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https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.802935	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-1	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.863455	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-1", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-2	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.892852	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-2", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-3	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.916760	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-3", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-4	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.940968	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-4", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-5	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.965022	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-5", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-6	Module 2 – Finding OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Plan your search - Locate OER Repositories - Locate specific types of materials Using a search plan Unlike libraries, where content is evaluated and curated from a set of items identified through publishers, open educational resources can be found everywhere and anywhere and have no set form of evaluation before they are made available to the public. This lack of evaluation makes developing a search plan very important. Before beginning your search for an open education resource, you need to have a clear plan. This will help you make decisions on what tools to use for searching, the kind of resource you select, and the subject coverage. The following checklist will help you plan your search strategy as well as help you identify whether a resource will suit your needs: Audience - Who will be using the resources? - Is the resource at an appropriate education level for your audience? Subject Coverage & Relevance - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? - Is there any area within the larger subject that should be excluded? Material Type - What kind of media does the collection contain (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.?) - What media types are excluded from the collection? Pedagogical - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? Accuracy & Production Quality - Is the information accurate? - Are there major content errors or omissions? - Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc)? - Are the layout and interface easy to navigate? - Do the design features enhance or inhibit learning? - For image, audio, or video resources, is the picture/sound quality high? Interactivity - Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation? - Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions)? Licensing - Does the license allow for educational reuse of materials? - Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the material? Answering these questions will help you during your search by identifying different filters you can use to narrow your search results and evaluate the resources once the search results come in. Take a moment Which is the most difficult? Places to search OERs are usually found in repositories that specifically collect these resources together. There are a large number of OER repositories, and new ones are being created every day as people collect and organize resources specific to their needs. The best place to start looking for resources is in a few of the largest and more comprehensive repositories. Major Repositories Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) The Mason OER Metafinder searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax, OER Commons, MERLOT but also sites like HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found. MERLOT The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections. These materials have been contributed by the MERLOT member community who have either authored the materials or who have shared existing open education materials. Materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive peer review process for which MERLOT is known. MERLOT has also added a “Smart Search” function which searches for OER at other libraries/repositories, and which can also search the web using a proprietary MERLOT user profile design to find the newest and most popular learning materials available. OASIS Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from a large number of sources. At the outset, users can start a search if they know what they’re looking for, or they can view the variety of OER source types available to them—textbooks, courses, interactive simulations, audiobooks, and learning objects are just a few of the tools one can look for. OER Commons OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Searching with Google Another great place to start your search is through Google. Google’s Advanced search offers the ability to filter your search results by license. Google offers 5 usage rights options that correspond to different Creative Commons conditions. - Not filtered by license – This tells Google to ignore this filter and include copyright items in the search. - Free to use or share – This includes items that have NC and ND licenses. - Free to use or share, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC licenses. - Free to use share or modify – This includes items that have NC licenses but excludes ND licenses. - Free to use, share or modify, even commercially – This excludes items that have NC and ND licenses. You can also filter image searches by license, which is found under “Tools” Take a moment What are the benefits and limitations of searching in a discipline-specific repository? Finding specific materials If you are looking for a specific type of OER, here are some good places to look. Audio - Big Sound Bank is a library of royalty-free, free of charge, and public domain sounds. - Free Music Archive allows visitors to browse, listen and download music for free. Data - ABACUS Open Data Collection is a UBC collection of publicly available data including censuses and surveys. - ArcGIS Open Data contains open GIS data from Esri. - Open Data Network is a global search engine that allows you to search across tens of thousands of datasets from hundreds of open data catalogs. - Open Government (Canada) has data from the Government of Canada. Images - Flickr allows you to search for CC-licensed images by using the “Any License” drop down menu. Flickr Commons contains public domain photography collections supplied by libraries and museums from around the world. - The Noun Project includes nearly 3 million community-contributed icons. - Unsplash contains over 1 million free high-resolution community-contributed images. - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. Textbooks - The BCcampus B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). - InTech publishes Open Textbooks based on quality, peer-reviewed research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. - The Open Textbook Library currently includes 683 textbooks, with more being added all the time. It is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network. - OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. - The Pressbooks Directory provides an index of thousands of public books published across dozens of PressbooksEDU networks. This chapter will show how to navigate around the directory and find the resources you are looking for. Video - Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform that has a large selection of Creative Commons videos with a variety of CC licenses. - Youtube allows you to filter by Creative Commons licenses (reuse only) Take a moment How can you incorporate searching for open materials into your current methods? Module quiz Test your knowledge about OER repositories. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Open Education – Finding Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:29.988804	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-2-finding-oers/#chapter-46-section-6", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.026729	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-1	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.063520	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-1", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-2	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.099653	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-2", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-3	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.135095	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-3", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-4	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.176369	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-4", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-5	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.211352	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-5", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-6	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.247732	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-6", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-7	Module 3 – Creating OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify potential platforms and tools that you can use to create an OER. - Use TASL attribution. - Design your OER with accessibility best practices. Why create an OER There are many reasons why you might choose to create your own OER. Although cost savings are a major talking point in favour of adopting open educational resources, the freedom to adapt OER to instructional needs is often the most attractive aspect of OER. Since OER are openly licensed, educators are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials in many ways. You can tailor a resource to fit a specific context within your courses and research, create resources that can be used within or across disciplines, and enable all students to have equal access to course materials. Take a moment Platforms and tools To create OERS, you can use many of the same tools that you currently use to create educational resources for your courses. However, you may want to consider using tools that were developed especially for creating OERs, which contain features that will facilitate openness, discoverability, accessibility, and sharing. Below is a list of criteria to consider when choosing which tool you’d like to use to create your OER: - Types of OER Supported: Does this tool allow you to create text-based or multimedia resources, or course modules that may contain both? - Special Characters: If you plan to create a resource that will include special character/equations, does this tool support that? - Accessibility: Does this tool facilitate creating content that is accessible? - Sharing/Licensing: Does this tool allow you to easily apply a Creative Commons license? - Hosting: Does this tool allow you to host your OER on an existing OER platform, with a permanent link for sharing? - Export Options: Does this tool allow you to export your content to a format that others can reuse and share? Could your students export to a printable format, if they so choose? - Cost: What will this tool cost to use? For you? For students? Will students have to create an account in order to view your OER? If so, what are the tool’s terms of use, and how does it manage your students’ personal data? Pressbooks Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform. Pressbooks allows you to create content once and publish it in many formats including a website, PDF document, EPUB (usable in most eReaders), MOBI (for Kindle readers), and various editable files. Pressbooks supports uploading of a variety of formats (including PDFs, Word docs, HTML) and content can be edited, modified and be published in a variety of formats. Students can choose to read the textbook online, download a PDF, read the textbook on their e-reader, or they could even request a print copy of the textbook, paying only the printing fees. PB also provides many of the advantages of online materials. You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos, add podcasts and interactive components using H5P. It is built off of WordPress so it’s easy to pick up and use. If you want an open educational resource that still feels like a textbook, Pressbooks is a really good option. BCIT uses the BCcampus instance of Pressbooks available to instructors and staff at BC and Yukon institutions. BCcampus provides Pressbooks support for their platform with: - Video tutorials - BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide - The Adaptation Guide - BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit - LaTeX Support – schedule a tutoring session and find LaTeX information Jupyter Notebooks Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and text. Jupyter supports over 40 programming languages and can be shared through GitHub or the Jupyter Notebook Viewer. The Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computing environment that enables users to author notebook documents that include code, interactive widgets, plots, narrative text, equations, images and even video! The Jupyter name comes from 3 programming languages: Julia, Python, and R. It is a popular tool for literate programming. The Jupyter Notebook combines three components (from the docs): - The notebook web application: An interactive web application for writing and running code interactively and authoring notebook documents. - Kernels: Separate processes started by the notebook web application that runs users’ code in a given language (e.g. python, R, Julia, Go, and more — get the full list of kernels from the wiki) and returns output back to the notebook web application. The kernel also handles things like computations for interactive widgets, tab completion and introspection. - Notebook documents: Self-contained documents that contain a representation of all content visible in the notebook web application, including inputs and outputs of the computations, narrative text, equations, images, and rich media representations of objects. Each notebook document has its own kernel. You can export your notebook in many other formats, even LaTex and PDF! Literate Programming Donald Knuth first defined literate programming as a script, notebook, or computational document that contains an explanation of the program logic in a natural language (e.g. English or Mandarin), interspersed with snippets of macros and source code, which can be compiled and rerun. You can think of it as an executable paper! Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems is an open-source and locally hosted journal publishing platform. It was created by and is hosted at SFU and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Along with providing a personalized website for each journal, OJS includes robust editorial workflow management functions that allow journals to manage submissions, peer review and editing all within the platform. BCIT provides an OJS instance for BCIT staff, faculty, and students. The OJS system has a highly configurable system for editorial workflows with features including: - Online author submission - Blind, double-blind, or open peer-review processes - Online management of copyediting, layout, and proofreading - Delegation of editorial responsibilities according to journal sections - Management of publication schedule and ongoing journal archiving - Customizable presentation features - Multilingual interface supporting 10 languages - Support for a variety of reader tools, such as RSS feeds and share buttons OJS can be used for non-journal monograph projects as well, especially if you are engaging in open pedagogy. For example, if you have an assignment that repeats throughout all of the times you teach a course, you could consider creating a journal for that assignment and publishing student work according to which term or section they are in as different volumes. Other tools An extended list can be found on the Open BCIT Resources – Tools list which includes tools for creating images, interactive H5P, videos, and more. Games and simulations Many industries (from automobile to weather forecasting) use simulation for training; classrooms are beginning to reflect this training and this type of learning. Open Labyrinth, for instance, is being used by a number of medical schools and institutions for training; it gives students a hands-on, practical, virtual environment to use. Likewise, Molecular Workbench enables students to explore hundreds of simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Physlet Builder even allows students to create a physics simulation without writing code. Other examples of open simulations for education include Siafu (an open-source context simulator), SmartSim (an open-source digital logic circuit design simulator), Jasmin (an open-source robot simulator) and many others. For more traditional board game environments, Tabletopia enables you to create online educational card or board games to experiment with the gamification of learning concepts and information. Google Drive A series of tools (Slides, Sheets, Docs) for creating presentations, documents, or spreadsheets online. Easy editing and sharing tools are built-in, as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others. They require a Google account to create, but you can set sharing permissions to make the resource available to anyone with the link. Take a moment Are there any that sparked an idea for an OER that you could create? Adapting and using existing resources When creating and authoring something we often end up pulling in and using works created by other people. These could be works such as images, tables, graphs, videos, or excerpts. “Open” does not just apply to the words that you write, but includes all elements within the OER as well. Creating your own OER using works from other people engages in the 5R activities of Reusing, Remixing, or Revising. Combining licenses In Module 1, we learned about how each license allows or prohibits people from participating in 5R activities and thought about how restrictive each of the licenses is. When creating an OER, all images, tables, graphs, videos, etc. that you include must also have open licenses which are compatible with each other. Fair Dealing allows the use of copyrighted and other third-party materials in the classroom but does not apply when you are publishing something openly online, although there is some debate about if copyrighted materials can be included in CC materials through Fair Dealing provisions (appendix 3 gives the Canadian context). Below is an image of a chart that you can use to check whether the licenses on your items are compatible. Attribution Citing the sources you use in your work is professional and standard academic practice, and OERs are no exception. However, because of their special licensing, OERs have their own attribution style known as “TASL”. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Title – What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it. Author – Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request. Source – Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides. License – How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well. Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it? When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important. Regarding modifications: Don’t forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). Don’t make it too complicated The license tells you to be reasonable: You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information. There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info. Examples of attribution Here is a photo. Use the slider to see examples of how people might attribute it. Take a moment How would you feel if you found out someone used your work in a way you didn’t authorize and/or didn’t give you credit? Addressing accessibility One of the basic premises of open education is access. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes …that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building – Open Educational Resources, UNESCO Access in this context refers to the ability of students, instructors, and others to obtain access to education. Releasing textbooks and other educational resources with open-copyright licenses is a big step toward removing barriers, as it makes these materials free of cost and free to use, distribute, and change. But there is more that goes into accessing a resource than just being free and online. For a resource to be truly accessible, people of all abilities need to be able to access the content. This means designing an OER that accommodates people with diverse needs and ensuring the content can be accessed by all, regardless of ability. Barriers to access Listed below are some of the barriers students face during their education, as well as some solutions and examples of how to overcome these barriers in the resources you create. \| Barrier Type \| Challenge \| Solution \| Example \| \| Physical Impairments \| Low vision or blindness \| Use alternative text (alt-text) to describe an image’s content or function that can be read by a screen reader. \| All images in Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition have alt-text. \| \| Hearing impairment or deafness \| Add transcripts and captions to all audio content. \| The instructional videos [YouTube – New Tab] created for Concepts of Biology-1st Canadian Edition are all captioned. \| \| \| Motor-skill impairment, immobility \| Provide file formats that can be uploaded into a variety of mobile devices. \| Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC has a number of file types available. \| \| \| Learning Disabilities \| Difficulty absorbing information via reading or difficulty concentrating (ADHD) \| Add audio clips to printed text that students can listen to while reading along. \| Common Core Trade series (23 books) has audio files that accompany the text. \| \| Language Comprehension \| Low literacy: adult basic education (ABE) student or English language learners (ELL) \| Provide a print copy with increased font size or provide formats that allow the font size to be adjusted. Wherever possible, keep the language clear and straightforward. \| The PDF of BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English – Reader 1 uses large text. \| \| Limitations of Time and Place \| Working, parenting, or live far from a college or university \| Provide a version of the textbook that can be accessed from anywhere online. \| All books in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection can be accessed online. \| \| Unreliable or no access to the Internet \| Set up a service that can supply a print-on-demand copy. \| See the print-on-demand option for Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. \| Tips for accessibility Here are some tips that can help to make an OER more accessible: - Use clear, straightforward language. Make the content understandable. - Provide multiple formats whenever possible. This will allow different users to access the resource in different ways. - Use a clear organizational structure to guide readers through the resource. - Provide proper information and resources to make the content readable and understandable for users (ie. Glossary, Abbreviation list). - Use personas to ‘test’ out draft resources for different users. - Develop an accessibility statement to show ways that the resource has been made more accessible and a way for users to contact you with suggestions to improve accessibility. - When requesting peer reviewers, make sure to highlight the importance of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Accessibility Resources - BCcampus Open Education Review Rubric [Word file] addresses the issue of diversity and inclusion - Checklist for Accessibility from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus - Open UBC has put together an Accessibility Toolkit. Take a moment Is your definition narrow or broad? What are some ways you can make your current work more accessible? Module quiz Test your knowledge about creating an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Create – Open Educational Resources Libguide by Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Which Tool Should I Use? Selecting a Tool for Open Education by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Jupyter Notebooks – Data Management Planning Libguide by NYU Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Library Liaisons Toolkit: OJS (Open Journal Systems) by UF Libraries, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - Gaming for education to strengthen schools in 2014 by Carolyn Fox at Open Source, licensed under CC-BY-NC - OER and Alternative Textbook Handbook by Ariana Santiago is licensed under CC-BY - Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons Wiki, licensed under CC-BY - Open Textbook Publishing Guide by Erin Fields and Amanda Grey, licensed under CC-BY - Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus, licensed under CC-BY Media Attributions - CC License Compatibility Chart © Kennisland is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license - TASL © Office of Learning Innovation is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license A persona is a representation of a fictitious user that gives a clear picture of how they're likely to use the resource and what they will expect from it. Also known as user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.292363	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-3-creating-oers/#chapter-56-section-7", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.312841	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-1	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.330483	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-1", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-2	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.347890	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-2", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-3	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.364966	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-3", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-4	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.382091	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-4", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-5	Module 4 – Sharing OERs Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Explain reasons why you want to share you OER - Name 3 OER repositories that you can share to - Evaluate OER repositories Why share your OER? One of the primary motivations for faculty to create an OER is to benefit the students in their classroom. However, when OERs are shared widely they have the potential to impact many more people. When you contribute OER, whether you reuse, remix, or create something new, you are advocating for and supporting Open Pedagogy. Rooted in the concept that access to learning and education is a human right, OER advocates the world over have harnessed that idea to provide more access to more resources to more people than ever before. The following are a few things to consider when deciding to share your content: What do I want my OER to do for me? It may be that the intent for sharing your OER is simply the use by others. This is a fine reason to share your resource. However, you may also want to share to connect with other educators, to gain metrics around the content being used, to promote the work so others may improve upon it. Knowing your intent can help direct where the content should be shared. Who do I want to have primary access to my OER? Identifying your key audiences is crucial for developing a plan for sharing your OER. Different spaces may cater to specific audiences, age ranges, and subject expertise. Some spaces may provide functionality that allows you to network with other educators creating similar content. You may also need to develop separate marketing plans or different messages depending on the audience. Are impact metrics important to me? Impact metrics refer to whether the repository tracks data about how your resource is performing (e.g. number of downloads, citations). Some repositories will provide very detailed metrics about your OER (e.g. geographic location of downloads, number of views, etc.). Deciding what kind of reporting is important to you and how you will use the metrics is a way to focus where you may want to share your content and what additional planning you may need to undertake to get the right impact metric details. For example, tracking if others have modified your work can be complicated and may require a different approach to data collection. Take a moment OER repositories Creating an OER is the first step, but in order for your work to be open it must be made available online for others to access. As we learned in Module 2, OER repositories are designed specifically to collect OER resources together for other people to find and use. Repositories that allow sharing/uploading - Open BCIT Collection – OERs created by BCIT faculty - Sol*r – BCcampus’ open repository - AMSER – science and math related resources - CTE Online – curriculum materials - HumBox – humanities focused materials - MERLOT – multidisciplinary and multimedia; can submit materials or create them on MERLOT’s content builder platform - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – science case studies - OASIS – multidisciplinary; - OER Commons – multidisciplinary; can submit materials or create content in their content creation module - Open Textbook Library – multidisciplinary; can submit textbooks for review The types of repositories listed above have different features and are created for different purposes. Because of this, you may find you are sharing your resource across multiple repositories. However, there are many repositories out there and narrowing down which you will use is an important step in your workflow. There is no single repository that will meet all of your needs or have all of these features, so you will need to pick a few that are most important to you. The following are some of the most common features that will impact your decision about whether or not to use a particular repository. Hosting Hosting refers to whether or not the OER can be uploaded to the repository directly. If not, then the resource must live elsewhere (e.g., a personal website) and a link is put in the repository. Licensing Some repositories require their items to have a specific license attached to them. Most repositories will accept a range of licenses, but there are some that are more specific. Peer Review Peer review is offered by some repositories as a service. In most cases, having your resource peer-reviewed is not required. Accessibility Sometimes a repository will have accessibility guidelines for their resources. Some repositories will have special features such as being able to upload multiple formats, video players, or embedded viewing. Indexing/Discoverability If the repository is indexed, it will show up within an overarching search engine (e.g., Google) which in turn makes its resources more findable. Analytics Analytics refers to whether the repository tracks data and is able to provide information about how the resource is performing (e.g., number of downloads, citations). Some repositories are more stable than others or offer archiving services to ensure the OER is preserved for future use. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about sharing an OER. