motivates researchers to work in an open way with regard to their data. The RIN and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) have published the results of a new collaborative research project which examined the benefits and barriers to using ‘open science’ methods. The project aimed to identify what motivates researchers to work (or want to work) in an open manner with regard to their data, results and protocols, and whether advantages are delivered by working in this way.
A good example of Open Data is that provided by the World Bank who opened up access to its data holdings in 2010. This was followed with an ‘Apps for Development’ competition which has just (March 2010) closed. See the Apps developed at the Application Gallery Public voting to judge applications submitted to the Apps for Development Competition is now open. A Popular Choice Award will go to the top-voted application that helps achieve or raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals . Applications were submitted from 36 countries across every continent; more than half came from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The apps use a wide variety of World Bank data, including information about health, the environment, children out of school, agricultural land data, gender statistics, population growth, and mortality rate, among other datasets. The 107 apps came in response to the World Bank’s global call for apps in October to help find solutions to today's development challenges and to raise awareness of the 8 Millennium Development Goals . These are: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnership for development
And everyone trying to be the first Open Data City in the UK Here we have examples from those cities committed to putting their data on the open web – Manchester, London, Brighton and Hove and Birmingham
Kent provides an example of a UK council putting data into the public domain AND asking the public to get involved by testing tools that are developed. For further information follow …(Need to check this)
Open standards – open formats – open source Open data requires open data standards - Europe – such as Eurostat – are themselves looking at data exchange formats. SDMX has gathered momentum for a standard for exchanging aggregate data. Eurostat collects and publishes huge amounts of data each year, and exchanges many datasets with other large organisations. This exchange was constantly suffering from a lack of interoperability, as data needed to be converted from one organisation's convention into another, a process which consumes both time and money. Different organisations were also using very different tools to work with the data, which caused further problems. In late 2001, Eurostat got together with a number of EU committees to discuss the need for greater interoperability within the European public sector. In 2005, IDABC agreed to fund the SDMX Open DATA Interchange (SODI) project. Thanks to previous cooperations between Eurostat and other international institutions, the SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange) standard quickly found a large group of sponsors, all of which hoped to benefit from the greater interoperability afforded by using a single standard, and the tools built on it. These tools were developed by Eurostat and other sponsoring institutions, and many of them were published under the EUPL license. The SDMX Converter is an example of the successful development and publication of a tool that is essential for working with the SDMX standard .
Open scholarship requires then open data. In the context of science and open science data this is still developing although some projects have been engaging citizens in open science for years.
The Royal Society Event on 1 December 2010 brought together academic experts and others interested in using data in the open. Simon Rogers – the Guardian Data journalist – was also on the panel. It occurred at the time the wikileaks story was peaking. Worth a listen to the recorded talks and ensuing discussion. The threats centred around the need to protect individual privacy – an aspect those of us in the data delivery world are well accustomed to hearing – and the dangers of data faling into ‘the wrong hands’. Summary of the discussion is available at http://www.rssenews.org.uk/articles/20101208 with the recordings of the talks and discussion available at http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2010/SpeedData-ing.cfm
Some activity in the UK in support of development, support for and sharing of OERs.
And some initiatives overseas – NDLR in Ireland, Rice Connexions in the US, BCcampus in Canada. And the recently announced OER University being established – collaboration between OER Foundation and universities. 1 st meeting held 23 rd Feb. Will be interesting to see how this develops.
Putting content onto the Open Commons needs licensing that supports sharing and the 4 Rs – Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute (from Open Content http://www.opencontent.org/definition/)
References and websites used in this presentation. Some images may be subject to copyright.