Open Educational Content/olcos/Tutorial1 Use Open Content

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.

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: