Back to UKOER guides and toolkits

Technical aspects -  practical resources and guides

Every UKOER project had a page on the CETIS Project directory which acts as a useful summary of technical issues and related standards relevant to each project. See also Technology for Open Educational Resources - Into The Wild. Reflections on three years of the UK OER Programmes Edited by Amber Thomas, Lorna M. Campbell, Phil Barker and Martin Hawksey. October 2012

Technical issues

• Standards and technical information - (Open Exeter, University of Exeter)
• OSS Watch and OpenSpires - Presentation to OER10 Conference March 2010- (OpenSpires Project, University of Oxford)
• Unicycle Project Technical Report - (Unicycle Project, Leeds Metropolitan University)
• Technical aspects of PublishOER  http://www.medev.ac.uk/blog/oer-phase-3-blog/. (PublishOER Project)
• Slides and Blackboard Collaborate recording of a technical workshop webinar on 22/01/13 (PublishOER Project)
• Student App Development Day, with links to the resulting videos of the technical solutions (http://www.medev.ac.uk/blog/megans-blog/2012/jun/17/highly-successful-student-app-development-day/). The students presented the results of their work at the end (https://www.medev.ac.uk/blog/megans-blog/2012/jun/30/student-app-development-presentations-available-to-review/).  (PublishOER Project)
  

Hosting

• Repositories and the Open Web Blog post (Chemistry FM Project)
• Feed deposit for JORUMOpen - which Dublin Core elements? - article produced by Barry Cornelius, Oxford University
• Chemistry FM blog on repositories and the open web  (Chemistry FM Project)
• Chemistry FM presentation on repositories and the open web  (Chemistry FM Project)
• Jorum Help Guides include helpsheets on depositing, adding and amending metadata, and the Licence Guide for Jorum
• Jorum FAQs
• Where Technophile meets Technophobe: Creating an OER Repository for the Social Policy and Social Work Teaching Community Paper delivered at OER conference 2011. (SWAPBox Project)
•  Information and guidance materials for LanguageBox - http://languagebox.ac.uk/3097/  (FAVOR Project)
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Metadata and resource description

• Guidelines For EngSC OER-Descriptions - (ENGSC Project)
• Metadata mapping - (Open Exeter, University of Exeter)
• Metadata Schema - (OpenSpires Project, University of Oxford)
• Metadata Arghhh blog post - (Chemistry.FM)
• Jorum Help Guides include helpsheets on depositing, adding and amending metadata, and the Licence Guide for Jorum

Aggregation

• Feed deposit for JorumOpen - which Dublin Core elements - produced by Barry Cornelius, Oxford University

• Blog post on OER aggregation (Triton Project)
  

   

Discoverability

• Making resources discoverable presentation (BERLIN Project, University of Nottingham)
• Research looking at the effectiveness of search engine optimisation (SCOOTER Project)
• Search engine optimisation techniques
• SEO Guidelines
• SEO "How to" resources
• SCOOTER posterous site
• SCOOTER FACEBOOK site
• SCOOTER youtube channel (SCOOTER Project) 
• OSIER project: extended resource description template Template document for writing an extended description of a resources in OSIER, including these headings: 1. Introduction and background; 2. Context; 3. Evaluation and feedback; 4. Potential for re-use and re-purposing; 5. Inclusivity, usability and accessibility; 6. Other information. MS Word .doc (OSIER Project)

Accessibility

• Paper on accessibility issues in the context of the OER programme (C-SAP CACSADE Project)
• OSIER project - accessibility and usability guidelines The resource contains a short accessibility and usability checklist, and a more detailed set of guidelines. Wherever possible, OSIER resources should conform to the criteria in the short checklist. Both documents are supplied as word processor files (.docx) and PDF (OSIER Project)
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Producing materials

• Copying material from Blackboard using bFree (OpenStaffs Project, Staffordshire University)
• Copying material from Blackboard and preparing it for JorumOpen (OpenStaffs Project, Staffordshire University)
• OER Creation Flowchart (Open Educational Resources (ADM-OER) Project)
• Potentially greater visibility provided by third party public solutions: Chemistry FM YouTube videos (Chemistry FM Project)
• Creating and formatting documents for e-readers using ePub: a comprehensive guide on how to create and edit existing documents into ePub files for use on e-readers and other devices. (OTTER Project, University of Leicester)
• Screencast tutorials on producing podcasts - (OpenSpires Project, University of Oxford)

• Pencils and Pixels: Publishing OERs using WordPress (and EPrints) - (Chemistry FM Project, University of Lincoln)

• Java Digital Breadboard Simulator: A simulator for an educational electronics environment - (JBB Project)
• Panopto Lecture Capture guide and guidance on pedagogy for lecture capture (OSTRICH Project)
• Guidance on open textbooks (C-SAP CACSADE Project)
• Web2.0 tools (C-SAP CACSADE Project)

• Triton Wordpress code (Triton Project)

• Blog post on integration of dynamic collection with Wordpress (Triton Project)
  

• Research looking at whether multimedia resources are effective educational tools (SCOOTER Project)

• SPACE Functional Specification   (SPACE Project)
• SPACE Resource design brief  (SPACE Project)
• SPACE testing brief  (SPACE Project)
• Testing scenarios and survey  (SPACE Project)
• OpenLabyrinth source code (PORSCHE Project)
• Toolkit interoperability implementation (PORSCHE Project)
• OER bookmarking tool - Contribution to CETIS Technical Miniproject (PORSCHE Project)
• Jorum API wiki  - Contribution to sector API needs wiki (PORSCHE Project)
• PowerPoint: ‘Open Educational Resources- a short guide’ (Learning form WOeRK Project)
• When developing OER it is recommended that you include information about your OER on the back page of the resource. Back page templates for some common file formats are available here:
• PowerPoint Template
• Word Template
• Module summary template (Learning form WOeRK Project)

•  3D simulation model Product development process model (SPACE Project)

• OSIER project - resource guidelines This resource contain documents that set out requirements and standards for resources submitted to the OSIER repository. They cover copyright, licensing and usability. The short checklist summarises the requirements as a series of questions, whilst the longer document includes more detail and a 'traffic light' classification. Both documents are available as word processor files (.doc) and PDF. (OSIER Project)
• ORBEE Learning Design - Creating OER  A detailed learning design guide for academics producing learning materials which helps them to develop the materials in a way that is attractive, engaging and easy to use for web learners. 
• Improved understanding for academics providing learning materials of the importance of organisation, structure, clarity of expression and variety of media used to present them
• Guidance for Tutors: Preparing Learning Packages 
• Guide for Learners: Using Learning Packages (ORBEE Project)
• Ebooks mini reports
• the-ipad-in-the-library
• engage-event-ebooks-ereaders-elearning (Great Writers Inspire Project)
• Hand-out with top tips for producing podcasts: (SESAME Project)
• Slides and Blackboard Collaborate recording of a technical workshop webinar on 22/01/13 with reference to working with Elsevier Publishers (PublishOER Project)

Models and workflows

• CORRE: a framework for transforming teaching materials into OERs and CORRE workflow model (OTTER Project, University of Leicester)
• CORRE framework and CORRE 2.0 framework to support (respectively) repurposing and original design of educational materials for 'openness, reuse, repurposing and evidence'. In its implementation at Bath, CORRE 2.0 is referred to as DORRE. Supported by a detailed checklist Account of the transition from CORRE 1.0 to CORRE 2.0 as presented at OER11 (OSTRICH Project)