AUSpace Community: Open Access Week

Athabasca River Basin Research Institute Repository: Enhancing open access, education and research

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:40:30 GMT

Title: Athabasca River Basin Research Institute Repository: Enhancing open access, education and research

Authors: Carter, Lisa; Tin, Tony

Abstract: The Athabasca River Basin Research Institute (ARBRI) supports interdisciplinary research and knowledge transfer of the Athabasca River Basin, an area of more than 159,000 km2 that is distinct by its watersheds, lands, resources and communities. Recognizing that information related to the Athabasca River Basin is dispersed and in many different forms, and is often difficult to locate, a comprehensive online repository collecting as much information on the Athabasca River Basin has been developed. At the heart of the ARBRI is the commitment to collect materials and resources related specifically to the Athabasca River Basin that can be freely accessible to researchers, government, industry stakeholders, and community members, both locally and globally. Using advances in online technologies, a comprehensive searchable and interactive digitized repository is in development, using a number of platforms, such as research and technical reports and manuscripts, maps, videos, and audio records. This presentation will describe some of the advances in the development of the Athabasca River Basin Research Institute (ARBRI) repository that enables open and free access to materials.

Contribution of AU's e-Lab initiative to Open Access and OER Development

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:37:31 GMT

Title: Contribution of AU's e-Lab initiative to Open Access and OER Development

Authors: Ellerman, Evelyn

Abstract: All universities have labs where research and teaching are conducted, where the physical tools of research and teaching are stored, where people get together to talk about their work and their ideas, and where the results of teaching and learning can be displayed. Increasingly, traditional universities are constructing media labs where students can also gain practice in using the tools of digital research and learning. While such labs are generally physically situated in actual buildings and house row upon row of computers, they are also beginning to take on a virtual life. The e-Lab at AU is one vision of what a university lab might be if it were entirely virtual. It is intended to serve many of the practical functions that physical labs have served in the past. But it is a way that AU is imagining the future by providing an online environment that encourages new understandings of teaching, learning, research and professional growth. The e-Lab offers e-Portfolio opportunities, a virtual tool cupboard, social media space, online workshops, and demonstrations of online research and student projects in such areas as mobile learning. The e-Lab also challenges current notions of pedagogy, as well as relationships between the University and the wider community. How does open access affect notions of teaching and learning, especially in an asynchronous undergraduate environment? How open can a university be with the resources it has developed? What are the copyright and FOIP implications of an open access lab? How does a commitment to open access affect the University’s partnering organizations? These are issues that must be re-examined with every technological change, but that are particularly interesting in the open access environment.

Sleeping with the Elephant – Leveraging AU’s Position through Open Courseware

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:35:21 GMT

Title: Sleeping with the Elephant – Leveraging AU’s Position through Open Courseware

Authors: Connors, Martin

Abstract: There has been an explosion of content in open (and not-so-open) forms in recent years, much of it highly relevant to Distance Education. It can be asserted that AU’s claim to fame is less the creation of content than the implementation expertise that we have. It is also possible that we are on a slippery slope as others obtain this expertise. We must not forget that we are uniquely disadvantaged in Canada by the (constitutionally unchangeable) lack of a federal role in education. Open content allows us to sidestep our difference from most providers (that they merely need to record lectures to create viable online course content). We can optimize such content for use in Distance Education. How this is done will be described with examples. From a strategic point of view, this may be our niche. However, as in any arrangement of sleeping with elephants, their decision to roll over could affect us very much. Tendencies of big players to fill the currently empty US public Distance Education space will be examined.

Much Open Online Content (mooc)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:33:05 GMT

Title: Much Open Online Content (mooc)

Authors: Schafer, Steve

Abstract: There have been transformations in libraries in at least three areas over the past number of years. First, in the area of service there is a transformation from users coming to the library to a model of the library reaching out to users. Secondly, in the area of collection building there is a transformation from ownership to access. Thirdly, there is a transformation in the need for digitization and preservation of materials – including materials that may require digitization. Steve Schafer’s session will focus on digital collections and will help answer two questions: 1. What’s out there? 2. How do you find it?