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - Sharing and Promoting OER by SUNY OER, licensed under CC-BY - Open Education – Sharing Libguide by UBC Library, licensed under CC-BY - Program for Open Scholarship and Education – Sharing OER by Open UBC, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.399077	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-4-sharing-oers/#chapter-69-section-5", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.414469	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-1	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.429329	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-1", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-2	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.443386	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-2", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-3	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.457575	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-3", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-4	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.471882	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-4", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-5	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.486362	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-5", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-6	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.500265	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-6", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-7	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.514458	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-7", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-8	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.528780	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-8", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-9	Module 5 – Challenges Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to - Identify challenges you might face when engaging in open In Module 1, we covered why OER is valuable and beneficial. Now we will discuss some of the issues or problems that might arise when you begin working in the open. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Cormier and Helen Keegan where they discuss some of the issues with OER that they’ve come across: Availability Many of the largest OER projects funded over the past fifteen years targeted high cost, high impact courses to save students money. Because of this, most of the OER available today are for general education courses such as Psychology, Biology, and Calculus. This also means that there are many open textbooks available today, but fewer options for ancillary materials. You can find lecture slides, notes, and lesson plans online, but ancillary content such as homework software and test banks are harder to find. This does not mean that there are no OER available for specialized subject areas or graduate-level courses; however, there are more resources to choose from for instructors who teach Introduction to Psychology than for those who teach Electronic Systems Integration for Agricultural Machinery & Production Systems. Sometimes specialized subject OERs are located in subject-specific databases, and you might need to do some more intensive searching to find them. Ownership OER requires a huge paradigm shift and attitude change and this is a much bigger challenge than introducing a new tool or knowledge. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. It takes some time to understand that open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, clearly recognize and can reinforce someone’s intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Hampson (2013) has suggested that a reason for the slow adoption of OER is to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don’t see themselves as ‘just’ teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or ‘copy’ other people’s work. OER can easily be associated with ‘packaged’, reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from ‘artists’ to ‘artisans’. It can be argued that this reason is absurd – we all stand on the shoulders of giants – but it is the self-perception that’s important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. Quality assurance A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources by Jan Hylen, CC-BY) [PDF]. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. The main criticism of OERs is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment – reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate. Sustainability Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality could be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run. Technology A key component of open is that resources are shared freely online. However, being online means that there is a requirement for students to have technology capable of accessing the OER. As covered in Module 3, being able to access the OER goes beyond basic internet access. To make an OER truly accessible to students of varying degrees of ability there is more reliance on technology to make sure videos are captioned, images have alt text, multiple file types are provided, etc. Technology can also depreciate over time as software and hardware gets updated or discontinued. For example, Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer usable in web browsers so any Flash-based OERs are no longer easily accessible. Repository servers hosting OERs can also be taken offline, which is why archiving and preservation is an important thing to consider when choosing where to share an OER. Time Although many challenges to OER use are inherent to the resources themselves, this drawback is a concern for you as a user and creator. It takes time and effort to find OER that might work for your course, and if you want to create and publish new resources, that takes exponentially more time. Time constraints are always going to be an issue for instructors who want to try something new in their courses. It is much easier for overworked faculty to use a fully packaged learning resource from an established publisher that includes ancillary resources, assessment tools, etc., and have students pay the cost as a part of their textbook fees. Additionally, as open becomes more popular within an institution the growing institutional expectation of creating and sharing OER can potentially be a way to exploit un-tenured, part-time, or already overworked faculty. Take a moment Module quiz Test your knowledge about challenges in open. Summary Adaptation statements This module adapted content from: - The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed under a CC-BY - Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, licensed under CC-BY-NC - Module 10: Why OER Matters by Open Washington, licensed under CC-BY	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.543084	02-23-2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/chapter/module-5-challenges/#chapter-71-section-9", "book_url": "https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/introtooers/front-matter/licensing-info/", "title": "Introduction to Open Educational Resources", "author": "Amanda Grey", "institution": "", "subject": "Open learning, distance education" }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/chapter-1/	Why Do I Need to Use the Library? While you can find a lot of information online, commercial search engines, like Google, return results based on a proprietary algorithm. Not only are the top results rarely scholarly sources, but a typical search will yield too many results that may not be relevant to your research. This is fine for everyday use, but Google searches are not suitable for academic work. Instead, the StFX Library website should be your first stop whenever you begin doing research for an assignment. A wealth of reliable, scholarly resources is available through the StFX Library, both electronically and in print. Please note that in order to access journals, e-books, or databases online for free, you must do so through the library website and/or catalogue. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.552445	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/chapter-1/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/	How to Get a Library Card Your StFX ID is your library card, which you can obtain either in-person or online. Please note that Library accounts for students expire every September 30th and need to be updated at the start of each academic year to ensure continued access to all library services. Get a StFX ID card In-Person Visit the StFX Safety & Security Services office in person. Get a StFX ID card for Distance Students Students not able to obtain an ID card in person can e-mail StFX Safety & Security Services at security@stfx.ca. Please include the following in your email: - A high quality picture to be used on your ID card - A scan of your government issued photo ID - Your StFX Student ID number - Your current mailing address - A request to have them email you your Novanet number (barcode) right away Activate your Library Card Once you have your StFX ID card or Novanet barcode, fill out and submit the appropriate online registration form to activate your account: Undergraduate Students (On Campus) Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.563203	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/#chapter-22-section-1	How to Get a Library Card Your StFX ID is your library card, which you can obtain either in-person or online. Please note that Library accounts for students expire every September 30th and need to be updated at the start of each academic year to ensure continued access to all library services. Get a StFX ID card In-Person Visit the StFX Safety & Security Services office in person. Get a StFX ID card for Distance Students Students not able to obtain an ID card in person can e-mail StFX Safety & Security Services at security@stfx.ca. Please include the following in your email: - A high quality picture to be used on your ID card - A scan of your government issued photo ID - Your StFX Student ID number - Your current mailing address - A request to have them email you your Novanet number (barcode) right away Activate your Library Card Once you have your StFX ID card or Novanet barcode, fill out and submit the appropriate online registration form to activate your account: Undergraduate Students (On Campus) Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.573421	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/#chapter-22-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/	How to Get Help Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Reference Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. You can either ask to speak with a librarian at the Access Services Desk (i.e., Circulation Desk), or you can book an appointment online. Appointment bookings for each afternoon will open at 1pm (AST). Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”. Margaret Vail is the Liaison Librarian for the Nursing Department. You can also book an appointment with them by clicking the Schedule an Appointment button located on the left-hand side of the Nursing subject guide. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.584267	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-1	How to Get Help Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Reference Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. You can either ask to speak with a librarian at the Access Services Desk (i.e., Circulation Desk), or you can book an appointment online. Appointment bookings for each afternoon will open at 1pm (AST). Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”. Margaret Vail is the Liaison Librarian for the Nursing Department. You can also book an appointment with them by clicking the Schedule an Appointment button located on the left-hand side of the Nursing subject guide. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.595050	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-2	How to Get Help Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Reference Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. You can either ask to speak with a librarian at the Access Services Desk (i.e., Circulation Desk), or you can book an appointment online. Appointment bookings for each afternoon will open at 1pm (AST). Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”. Margaret Vail is the Liaison Librarian for the Nursing Department. You can also book an appointment with them by clicking the Schedule an Appointment button located on the left-hand side of the Nursing subject guide. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.605979	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-3	How to Get Help Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Reference Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. You can either ask to speak with a librarian at the Access Services Desk (i.e., Circulation Desk), or you can book an appointment online. Appointment bookings for each afternoon will open at 1pm (AST). Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”. Margaret Vail is the Liaison Librarian for the Nursing Department. You can also book an appointment with them by clicking the Schedule an Appointment button located on the left-hand side of the Nursing subject guide. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.620523	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-28-section-3", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/library-workshops/	Library Workshops The Library provides a variety of workshops to help you improve your library skills. Workshops are free of charge and open to everyone. Some examples of workshop topics include: - Library Research 101 - Citing with APA or MLA - Managing References with Zotero - Finding Data - And more… The workshop schedule is available through the StFX Library Events page. Participants can view the details of each workshop and register for any of them online. Students can also view recorded versions of the current workshops through the Library Workshops & Tutorials channel on Microsoft Stream. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.631427	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/library-workshops/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/short-how-to-videos-on-youtube/	Primary Navigation Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices. Book Contents Navigation Introduction Why Do I Need to Use the Library? How to Get a Library Card How to Get Help Library Workshops Short How-To Videos on Youtube Document Delivery Scholarly vs. Popular Resources What is Peer Review? Subject Guides Boolean Search Operators CINAHL Database Google Scholar How do I find the textbook for my course? Links to Resources The StFX library also has a YouTube channel where you can find short how to videos on using the library. Previous/next navigation Introduction to the Library and Library Research Copyright © 2022 by Margaret Vail and Karina Espinosa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Submit Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.653666	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/short-how-to-videos-on-youtube/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/document-delivery/	Document Delivery Also known as Interlibrary Loans, Document Delivery supports the instructional and research needs of the StFX community by borrowing materials which are unavailable at StFX libraries either in print or online. Document Delivery for Physical Items For On-Campus Borrowers While viewing an item’s record in Novanet, click on the link located below the Document Delivery & More heading. Click on the Go button located to the right of Request item via Document Delivery. From there, you will need to have your StFX ID barcode and Novanet password to log-in to our Document Delivery Service (the default password is the last 4-digits of the home phone number you provided in your Library registration). For Distance Students Living Outside of Nova Scotia Your local library (whether a university, college, hospital or public library) should be your first resource for locating physical research material. Most local libraries will lend books and allow you to photocopy materials. They may require you to have a CAAL (formerly CAUL) card to borrow books. A CAAL Card grants you in-person borrowing privileges at most universities in Canada (outside of Nova Scotia) and must be requested from your home library (StFX). If you did not sign up for a CAAL card when you registered or updated your library account online, please contact us at library@stfx.ca to obtain one. A CAAL card will only be granted to patrons with accounts in good standing. To borrow material in-person from any Novanet library, you may present your StFX ID card (CAAL card not required) at their Circulation desk. