Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Sharing is Caring!

I reviewed the YouTube video 'OER Discoverability and Sharing', presented by Erin Fields (CARL).  Erin began this discussion by stating that there is no 'one size fits all' solution as discoverability can be problematic.  There are many systems and many tools, with several aggregators and various repositories.

In order to make an item open to the largest possible audience, you must consider accessibility, inclusivity, file format, as well as the licence assigned to the item.  You can help to make items truly open by: describing visuals, transcribing videos, describing hyperlinks, making text readable, and finally structuring the page using headings and other style conventions.

Other design considerations include making sure that the individual can edit the file, and that they will not require special software (i.e.: Adobe) to work with the item.  Open file formats include: HTML, ODF, RTF, SVG, PNG and CSV.  PDF can be open, if you use that text format that allows for OCR. 

When sharing items, it is important to have a standardized metadata which will allow for discovery on repositories and aggregators, and in turn allows for the creator to collect impact metrics.  Include: source type, author, title, date, URL, subjects, abstract, duration/length, audience, and copyright or licence information.  If you wish to archive your item, WikiMedia is a good choice, for archiving and aggregating, OER Commons, Open Textbook Library is an aggregator of resources and MASON OER Finder is an aggregator of repositories.  So many choices and so many decisions that need to be made before you even begin creating your OER project.

Collecting metrics are useful for grant applications, promotion and merit (universities), and for your personal records.  You can review views/downloads/saves as well as ratings of your project - dependent on what tool you use.

As for marketing and promotion: share news through your institution and professional associations, along with your personal social media channels.  Consider looking for relevant hashtags, and promote on academic social media channels as well.

Further resources:
https://open.ubc.ca/access/toolkits-access/oer-accessibility-toolkit/ - OER accessibility toolkit
http://guides.library.ubc.ca/open-education/sharing - Sharing your repository

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