Green Education Using Open Green Education Using Open Educational Resources (OER):Educational Resources (OER):

Setting up a Green OER Setting up a Green OER RepositoryRepository

V. Protonotarios, M. Ungur, H. Ebner, N. Manouselis

SPDECE-2012. Multidisciplinary symposium on the design and evaluation of

digital content for education

Alicante, Spain, 14/6/2012

About Open Educational About Open Educational ResourcesResources

What are the OER?OER = Open Educational Resources

 Educational materials that are freely available  and licensed in a way that gives users the legal permission to

reuse – use the work “as-is” without having to ask permission

revise - alter or transform the work to meet the user’s needs

remix – combine the work with other works for an enhanced effect

redistribute – share the work or derivative work with others.

Why use OER?Why use OER?

 Shared content becomes a vehicle for collaboration and connection

Shared materials are continually improved upon through revisions

Materials can be adapted and localized to fit the specific audience needs

Saves time, cuts costs, and reduces duplication of effort

Open Access Repository Open Access Repository SoftwareSoftwareOER combined with open access

repository software…

How to find OER?How to find OER?

 OER is supported by an ever-growing active movement◦ Usually available through specialized

learning portals

We need to focus on OER in the area of agriculture / green topics!

OER Commons OER Commons www.oercommons.org

Provides access to a number of OER on agriculture

Provides a number of search options and filtering of the results

Green OER Commons (www.oercommons.org/green) hosts resources specifically on green topics

Organic.Edunet Web Organic.Edunet Web portal portal www.organic-www.organic-edunet.euedunet.eu

Provides access to almost 11,000 resources on Organic Agriculture & Agroecology

Features four different search mechanisms and filtering of the results

Not all resources are OER, so one should be careful!

MERLOT MERLOT www.merlot.orgwww.merlot.org

Provides access to a number of resources on agriculture and green topics

Features classification of resources by type as well

Users may comment and review resources

OER Africa – Agriculture OER Africa – Agriculture OEROERwww.oerafrica.org/agricultuwww.oerafrica.org/agricultureoerreoerProvides access to a number of

resources on agricultural topicsThe number of resources is

constantly growingResources are mostly relevant to

African agricultural sector

FAO Organic Agriculture FAO Organic Agriculture portalportalhttp://www.fao.org/organicag/enhttp://www.fao.org/organicag/en

Provides access to publications, reports, projects, glossary etc. on organic agriculture topics

The number of resources is relatively high and growing

Resources are classified according to their top-level topic and are easy to find

Suitable for vocational training

Edutopia: GoGreen Edutopia: GoGreen databasedatabasehttp://www.edutopia.org/go-http://www.edutopia.org/go-greengreenlaunched by George Lucas

Educational FoundationIncludes lesson plans, projects,

web sitesEasily retrievable content

through search options

The issues facedThe issues faced

In most cases:

Limited use of metadata = issues in retrieving the resources◦Time consuming task

Lack of collection policy◦Providing info on the attributes of the

collection / resourcesLack of quality assurance /

criteria◦Ensuring the quality of the provided

resources

Our proposal: Green OER Our proposal: Green OER collectioncollectiona collection of OER focusing on green

topics◦a collection of metadata records which

describe quality educational material on green topics

covers green topics, such as sustainability, agriculture, environment, ecology, energy, biodiversity etc.

Describes items like complete lessons or lesson plans, guides and handbooks, journal articles and information sheets

WorkflowWorkflow

1. Content retrieval1. Content retrieval

Content experts browsing the web for appropriate content

Communication with content providers in special cases

Quality Assurance: Content has to meet the Organic.Edunet Core Criteria

2. Annotation2. AnnotationContent/Metadata experts using

Confolio toolAnnotation with Organic.Edunet

IEEE LOM AP, using all available info

Support for multilingual versions of metadata!

3. Publication3. Publication

1. Organic.Edunet Web portal: http://www.organic-edunet.eu

Currently features almost 11,000 resources!

3. Publication3. Publication2. Green OER-Commons micro-site:

www.oercommons.org/green

Currently features more than 2,000 resources!

To sum upTo sum upThere is an obvious need for

quality OER in green topicsMetadata descriptions are usually

incomplete, making retrieval of resources a hard task

Quality assurance is not apparentWe are working towards

addressing these two issues with the Green OER collection!

Thank you for your attention!