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.666194	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/document-delivery/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/document-delivery/#chapter-40-section-1	Document Delivery Also known as Interlibrary Loans, Document Delivery supports the instructional and research needs of the StFX community by borrowing materials which are unavailable at StFX libraries either in print or online. Document Delivery for Physical Items For On-Campus Borrowers While viewing an item’s record in Novanet, click on the link located below the Document Delivery & More heading. Click on the Go button located to the right of Request item via Document Delivery. From there, you will need to have your StFX ID barcode and Novanet password to log-in to our Document Delivery Service (the default password is the last 4-digits of the home phone number you provided in your Library registration). For Distance Students Living Outside of Nova Scotia Your local library (whether a university, college, hospital or public library) should be your first resource for locating physical research material. Most local libraries will lend books and allow you to photocopy materials. They may require you to have a CAAL (formerly CAUL) card to borrow books. A CAAL Card grants you in-person borrowing privileges at most universities in Canada (outside of Nova Scotia) and must be requested from your home library (StFX). If you did not sign up for a CAAL card when you registered or updated your library account online, please contact us at library@stfx.ca to obtain one. A CAAL card will only be granted to patrons with accounts in good standing. To borrow material in-person from any Novanet library, you may present your StFX ID card (CAAL card not required) at their Circulation desk. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.678054	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/document-delivery/#chapter-40-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/scholarly-vs-popular-resources/	Scholarly vs. Popular Resources Scholarly resources present original, in-depth research. The source has been reviewed by academic peers to ensure the validity of its research methods and findings. Popular resources are intended for a general audience and are typically written to entertain, inform, or persuade. Depending on your research question, both scholarly and popular sources can be appropriate for your purposes. However, keep in mind that research assignments will often require you to use scholarly materials. Table 1.1. below will help you to distinguish between an article from a scholarly journal and an article from a popular publication. Content \| Scholarly/Academic \| Popular \| \| Author \| Subject experts, scholars \| Journalists, students, popular authors, no author listed \| \| Publication Format \| Journals \| Magazines; newspapers; trade journals: business, finance, industry (written by experts but not peer-reviewed) \| \| Appearance and Design \| Mostly text; some tables and charts; 5 or more pages \| Flashy covers, advertisements \| \| Language \| Complex, academic writing style; technical terms and concepts \| Simple, plain language aimed at the general public \| \| Editorial Process \| Peer-reviewed by multiple experts in the same field \| Reviewed by one in-house editor or no editor at all \| \| Intended Audience \| Specialist readership of researchers, including students, professors, and subject experts \| General readership \| \| Citations \| Includes a bibliography or reference list and in-text citations or footnotes; follows an academic style guide (e.g., APA) \| No formal citations \| \| Examples \| Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, PLOS One, The Lancet \| Women’s Health, Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail \| Check Your Understanding Which sources are scholarly and which ones are popular? Click on images below to learn more. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.695179	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/scholarly-vs-popular-resources/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/	What is Peer Review? Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. EBSCO CINAHL In the EBSCO CINAHL database, you can also limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on the advanced search page. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.717684	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-34-section-1	What is Peer Review? Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. EBSCO CINAHL In the EBSCO CINAHL database, you can also limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on the advanced search page. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.736250	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-34-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-34-section-2	What is Peer Review? Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. EBSCO CINAHL In the EBSCO CINAHL database, you can also limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on the advanced search page. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.750175	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-34-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/	Subject Guides What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the Nursing subject guide? To find the Nursing subject guide, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order. You can either type in the term, “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the Nursing heading and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of the Nursing guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.762027	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-45-section-1	Subject Guides What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the Nursing subject guide? To find the Nursing subject guide, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order. You can either type in the term, “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the Nursing heading and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of the Nursing guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.771845	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-45-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-45-section-2	Subject Guides What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the Nursing subject guide? To find the Nursing subject guide, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order. You can either type in the term, “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the Nursing heading and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of the Nursing guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.783053	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-45-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/	Boolean Search Operators What is a Boolean Search? Boolean searching is the most effective “advanced” search technique to improve your search results by making them more relevant and precise. It uses tools called operators or modifiers to limit, expand, or refine your set of results. The three basic Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. All library databases will understand Boolean operators. The chart below briefly explains these tools and their functions. Operator/Modifier \| Function \| Example \| \| AND \| Instructs the database to bring back results that only contain both search terms. \| nursing AND leadership \| \| OR with () \| Instructs the database to bring back search results that contain either or both search terms. Whenever you join keywords with OR, enclose them with parentheses (). \| (teenagers OR adolescents) \| \| NOT \| Instructs the database to exclude results that contain a specific search term or terms. \| Canada NOT (“United States” OR America) \| \| “” \| Instructs the database to search for a whole phrase; keeps separate words together and in order. \| “outpatient care” \| \| * \| Instructs the database to broaden your search to include multiple endings and spellings of a word. \| genetic* – will search genetic, genetics, genetically \| The screenshot below shows an example of an advanced search in Novanet using Boolean operators and modifiers. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.794069	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/#chapter-38-section-1	Boolean Search Operators What is a Boolean Search? Boolean searching is the most effective “advanced” search technique to improve your search results by making them more relevant and precise. It uses tools called operators or modifiers to limit, expand, or refine your set of results. The three basic Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. All library databases will understand Boolean operators. The chart below briefly explains these tools and their functions. Operator/Modifier \| Function \| Example \| \| AND \| Instructs the database to bring back results that only contain both search terms. \| nursing AND leadership \| \| OR with () \| Instructs the database to bring back search results that contain either or both search terms. Whenever you join keywords with OR, enclose them with parentheses (). \| (teenagers OR adolescents) \| \| NOT \| Instructs the database to exclude results that contain a specific search term or terms. \| Canada NOT (“United States” OR America) \| \| “” \| Instructs the database to search for a whole phrase; keeps separate words together and in order. \| “outpatient care” \| \| * \| Instructs the database to broaden your search to include multiple endings and spellings of a word. \| genetic* – will search genetic, genetics, genetically \| The screenshot below shows an example of an advanced search in Novanet using Boolean operators and modifiers. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.804715	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/#chapter-38-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/	CINAHL Database The CINAHL Database (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) is a top nursing database that allows you to search for articles in hundreds of nursing journals. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of the database. How do I access CINAHL? The easiest way to connect to CINAHL is through the Nursing subject guide. On the subject guide’s homepage, look for the heading labeled Key Databases. Underneath this heading, you will find a list of the most useful databases for nursing. The link for EBSCO CINAHL is located at the top of this list. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to the library’s proxy server to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address (without the @stfx.ca), and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in CINAHL: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. The link resolver screen will then appear. This page provides a number of links to access materials through the library. Click on any of the database links listed under the Full Text (Online) heading to gain access to an article. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions When you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other CINAHL users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. In CINAHL, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Both limiters can be found on the right-hand side of the Advanced Search screen, as highlighted in the screenshot below: CINAHL offers an array of limiters to help you refine your search results. Some advanced limiters are described in the box below. However, remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions. English Language: Sometimes, articles might have an abstract in English, but the rest of the article is in a different language. Click this checkbox to ensure that all your results are in English. First Author is a Nurse/Any Author is a Nurse: Limits search results to articles written by nurses. Research Article: Research studies containing data collection, methodology, and conclusions. Eliminates results that are not research-based (e.g., book reviews). Evidence-Based Practice: Articles about evidence-based practice; articles from evidence-based practice journals; and evidence-based practice research articles (e.g., clinical trials, meta analyses, and systematic reviews). NOTE: If you use this limiter, remember that you must evaluate your results to determine what type of evidence each article contains. Check Your Understanding Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.819974	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-1	CINAHL Database The CINAHL Database (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) is a top nursing database that allows you to search for articles in hundreds of nursing journals. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of the database. How do I access CINAHL? The easiest way to connect to CINAHL is through the Nursing subject guide. On the subject guide’s homepage, look for the heading labeled Key Databases. Underneath this heading, you will find a list of the most useful databases for nursing. The link for EBSCO CINAHL is located at the top of this list. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to the library’s proxy server to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address (without the @stfx.ca), and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in CINAHL: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. The link resolver screen will then appear. This page provides a number of links to access materials through the library. Click on any of the database links listed under the Full Text (Online) heading to gain access to an article. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions When you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other CINAHL users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. In CINAHL, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Both limiters can be found on the right-hand side of the Advanced Search screen, as highlighted in the screenshot below: CINAHL offers an array of limiters to help you refine your search results. Some advanced limiters are described in the box below. However, remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions. English Language: Sometimes, articles might have an abstract in English, but the rest of the article is in a different language. Click this checkbox to ensure that all your results are in English. First Author is a Nurse/Any Author is a Nurse: Limits search results to articles written by nurses. Research Article: Research studies containing data collection, methodology, and conclusions. Eliminates results that are not research-based (e.g., book reviews). Evidence-Based Practice: Articles about evidence-based practice; articles from evidence-based practice journals; and evidence-based practice research articles (e.g., clinical trials, meta analyses, and systematic reviews). NOTE: If you use this limiter, remember that you must evaluate your results to determine what type of evidence each article contains. Check Your Understanding Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.834519	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-2	CINAHL Database The CINAHL Database (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) is a top nursing database that allows you to search for articles in hundreds of nursing journals. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of the database. How do I access CINAHL? The easiest way to connect to CINAHL is through the Nursing subject guide. On the subject guide’s homepage, look for the heading labeled Key Databases. Underneath this heading, you will find a list of the most useful databases for nursing. The link for EBSCO CINAHL is located at the top of this list. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to the library’s proxy server to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address (without the @stfx.ca), and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in CINAHL: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. The link resolver screen will then appear. This page provides a number of links to access materials through the library. Click on any of the database links listed under the Full Text (Online) heading to gain access to an article. