Knowledge Sharing » Education

eduCommons, a Free CMS for Open Course Ware

Dagu — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:37:02 +0000

Logo eduCommons

eduCommons is a content management system designed specifically to support OpenCourseWare projects like Notre Dame OCW and OCW Universidad de Cantabria. eduCommons will help you develop and manage an open access collection of course materials. It is built around a workflow process that guides content developers through the process of publishing materials in an openly accessible format.

What can it do?
eduCommons is built around a workflow process that guides users through the process of publishing materials in an openly accessible format. This includes uploading materials into a repository, dealing with copyright, reassembling materials into courses, providing quality assurance, and publication of materials.

Wanna try? Here is the eduCommons demo.

What universities use eduCommons? Here is the list of eduCommons adopters.

Who develop it?
The Center for Open and Sustainable Learning (COSL,), at Utah State University is dedicated to increasing access to educational opportunity worldwide. At the Center, we believe that all humans beings are endowed with a capacity to learn, improve, and progress. Educational opportunity is the mechanism by which we fulfill that capacity. Therefore, free and open access to educational opportunity is a basic human right. When educational materials can be electronically copied and transferred around the world at almost no cost, we have a greater ethical obligation than ever before to increase the reach of opportunity. When people can connect with others nearby or in distant lands at almost no cost to ask questions, give answers, and exchange ideas, the moral imperative to meaningfully enable these opportunities weighs profoundly. We cannot in good conscience allow this poverty of educational opportunity to continue when educational provisions are so plentiful, and when their duplication and distribution costs so little.

The Center is doing what we can through a of mix research, development, and teaching. COSL is part of the Department of Instructional Technology at Utah State University in Logan, UT.

Press Coverage: What folks are saying about COSL
Partners: Partners and Organizations Supporting COSL
Giving to COSL: Giving to COSL
Visit COSL: Directions to COSL

Open Course Ware: Learning Without Border

Dagu — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:58:35 +0000

OpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the Internet. Already in 1999 the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online in the context of its timms initiative. The OCW movement only took off, however, with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at MIT in October 2002. Since then, a number of universities have created OCW projects, some of which have been funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware.

According to the website of the OCW Consortium, an OCW project:

is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses.
is available for use and adaptation under an open license.
does not typically provide certification or access to instructors.

The Goals of the Consortium

Extend the reach and impact of opencourseware by encouraging the adoption and adaptation of open educational materials around the world.
Foster the development of additional opencourseware projects.
Ensure the long-term sustainability of opencourseware projects by identifying ways to improve effectiveness and reduce costs.

Participation Requirements
In order to participate in Consortium activities, institutions must have committed to publishing, under the institution’s name, materials from at least 10 courses in a format that meets the agreed-upon definition of an opencourseware. Organizations that do not publish their own content but whose activities further Consortium goals—such as translation and distribution affiliates—also participate in Consortium activities.

For managing the course content, we can use a CMS (Content Management System) called eduCommons which is developed by Utah University’s Center for Open Sustainable Learning. eduCommons is built on the open source CMS called Plone and is used by many members of OCW Consortium.

Institutions and organizations participating in OpenCourseWare Consortium activities will have the following button featured on their individual OCW Web sites:

Free Adobe Flex Builder 3 Professional for Education

Dagu — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:56:49 +0000

Adobe Flex Builder 3 Professional

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems. While Flex applications can be built using only the free open source framework, developers can use Adobe® Flex® Builder™ software to dramatically accelerate development.

If you want to know more about Flex, you may visit its website flex.org. I won’t tell you about flex. I just wanna share my experience. As you read before, you may develop Flex application using only the free open source framework. In frankly speaking, you should work hard to develop it from the scratch. If you want the easier way, you need to use Adobe Flex Builder. The problem is, you should pay to use it. Of course, for a great software, we need to pay. It doesn’t matter if you are a software house or professional that make money from developing application using that software. But if you are a student that need to learn Flex? A student doesn’t make money but only need to learn.

For student, don’t worry. Adobe is very kind to student and faculty. They give Adobe Flex Builder for free. It sounds great doesn’t it? Yes. It’s very great! And I’m one of the lucky guy who get the Adobe Flex Builder for free.

How to get it? Easy. Remember, you need to be honest. You should be a student or a faculty. Adobe Flex Builder 3 Pro is available for free to all education customers. This includes all students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions.

Proof of Eligibility
To receive the product, you must upload a valid proof of eligibility to get the serial numbers to activate the product. Valid proofs of eligibility are:

a student ID showing current enrollment,
a Faculty ID showing current employment
an employee ID showing current employment, or
a letter on an educational institution letterhead stating that you are either a current student, a current faculty member or a current employee of the institution.

Terms and conditions
The education version is only available to education customers and is not meant for distribution to institutions, organizations or people outside the authorized educational institution. For additional information on eligibility, please refer to their FAQ.

After submitting your proof of eligibility, you need to download the Adobe Flex Builder 3 Professional trial version (60 days). They will check it within two weeks. I suggest you to use your university email address. If you are approved, they will send you a serial number to activate your Flex Builder 3 Professional. Then, you can smile.. :)

OK, what are you waiting for? come on get Adobe Flex Builder 3 Professional for free.. :)

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