Open Educational Content

The more work I do in fields related to education, the more committed I become to making content that is open for use, access, and re-use. The projects listed here reflect my work in this area.

Digital tools and technologies

Mastering Zotero

Work is proceeding on a full course on using the Zotero citation management software (I prefer the term “research assistant”) to organize materials, read and annotate texts, and support research workflows. Two units are complete, and work on the the remaining three is ongoing.

Topics covered in the course include:

• An in-depth look at Zotero’s organizational tools: collections, tags, and related items
• Using Zotero for reading and annotation
• Keeping track of your research workflow
• Collaboration and online Zotero groups
• A range of “pro tips”

See the full course online!

Learning Scalar

ANVC’s Scalar platform was built to support the creation of born-digital, non-linear scholarly texts. It supports multiple media types and provides flexible methods for connecting ideas and visualizing those connections. It has has a bit of a steep learning curve!

The User Guide for Scalar 2 is rich, but there is a gap in material for understanding some foundational concepts of how Scalar works with information. I built Learning Scalar to help bridge this void. The content is on the Scalar platform, of course, and provides a number of exercises for students who are just getting started with building Scalar content.

See the course online!

Privacy

Protecting Your Online Privacy (hands-on info for non-techies)

It may only be my perception, but there seems to be a belief that a foundation in technical skills is required as a prerequisite to an understanding of how to manage online privacy. The idea for this content (and the related workshop) came from an awareness of countless online resources for privacy protection and the barriers to learning those resources actually create. If you’re new to this issue, where do you start?

The goal with this effort was to create a hands-on workshop that covers the basics of online privacy in a jargon-free way, and leaves participants armed with some of the tools they can use to manage it. When this workshop is presented, participants arrive with their favorite devices and leave with at least one or two privacy management tools installed and ready to go.

With the Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom, we created a massive resource guide as an Open Educational Resource covering online privacy in a Canadian context.

Download the full resource guide from OER Commons or just steal our list of links and resources.

I love teaching this material, and can provide this workshop for end-users (as a guide to hands-on tools) or for information professionals looking to improve their own privacy literacy skills. If you’re interested, please contact me.

Copyright

Opening Up Copyright

The University of Alberta’s Opening Up Copyright project is a multi-year effort to create open education resources on Canadian copyright for general audiences. The project is highly-collaborative, but I took the lead in the creation of the module on the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement.

See the completed module on the Opening Up Copyright website