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions When you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other CINAHL users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. In CINAHL, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Both limiters can be found on the right-hand side of the Advanced Search screen, as highlighted in the screenshot below: CINAHL offers an array of limiters to help you refine your search results. Some advanced limiters are described in the box below. However, remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions. English Language: Sometimes, articles might have an abstract in English, but the rest of the article is in a different language. Click this checkbox to ensure that all your results are in English. First Author is a Nurse/Any Author is a Nurse: Limits search results to articles written by nurses. Research Article: Research studies containing data collection, methodology, and conclusions. Eliminates results that are not research-based (e.g., book reviews). Evidence-Based Practice: Articles about evidence-based practice; articles from evidence-based practice journals; and evidence-based practice research articles (e.g., clinical trials, meta analyses, and systematic reviews). NOTE: If you use this limiter, remember that you must evaluate your results to determine what type of evidence each article contains. Check Your Understanding Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.848859	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-3	CINAHL Database The CINAHL Database (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) is a top nursing database that allows you to search for articles in hundreds of nursing journals. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of the database. How do I access CINAHL? The easiest way to connect to CINAHL is through the Nursing subject guide. On the subject guide’s homepage, look for the heading labeled Key Databases. Underneath this heading, you will find a list of the most useful databases for nursing. The link for EBSCO CINAHL is located at the top of this list. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to the library’s proxy server to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address (without the @stfx.ca), and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in CINAHL: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. The link resolver screen will then appear. This page provides a number of links to access materials through the library. Click on any of the database links listed under the Full Text (Online) heading to gain access to an article. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions When you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other CINAHL users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. In CINAHL, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Both limiters can be found on the right-hand side of the Advanced Search screen, as highlighted in the screenshot below: CINAHL offers an array of limiters to help you refine your search results. Some advanced limiters are described in the box below. However, remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions. English Language: Sometimes, articles might have an abstract in English, but the rest of the article is in a different language. Click this checkbox to ensure that all your results are in English. First Author is a Nurse/Any Author is a Nurse: Limits search results to articles written by nurses. Research Article: Research studies containing data collection, methodology, and conclusions. Eliminates results that are not research-based (e.g., book reviews). Evidence-Based Practice: Articles about evidence-based practice; articles from evidence-based practice journals; and evidence-based practice research articles (e.g., clinical trials, meta analyses, and systematic reviews). NOTE: If you use this limiter, remember that you must evaluate your results to determine what type of evidence each article contains. Check Your Understanding Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.863160	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/cinahl-database/#chapter-47-section-3", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/	Google Scholar Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. After clicking on the Check for full text @ X link, you will be sent to a new StFX page. Click on the Go button located under Full Text (Online) to get electronic access to that article. Additional Tips Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.876738	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-49-section-1	Google Scholar Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. After clicking on the Check for full text @ X link, you will be sent to a new StFX page. Click on the Go button located under Full Text (Online) to get electronic access to that article. Additional Tips Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.888904	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-49-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-49-section-2	Google Scholar Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. After clicking on the Check for full text @ X link, you will be sent to a new StFX page. Click on the Go button located under Full Text (Online) to get electronic access to that article. Additional Tips Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.901098	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-49-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-do-i-find-the-textbook-for-my-course/	How do I find the textbook for my course? The Angus L. Macdonald Library does not carry textbooks for your course. You can purchase the textbook for your course through your favourite online book seller or through the StFX Book Store. The Angus L. Macdonald Library does not carry textbooks for your course. You can purchase the textbook for your course through your favourite online book seller or through the StFX Book Store. Feedback/Errata	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.911019	08-22-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/chapter/how-do-i-find-the-textbook-for-my-course/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/intronursingresearch/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research", "author": "Margaret Vail, Karina Espinosa", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general, Nursing," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/chapter-1/	While you can find a lot of information online, commercial search engines, like Google, return results based on a proprietary algorithm. Not only are the top results rarely scholarly sources, but a typical search will yield too many results that may not be relevant to your research. This is fine for everyday use, but Google searches are not suitable for academic work. Instead, the StFX Library website should be your first stop whenever you begin doing research for an assignment. A wealth of reliable, scholarly resources is available through the StFX Library, both electronically and in print. Please note that in order to access journals, e-books, or databases online for free, you must do so through the library website and/or catalogue.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.919178	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/chapter-1/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/	Your StFX ID is your library card, which you can obtain either in-person or online. Please note that Library accounts for students expire every September 30th and need to be updated at the start of each academic year to ensure continued access to all library services. Get a StFX ID card In-Person Visit the StFX Safety & Security Services office in person. Get a StFX ID card for Distance Students Students not able to obtain an ID card in person can e-mail StFX Safety & Security Services at security@stfx.ca. Please include the following in your email: - A high quality picture to be used on your ID card - A scan of your government issued photo ID - Your StFX Student ID number - Your current mailing address - A request to have them email you your Novanet number (barcode) right away Activate your Library Card Once you have your StFX ID card or Novanet barcode, fill out and submit the appropriate online registration form to activate your account: Undergraduate Students (On Campus)	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.929411	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/#chapter-26-section-1	Your StFX ID is your library card, which you can obtain either in-person or online. Please note that Library accounts for students expire every September 30th and need to be updated at the start of each academic year to ensure continued access to all library services. Get a StFX ID card In-Person Visit the StFX Safety & Security Services office in person. Get a StFX ID card for Distance Students Students not able to obtain an ID card in person can e-mail StFX Safety & Security Services at security@stfx.ca. Please include the following in your email: - A high quality picture to be used on your ID card - A scan of your government issued photo ID - Your StFX Student ID number - Your current mailing address - A request to have them email you your Novanet number (barcode) right away Activate your Library Card Once you have your StFX ID card or Novanet barcode, fill out and submit the appropriate online registration form to activate your account: Undergraduate Students (On Campus)	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.939050	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-a-library-card/#chapter-26-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/	Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Research Help Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.948685	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-1	Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Research Help Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.958781	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-2	Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Research Help Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.968538	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-3	Whether you need help searching for books, articles or data; using the catalogue; formatting citations and reference lists; or if you have any other research-related questions, you can speak to a Librarian. Live Help Chat Live Help is a real-time, online chat service that provides library assistance to universities and colleges across Nova Scotia. Live Help is a good resource if you have a quick question that can be answered within 1-10 minutes. For up-to-date hours, see the Live Help page of the Library website. The chat box can be found on the right-hand side of the Library homepage during opening hours. Drop-in Research Help Angus L. Macdonald Library also offers in-person, drop-in research help Monday to Friday from 1pm to 4pm (AST) during the Fall and Winter Terms. These sessions are best suited for questions that would take roughly 5-20 minutes to answer. Research Consultations (In-person or Online) If you would like one-on-one assistance, you can book an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. These sessions are suitable if you have longer, in-depth research questions, or if you need help using Library tools such as databases or citation managers. Appointments are available in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. NOTE: All appointment times are in Atlantic Standard Time, which is the time zone where StFX is located. If you do not live in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) please convert the time to your time zone. You can change the time zone that you are booking in by clicking on “change”.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.978111	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-to-get-help/#chapter-32-section-3", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-workshops/	The Library provides a variety of workshops to help you improve your library skills. Workshops are free of charge and open to everyone. Some examples of workshop topics include: - Library Research 101 - Citing with APA or MLA - Managing References with Zotero - Finding Data - And more… The workshop schedule is available through the StFX Library Events page. Participants can view the details of each workshop and register for any of them online. Students can also view recorded versions of the current workshops through the Library Workshops & Tutorials channel on Microsoft Stream.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:30.986970	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-workshops/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/short-how-to-videos-on-youtube/	Primary Navigation Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices. Book Contents Navigation Introduction Why Do I Need to Use the Library? How to Get a Library Card How to Get Help Library Workshops Short How-To Videos on Youtube Document Delivery Scholarly vs. Popular Resources What is Peer Review? Subject Guides Boolean Search Operators Novanet Library Databases Google Scholar How do I find the textbook for my course? Links to Resources The StFX library also has a YouTube channel where you can find short how to videos on using the library. Previous/next navigation Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX Copyright © 2022 by Margaret Vail and Karina Espinosa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.001957	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/short-how-to-videos-on-youtube/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/document-delivery/	Also known as Interlibrary Loans, Document Delivery supports the instructional and research needs of the StFX community by borrowing materials which are unavailable at StFX libraries either in print or online. For On-Campus Borrowers While viewing an item’s record in Novanet, sign in to your library account. Use your Microsoft credentials/WebFX username and password to sign in. Click on Resource Sharing. An online form will open with the details about the item. If the item is a book and you only need a chapter or section, click the checkbox and then fill in the chapter number and pages further down in the form. Confirm your pickup institution (StFX) and your pickup location (Angus L. Macdonald Library). You need to do this even if you are requesting a digital copy which will be emailed to you. For Distance Students Living Outside of Nova Scotia Your local library (whether a university, college, hospital or public library) should be your first resource for locating physical research material. Most local libraries will lend books and allow you to photocopy materials. They may require you to have a CAAL (formerly CAUL) card to borrow books. A CAAL Card grants you in-person borrowing privileges at most universities in Canada (outside of Nova Scotia) and must be requested from your home library (StFX). If you did not sign up for a CAAL card when you registered or updated your library account online, please contact us at library@stfx.ca to obtain one. A CAAL card will only be granted to patrons with accounts in good standing. To borrow material in-person from any Novanet library, you may present your StFX ID card (CAAL card not required) at their Circulation desk.