Open Educational Content/olcos/Tutorial1 Use Open Content

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About this tutorial

Why to reinvent the wheel if one can build on existing material. The "only" question is where and how to find the right resources. Actively searching for useful material on the internet becomes a relevant integral part of the learning process and therefore search support mechanisms play an important role for the success of a self-directed technology-enhanced learning process.


Duration
It won't take long to work through this tutorial but it will save you time and effort to find Open Digital Educational Content (ODEC) you can reuse for your purposes. Depending on your prior knowledge it will take you less than an hour to do the whole tutorial with all its assignments.

Prior knowledge
This tutorial is especially concentrating on searching open educational resources and it requires basic understanding of the internet and the use of search engines and directories. It also requires common knowledge about the general concept of Open Digital Educational Content (ODEC) and the meaning of licenses for ODEC.

Introduction

"He who seeks finds!"

Whom are we addressing?

If you are:

  • a pupil, a student or just an interested person
  • a teacher, lecturer, tutor or trainer
  • a study group or class

and if you intend to:

  • prepare a presentation, lecture or lesson
  • work on a school project
  • write a term paper etc.

you are the one we are addressing with this tutorial.



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Objectives
This tutorial offers you practical information, advice, and guidance as learners and promoters & mentors on how to search, find and use open content. It will show you efficient ways of searching the Internet for relevant information, resources and Open Digital Educational Content (ODEC) to meet your needs. The tutorial will also provide you with some ideas on how to keep yourself up-to-date with resources you are interested in. Besides the ability to find ODEC resources you will be able to make judgements about the use of these resources.



The tutorial explores basic internet search strategies and search in repositories. It covers the basics of multiple word searches, the search for and in trusted educational repositories and scholarly publishing resources as well as some selected web search tools. Every page of this tutorial consists of:

  • an introduction text
  • an assignment and
  • additional web links for further exploring the subject.

Some pages also contain a screencast (animations explaining how to e.g. use a feed reader).

Searching Open Digital Educational Resources

If you are already familiar with different search engines and BOOLEAN search you can skip "Searching ODEC with Search Engines".

Searching ODEC with Search Engines

ODEC search with a special Open Content Search Engine

Media specific search

Searching in dedicated ODEC sites

Keeping up-to-date with ODEC

Internal Subscriptions

RSS-Feeds

Agents

Using ODEC

How to use ODEC


Using ODEC for commercial purposes

Useful Material

other tutorials, informations?


Advanced Search

Advanced Search 2


Additional Information

Please note, that this tutorial is based upon current standards of search engines and Creatice Commons Licenses (2007-01-15).