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.011644	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/document-delivery/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/scholarly-vs-popular-resources/	Scholarly resources present original, in-depth research. The source has been reviewed by academic peers to ensure the validity of its research methods and findings. Popular resources are intended for a general audience and are typically written to entertain, inform, or persuade. Depending on your research question, both scholarly and popular sources can be appropriate for your purposes. However, keep in mind that research assignments will often require you to use scholarly materials. Table 1.1. below will help you to distinguish between an article from a scholarly journal and an article from a popular publication. Content \| Scholarly/Academic \| Popular \| \| Author \| Subject experts, scholars \| Journalists, students, popular authors, no author listed \| \| Publication Format \| Journals \| Magazines; newspapers; trade journals: business, finance, industry (written by experts but not peer-reviewed) \| \| Appearance and Design \| Mostly text; some tables and charts; 5 or more pages \| Flashy covers, advertisements \| \| Language \| Complex, academic writing style; technical terms and concepts \| Simple, plain language aimed at the general public \| \| Editorial Process \| Peer-reviewed by multiple experts in the same field \| Reviewed by one in-house editor or no editor at all \| \| Intended Audience \| Specialist readership of researchers, including students, professors, and subject experts \| General readership \| \| Citations \| Includes a bibliography or reference list and in-text citations or footnotes; follows an academic style guide (e.g., APA) \| No formal citations \| \| Examples \| Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, PLOS One, The Lancet \| Women’s Health, Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail \| Check Your Understanding Which sources are scholarly and which ones are popular? Click on images below to learn more.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.024005	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/scholarly-vs-popular-resources/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/	Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, for example, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. In ProQuest One Academic, you can use the three-bar menu option at the top left, choose Publications from the drop-down menu to do the same search to check individual journal titles. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. Databases Many databases, such as those on the ProQuest and EBSCO platforms, include the option to limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on their advanced search pages.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.038207	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-52-section-1	Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, for example, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. In ProQuest One Academic, you can use the three-bar menu option at the top left, choose Publications from the drop-down menu to do the same search to check individual journal titles. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. Databases Many databases, such as those on the ProQuest and EBSCO platforms, include the option to limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on their advanced search pages.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.052107	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-52-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-52-section-2	Research assignments often require that you include information from “peer-reviewed” articles. In scholarly publishing, peer-review is the process by which scholars in the same field critically evaluate one another’s work before it is published in an academic journal. Peer-review is a crucial process because it ensures a high level of scholarship for a publication and improves the quality of an author’s manuscript. Refereed is another term for peer-reviewed. NOTE: Not all content in an academic journal is subject to peer-review. For example, editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer-review process, but primary (i.e., original) research articles do. To get a better sense of how the peer-review process works, watch the video below. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? There are several methods you can use to identify peer-reviewed articles. Method #1: Article Elements A peer-reviewed source will typically have the following elements: - Abstract - Author(s) credentials (e.g, PhD) and/or affiliation (e.g., university) - Specialized and formal language - Methodology - Results/Findings - Discussion/Conclusion - Reference list or bibliography Method #2: Journal Websites One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is the journal’s website. If you already know the name of the journal, type the title “in quotes” in Google’s search bar to procure the journal’s homepage. The homepage or the “About” page should immediately confirm whether the journal in question is peer-reviewed. Below is an example from the Quality in Primary Care website. The “About the Journal” section mentions that the journal is peer-reviewed in the opening sentence. Method #3: Databases Most online databases will contain a directory of all the journals that are indexed, which includes publication information for each journal. In EBSCO CINAHL, for example, navigate to the Publications button in the top, left-hand corner of the home menu. There, you can search for journals by title. Each journal’s record will indicate whether that journal is peer-reviewed. In ProQuest One Academic, you can use the three-bar menu option at the top left, choose Publications from the drop-down menu to do the same search to check individual journal titles. How can I find peer-reviewed articles? Novanet In Novanet, you can refine your search results using the facets on the left-hand side of the screen. The Peer-reviewed Journals facet is located under the Availability heading. Databases Many databases, such as those on the ProQuest and EBSCO platforms, include the option to limit your search results by clicking the Peer Reviewed option on their advanced search pages.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.065798	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/what-is-peer-review/#chapter-52-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/	What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the subject guide for my topic? To find the list of subject guides, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order; there is a guide for every department and/or program at StFX. To find a particular guide, you can either type in a search word such as “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the subject you are looking for and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of each guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.075243	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-57-section-1	What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the subject guide for my topic? To find the list of subject guides, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order; there is a guide for every department and/or program at StFX. To find a particular guide, you can either type in a search word such as “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the subject you are looking for and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of each guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.084706	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-57-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-57-section-2	What are subject guides? The amount of materials available at the StFX Library can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, the Librarians at StFX have constructed subject guides to make it easier for students to do their research. A subject guide is a central hub for reliable and relevant scholarly resources available at the Library. Students may use the subject guide as a roadmap to help locate materials that they can use in their essays and assignments. The contents of a subject guide can vary, but they usually contain lists of suggested books, key journals and databases, video tutorials, and other useful links that pertain to the guide’s topic. How can I find the subject guide for my topic? To find the list of subject guides, click on the Subject Guides heading located on the Library homepage. All subject guides available at the Library will be listed in alphabetical order; there is a guide for every department and/or program at StFX. To find a particular guide, you can either type in a search word such as “nursing” in the search bar, or you can scroll down the page until you see the subject you are looking for and follow the link provided. The menu located on the left-hand side of each guide lists all of the resources contained within the guide. You will find links to key databases and journals under the Find Articles heading.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.093809	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/subject-guides/#chapter-57-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/	What is a Boolean Search? Boolean searching is the most effective “advanced” search technique to improve your search results by making them more relevant and precise. It uses tools called operators or modifiers to limit, expand, or refine your set of results. The three basic Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. All library databases will understand Boolean operators. The chart below briefly explains these tools and their functions. Operator/Modifier \| Function \| Example \| \| AND \| Instructs the database to bring back results that only contain both search terms. \| nursing AND leadership \| \| OR with () \| Instructs the database to bring back search results that contain either or both search terms. Whenever you join keywords with OR, enclose them with parentheses (). \| (teenagers OR adolescents) \| \| NOT \| Instructs the database to exclude results that contain a specific search term or terms. \| Canada NOT (“United States” OR America) \| \| “” \| Instructs the database to search for a whole phrase; keeps separate words together and in order. \| “outpatient care” \| \| * \| Instructs the database to broaden your search to include multiple endings and spellings of a word. \| genetic* – will search genetic, genetics, genetically \| The screenshot below shows an example of an advanced search in Novanet using Boolean operators and modifiers.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.104251	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/#chapter-61-section-1	What is a Boolean Search? Boolean searching is the most effective “advanced” search technique to improve your search results by making them more relevant and precise. It uses tools called operators or modifiers to limit, expand, or refine your set of results. The three basic Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. All library databases will understand Boolean operators. The chart below briefly explains these tools and their functions. Operator/Modifier \| Function \| Example \| \| AND \| Instructs the database to bring back results that only contain both search terms. \| nursing AND leadership \| \| OR with () \| Instructs the database to bring back search results that contain either or both search terms. Whenever you join keywords with OR, enclose them with parentheses (). \| (teenagers OR adolescents) \| \| NOT \| Instructs the database to exclude results that contain a specific search term or terms. \| Canada NOT (“United States” OR America) \| \| “” \| Instructs the database to search for a whole phrase; keeps separate words together and in order. \| “outpatient care” \| \| * \| Instructs the database to broaden your search to include multiple endings and spellings of a word. \| genetic* – will search genetic, genetics, genetically \| The screenshot below shows an example of an advanced search in Novanet using Boolean operators and modifiers.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.114627	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/using-boolean-search-operators/#chapter-61-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/	Novanet, the Library catalogue, lists items in the library collection, including print books, ebooks, articles, CDs, DVDs, and more. You can search Novanet using key words, names, particular titles, or any combination of these. Searching Novanet When you search Novanet, the system will return a list of items which include your search terms. If the system returns many results, you can narrow these results by adding more search terms, to find items more relevant to your specific subject. Novanet also provides a number of limiters to help you refine your search results. Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. These are located on the left hand side of the screen. You can use these to limit your search results to items in particular format (books, peer-reviewed journals, etc.), items published within a particular date range, and so on. Accessing Sources How you access the items in your search results list depends on what they are. For books, there may be a print version, an ebook version, or both. The record for this book shows two versions. The note which says “Available at StFX Macdonald Library” means that there is a print version of the book. The code in parentheses at the end of the note is the book’s call number; this is the book’s address in the library. If you bring this information in to the library, our staff can help you find the book on the shelf. The second note, “Available Online”, means that there is also an ebook version. Clicking on that and the following links should lead you to the full text of the ebook. For articles, there may be several options. In this case, you can follow the Available Online link, or use the Download PDF link to go directly to the PDF of the article. You can also use the View Issue Contents link to see a list of the other articles in the same issue of the journal; there may be other material of interest there. If you find an item which is listed as Available at Other Libraries, you can use the Document Delivery procedures described earlier to request a copy from another library.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.125019	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/#chapter-63-section-1	Novanet, the Library catalogue, lists items in the library collection, including print books, ebooks, articles, CDs, DVDs, and more. You can search Novanet using key words, names, particular titles, or any combination of these. Searching Novanet When you search Novanet, the system will return a list of items which include your search terms. If the system returns many results, you can narrow these results by adding more search terms, to find items more relevant to your specific subject. Novanet also provides a number of limiters to help you refine your search results. Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. These are located on the left hand side of the screen. You can use these to limit your search results to items in particular format (books, peer-reviewed journals, etc.), items published within a particular date range, and so on. Accessing Sources How you access the items in your search results list depends on what they are. For books, there may be a print version, an ebook version, or both. The record for this book shows two versions. The note which says “Available at StFX Macdonald Library” means that there is a print version of the book. The code in parentheses at the end of the note is the book’s call number; this is the book’s address in the library. If you bring this information in to the library, our staff can help you find the book on the shelf. The second note, “Available Online”, means that there is also an ebook version. Clicking on that and the following links should lead you to the full text of the ebook. For articles, there may be several options. In this case, you can follow the Available Online link, or use the Download PDF link to go directly to the PDF of the article. You can also use the View Issue Contents link to see a list of the other articles in the same issue of the journal; there may be other material of interest there. If you find an item which is listed as Available at Other Libraries, you can use the Document Delivery procedures described earlier to request a copy from another library.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.135007	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/#chapter-63-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/#chapter-63-section-2	Novanet, the Library catalogue, lists items in the library collection, including print books, ebooks, articles, CDs, DVDs, and more. You can search Novanet using key words, names, particular titles, or any combination of these. Searching Novanet When you search Novanet, the system will return a list of items which include your search terms. If the system returns many results, you can narrow these results by adding more search terms, to find items more relevant to your specific subject. Novanet also provides a number of limiters to help you refine your search results. Also known as filters, limiters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved will be limited according to certain criteria you select. Limiters reduce the number of results returned and make the remaining results more likely to be relevant to your research topic. These are located on the left hand side of the screen. You can use these to limit your search results to items in particular format (books, peer-reviewed journals, etc.), items published within a particular date range, and so on. Accessing Sources How you access the items in your search results list depends on what they are. For books, there may be a print version, an ebook version, or both. The record for this book shows two versions. The note which says “Available at StFX Macdonald Library” means that there is a print version of the book. The code in parentheses at the end of the note is the book’s call number; this is the book’s address in the library. If you bring this information in to the library, our staff can help you find the book on the shelf. The second note, “Available Online”, means that there is also an ebook version. Clicking on that and the following links should lead you to the full text of the ebook. For articles, there may be several options. In this case, you can follow the Available Online link, or use the Download PDF link to go directly to the PDF of the article. You can also use the View Issue Contents link to see a list of the other articles in the same issue of the journal; there may be other material of interest there. If you find an item which is listed as Available at Other Libraries, you can use the Document Delivery procedures described earlier to request a copy from another library.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.145278	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/searching-novanet/#chapter-63-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/	The Library provides access to over 80 databases that allow you to search for articles in hundreds of journals. Some databases are subject-specific, while others are multidisciplinary. Many focus on journal articles, but some have other sources, from videos to statistical information. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of databases. How do I access the Library databases? You can see the full list of databases by clicking on the Databases link on the library home page. You can also find a subset of the most useful databases for any given subject area by checking the Subject Guide for that topic. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in databases: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will usually include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. If we have access to the full text of the article in another database, the system will link to it. If the full text is not available, click on the Request Item option and follow the steps for Document Delivery as described earlier. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions In some databases, when you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other database users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of EBSCO CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Databases also provide limiters such as those in Novanet. The amount and type of limiters vary from database to database. In ProQuest and EBSCO databases, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.158107	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-1	The Library provides access to over 80 databases that allow you to search for articles in hundreds of journals. Some databases are subject-specific, while others are multidisciplinary. Many focus on journal articles, but some have other sources, from videos to statistical information. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of databases. How do I access the Library databases? You can see the full list of databases by clicking on the Databases link on the library home page. You can also find a subset of the most useful databases for any given subject area by checking the Subject Guide for that topic. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in databases: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will usually include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. If we have access to the full text of the article in another database, the system will link to it. If the full text is not available, click on the Request Item option and follow the steps for Document Delivery as described earlier. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions In some databases, when you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other database users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of EBSCO CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Databases also provide limiters such as those in Novanet. The amount and type of limiters vary from database to database. In ProQuest and EBSCO databases, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.171182	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-2	The Library provides access to over 80 databases that allow you to search for articles in hundreds of journals. Some databases are subject-specific, while others are multidisciplinary. Many focus on journal articles, but some have other sources, from videos to statistical information. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of databases. How do I access the Library databases? You can see the full list of databases by clicking on the Databases link on the library home page. You can also find a subset of the most useful databases for any given subject area by checking the Subject Guide for that topic. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in databases: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will usually include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. If we have access to the full text of the article in another database, the system will link to it. If the full text is not available, click on the Request Item option and follow the steps for Document Delivery as described earlier. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions In some databases, when you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other database users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of EBSCO CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Databases also provide limiters such as those in Novanet. The amount and type of limiters vary from database to database. In ProQuest and EBSCO databases, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.182765	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-3	The Library provides access to over 80 databases that allow you to search for articles in hundreds of journals. Some databases are subject-specific, while others are multidisciplinary. Many focus on journal articles, but some have other sources, from videos to statistical information. This section will help you to navigate some of the key functions and features of databases. How do I access the Library databases? You can see the full list of databases by clicking on the Databases link on the library home page. You can also find a subset of the most useful databases for any given subject area by checking the Subject Guide for that topic. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to login to authenticate yourself as a StFX user. The login is your StFX email address and the password is your email password. How can I get full-text articles? There are two ways to access full-text articles in databases: (1) Once you’ve performed a search, some of the results will usually include links to full-text PDFs if they are available. Click PDF Full Text to view or download a copy of an article. (2) If a search result does not have a direct link to a PDF, click on StFX Check for Full Text to search for the article in other databases. If we have access to the full text of the article in another database, the system will link to it. If the full text is not available, click on the Request Item option and follow the steps for Document Delivery as described earlier. Key Features Autocomplete Suggestions In some databases, when you begin typing a word in a search field, you’ll notice that the database will provide suggestions for a search term or variations on a search term. These suggestions are based on popular searches done by other database users across the globe, and they can be helpful if you need inspiration for finding additional terms that are relevant to your search. The example below shows some of EBSCO CINAHL’s suggested terms when a user begins to type “teenagers” in the search field: Limiters Databases also provide limiters such as those in Novanet. The amount and type of limiters vary from database to database. In ProQuest and EBSCO databases, limiters appear below the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen, and more than one limiter can be applied to any search. For research assignments, you are often required to choose sources that are both peer-reviewed and recently published (within the last three or five years). Two important limiters that directly address those requirements are Published Date, which limits your search results to materials published during a certain time period (e.g., anything published within the last five years), and Peer Reviewed, which limits your search results to materials published in peer-reviewed journals. If you do not check this box, your results will include articles from publications that do not go through the peer-review process. Remember to choose limiters sparingly and with caution! It is possible to overuse limits and inadvertently exclude materials that may be relevant to your research topic. NOTE: Do NOT use the Full Text limit. This will prevent you from finding articles that the library can access through other databases or subscriptions.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.194728	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/library-databases/#chapter-73-section-3", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/	Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. When you click on the Check for full text @ X link, the system may connect you directly with a PDF of the article, or you may be directed to a Novanet record, such as in the screenshot below. If that is the case, use the database link provided to access the full text of the article. Additional Tips	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.206330	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-80-section-1	Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. When you click on the Check for full text @ X link, the system may connect you directly with a PDF of the article, or you may be directed to a Novanet record, such as in the screenshot below. If that is the case, use the database link provided to access the full text of the article. Additional Tips	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.217967	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-80-section-1", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-80-section-2	Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly resources. But despite its name, not all content found on Google Scholar is considered scholarly, and oftentimes you will need to evaluate the quality of the information yourself. Remember to follow the advice in Identifying and Finding Resources to determine whether the information you come across online is suitable for your research needs. Pros and Cons Unlike Novanet, which only searches the Library’s holdings, Google Scholar will return results that are not necessarily available to you. However, by using the Google Scholar page on the StFX Library website, you can at least see, and link to, the online items to which StFX subscribes. Instructions for using Google Scholar are found in the next section. Advantages of Google Scholar - It is free and publicly available - You can find full-text items available at StFX quickly - The Cited by feature tracks the number of times an article has been cited in other works. - This feature can be especially helpful if you need inspiration to find other, similar articles for your research assignment. The Cited by link is located beneath each returned result: Disadvantages of Google Scholar - The results will not always return scholarly or peer-reviewed sources - The return results will not necessarily be available to you - Results may not be relevant to nursing or health sciences (i.e., some articles may not be from a nursing journal) - The search functions and limiters are not as sophisticated as those in CINAHL or PubMED Using Google Scholar StFX students can search within Google Scholar through the Library homepage: - - Click on the “Google Scholar” tab located above the Novanet search box. - Type your search terms into the search box and click Search. The screenshot below illustrates a search using Google Scholar. If an item is available at the StFX Library, there will be a link next to the item that reads, Check for full text @ X. When you click on the Check for full text @ X link, the system may connect you directly with a PDF of the article, or you may be directed to a Novanet record, such as in the screenshot below. If that is the case, use the database link provided to access the full text of the article. Additional Tips	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.228989	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/google-scholar/#chapter-80-section-2", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-do-i-find-the-textbook-for-my-course/	The Angus L. Macdonald Library does not carry textbooks for your course. You can purchase the textbook for your course through your favourite online book seller or through the StFX Book Store. License Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX Copyright © 2022 by Margaret Vail and Karina Espinosa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.237405	10-23-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/chapter/how-do-i-find-the-textbook-for-my-course/", "book_url": "https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/stfxlibrary/front-matter/introduction/", "title": "Introduction to the Library and Library Research at StFX", "author": "Margaret Vail", "institution": "St. Francis Xavier University", "subject": "Library and information services, Research and information: general," }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/core-beliefs-and-values/	VALUES Advocacy Every patient deserves equal treatment, and as nurses, we are responsible for ensuring healthcare is delivered confidentially, equally, timely and professionally. With all possible resources being offered to our patients. It is our responsibility to speak up for our patients who may not understand their rights or that their rights are being infringed upon. Accountability Nursing requires accountability if an error is made by the nurse they have the responsibility to own that error. Not only to be honest but to ensure it does not happen again. Accountability is what your career must be built on. This extends to the safety of your patients to prevent harm and adjust practice when necessary by recognizing an error and then implementing the best practice initiatives. Integrity Something hard to earn and even harder to recoup once it has been diminished. No matter the difficulty of the situation, be your true self so that your integrity cannot be questioned among our colleagues and, more importantly, our patients. A very sensitive matter that some may find difficult to indulge in. Therefore, if you are trusted, do not take that trust and minimize its true value. Education Education is essential to our nursing career and must be continued throughout our practice. As the world evolves, so does our medical and cultural knowledge. Our insight into our patient’s needs and best practices will also continue to evolve. We must educate ourselves on the new forms of care, informatics, and medications, as well, so we can maintain competency in our practice.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.248310	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/core-beliefs-and-values/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/belief-statement/	I believe as a nurse it is our responsibility to care for every individual as though they deserve the same healthcare and respect as our family members. Ensuring patients are treated as individuals allows them to receive optimal healthcare opportunities. In turn, this creates an environment of people helping people without judgment. A world where we can see past the outward appearance/status and see inside a person would clear the path for inclusivity and encourage patient-catered care. As a nurse, I am to ensure no one’s struggle or symptoms are minimized and that they receive the best care available. Patients from all walks of life deserve healthcare free from judgment or persecution. Regardless of culture or status, regardless of physical or mental illness, everyone deserves to be seen as a whole person, not just their illness. Those with mental health issues need to be viewed as complex individuals who also deserve compassion, understanding conversation and prompt care. Those who are willing to seek help should feel comfortable doing so and not be hindered by the thought of feeling judged because they were born with or contracted a controversial disease or illness. This mindset allows for the personal growth of both nurses and their patients to work against bias and stigma. I will advocate endlessly for anyone with the courage to seek help. Nursing requires accountability because if the nurse makes an error, they have the responsibility to own that error. Not only to be honest but to ensure it does not happen again. Furthermore, accountability is what your career must be built on. Having this value allows for not only your colleagues but also your patients to be able to trust that you will provide the best care possible at all times. This behaviour extends to the safety of your patients. It follows that this will prevent harm and force the nurse to adjust their practice when necessary. When recognizing an error, it provides a moment of teaching, which can then be implemented in the best practice initiatives. Health care is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. As a nurse, the lives of family members and loved ones are entrusted to you to make critical decisions that can alter whether a person lives or dies. It is imperative to ensure positive outcomes when possible. The integrity of a nurse should never be questioned. Her role in the community as a caregiver and a beacon of health sustainability maintains trust within the community. The community depends on knowledge and critical thinking skills whenever their health is in jeopardy. When a baby, an elderly parent or any family member is brought in seeking relief from their illness, this reveals the trust bestowed upon the health facility. The healthcare facility must maintain a staff who is capable of providing life-saving care and catching medical issues before they become detrimental. They trust us as nurses to administer the proper medications, procedures and education while visiting. If our integrity was to falter, so would our profession. The profession of nursing is built on a strong foundation of trust. To deliver quality, inclusive care while having the ability to be an advocate and be accountable requires a continuum of education throughout our careers. Education that is provided by research and awareness will only strengthen our skills all around to provide the best care possible to those seeking our help.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.256650	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/belief-statement/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/reflection/	My career started as a Personal support worker when I was 19. I worked as a home care PSW with Saint Elizabeth for 11 years. Going from home to home and working with various personalities in various circumstances gave me experience outside of my scope of practice. Many times, I was delegated to do ostomy bags, IV lines, and partial wound care. After 11 years in that environment, I felt there wasn’t much more I could learn as a PSW and that it was time to move forward in my career. I had been considering nursing because of my interaction with my son at Sick Kids Hospital. I was intrigued and decided that’s where I wanted to work. Life had different plans for me, however, and my plans got delayed multiple times. I refused to let life change my plans and finally managed to get into and complete my Registered Practical Nursing diploma. This, however, was never my final goal. My goal was always to become a Registered Nurse so that I could work at Sick Kids Hospital. As time has evolved, though, I have found myself still interested in Sick Kids but leaning toward mental health and addiction. My transition into nursing has been a very long and difficult road and, at times, had me wondering how badly I want this. Yet, here I am, making sure I get this completed. Where I end up inevitably in my career path is not set in stone. Instead, I’m choosing to let my circumstances lead me to where I belong. As a nurse, I can only be the best at my job if I land in the environment where I belong. Even though a passion for a career is important, so is overall satisfaction, which does not only rely on finding our place in this world. To ensure satisfaction and provide upstanding care, a nurse must be sure to take note of their self-care techniques. Burnout is a serious issue affecting many professionals in the medical field. Nurses must be sure to take time to recover from long shifts and the stresses, including frustrations with unfinished work, delayed work, work overload, less qualified replacements when staff is short, limited support and the inevitable feelings of insufficiency resulting from the frustrations associated with daily work stresses (Karlsson et al., 2019). Research in these areas has shown that when self-care is applied during times of environmental stressors, it improves rates of burnout and increases job satisfaction while decreasing turnover rates (Karlsson et al., 2019). Job satisfaction is necessary to provide safe care to patients. When frustration is present, this allows for an increase in harmful mistakes to take place. Work overload creates an environment that holds a high potential for miscalculations, administration errors of medications, anxieties due to delays and insufficient care delivery. This leads to a very frustrated nurse whose main objective is to provide patient-centred care in a high-quality fashion, feeling helpless to provide the quality care they would prefer to deliver (Karlsson et al., 2019). Therefore, reaching my full potential requires a well-rounded awareness of not only my patients but also monitoring myself. I must be aware of my personal needs when it comes to my emotional, physical, spiritual and mental well-being. Annually, in our careers, we will be tasked with writing reflections as a requirement, a requirement that many may do only to preserve their registration and nothing further. However, we must remember the importance of reflection is not just to complete a daunting task, because a reflection without action is useless (Shuldham, 2016). The purpose of reflection is not only for revalidation but to enhance our practice and grow within our professions. The idea of our reflections is to enhance our overall efficacy, study our values, improve our work habits, and improve the safety of patients, to name a few. The reflection is much more than just completing another task. It involves “looking ahead rather than looking back…imagine all the improvements that could be accomplished should each nurse implement their reflections into practice” (Shuldham, 2016).	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.265903	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/reflection/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/smart-goals/	I will role model the care I would expect my family members to receive. I will practice this approach to care during clinical to see its effect on my practice and my patients. I will pass my winter semester with a grade no lower than 80% to ensure my patients/clients receive a knowledgeable nurse upon completion.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.273406	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/smart-goals/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/artifacts/	Graduating with Honours was a huge confidence boost helping me increase my GPA to where I could join the Nursing program Every semester, I managed to make it onto the Dean’s list. During this time, I had my second child, and this was a very tough time. My professors were very observant and encouraging during these times without knowing anything that was going on. This time of my life was very important in helping mould me. My First Aid reminds me that I am well equipped to handle emergencies for any age.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.281667	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/artifacts/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/references/	Karlsson, A., Gunningberg, L., Bäckström, J., & Pöder, U. (2019). Registered nurses’ perspectives of work satisfaction, Patient Safety and intention to stay – a double‐edged sword. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(7), 1359–1365. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12816 Shuldham, C. (2016). Reflection with a purpose. Nursing Standard (2014+), 30(43), 29. doi:https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.30.43.29.s32	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.289188	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/references/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/chapter-1/	This is the first chapter in the “course one” part of the text. Add an assignment from course one that you want to share in this book. Sarah has an example essay for us below. We can’t say whether it is any good or not, but it was written by a robot in about 15 seconds. The title of this chapter would be renamed to: Assignment 1: Exploring the Roots of Criminal Behavior (An Essay) Title: Exploring the Roots of Criminal Behavior: An Introductory Insight Criminology, the intricate study of crime and its underpinnings, unveils a world both fascinating and perplexing. As I delve into this realm, I find myself drawn to the question that lies at its heart: Why do individuals commit crimes? This inquiry serves as the foundational cornerstone of introductory criminology, offering a captivating journey into the complexities of human behavior. The study of criminology prompts us to shift our gaze from the surface level of criminal acts to the deep-seated origins of these behaviors. It is a foray into the interplay of psychology, sociology, and biology that shapes individuals’ inclinations toward criminality. As I explore various criminological theories, it becomes apparent that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. From the classical perspectives of Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham to the modern insights of differential association and strain theory, each theory paints a distinct stroke on the canvas of human motivation. In these early stages of my criminological journey, I am particularly intrigued by the concept of nature versus nurture. Are individuals born with a predisposition to commit crimes, or are their environments the catalysts for such actions? This dichotomy leads me to ponder the intricate interweaving of genetic predispositions, brain chemistry, and childhood experiences. The more I delve into this topic, the more I realize that criminal behavior is an intricate tapestry woven from both inherent traits and external influences. By grasping the foundational concepts of criminology, I am beginning to comprehend that criminal behavior is not a monolith, but rather a nuanced spectrum that demands comprehensive analysis. As I venture further into this field, I hope to uncover the underlying mechanisms that give rise to crime, grasping not only the “what” and “how,” but also the “why.” With each page turned and each theory contemplated, I anticipate a clearer understanding of the intricate web that connects human nature, societal pressures, and the paths individuals choose. In conclusion, introductory criminology is an enlightening journey into the core of criminal behavior. It encourages us to unravel the enigma of why individuals choose to commit crimes by examining the amalgamation of factors that shape their decisions. As I navigate through this subject, I am excited to forge a path of discovery, gaining insights that will not only broaden my intellectual horizons but also enable me to contribute meaningfully to the pursuit of justice and a safer society.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.298090	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/chapter-1/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/add-more-assignments/	Add a new chapter for any time you need to add a new assignment or reflection. You can revisit the Pressbooks handbook for help on adding and editing chapters License To the extent possible under law, Trent University has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Jessica T Learning Journey, except where otherwise noted.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.307144	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/add-more-assignments/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/course-reflection/	Use this space to write a short reflection on your experience in this course. Here is Sarah’s reflection on completion of her first course. Upon completing the “Introduction to Criminology” course, I am profoundly enriched by the knowledge and insights gained throughout the journey. The course surpassed my expectations, offering a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of crime, justice systems, and human behavior. Exploring diverse criminological theories has broadened my perspective, enabling me to dissect criminal motivations and societal responses with a critical eye. Engaging in thought-provoking discussions and delving into practical aspects of the criminal justice system has deepened my appreciation for the intricate balance between law enforcement, judicial processes, and rehabilitation. This course has not only equipped me with analytical tools but also inspired a commitment to contribute positively to a safer and more just society. I now embark on future endeavors with a greater understanding of criminology’s role in shaping our world.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.314778	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/course-reflection/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/course-2-assignment-add-assignment-title/	This is the first chapter in the “course two” part of the text. Add an assignment from course one that you want to share in this book. This is the first chapter in the “course two” part of the text. Add an assignment from course one that you want to share in this book.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.323141	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/course-2-assignment-add-assignment-title/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/add-more-course-2-assignments/	Add a new chapter any time you need to add more assignments or reflections License To the extent possible under law, Trent University has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Jessica T Learning Journey, except where otherwise noted.	pressbooks	2025-03-22T05:09:31.332001	11-20-2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons Zero - Public Domain - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/chapter/add-more-course-2-assignments/", "book_url": "https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/jessicalearningjourney/front-matter/getting-started/", "title": "Jessica T Learning Journey", "author": "Trent University", "institution": "Trent University", "subject": "Education" }

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