Open resource for materials matters
An online Collaborative Open Resource Environment (CORE) for materials science is being launched in the UK this month. The aim is to make electronic educational resources freely available under a range of Creative Commons licenses.
Since the project began last May, over 1,000 items – data, images, videos, animations, articles, presentations – commonly used in academia teaching and industrial training have been collated, referenced and uploaded to the CORE-Materials database. They are accompanied by a tailored search facility. Files are also being disseminated to websites such as YouTube and Flickr.
The team leading the work is based at the UK Centre for Materials Education at Liverpool University, with support from 20 partners including IOM3.
The purpose is to get agreement for proprietary resources to be re-released, so that students and academics can use and adapt them without fear of copyright infringement. There are six license agreements for organisations to choose from, according to how accessible they want their material to be.
Gordon Stewart, Head of Education at IOM3, says, ‘It opens up the store of available resources for not just students, but members of staff so that they can access information on technical matters’.
However, he adds, that with funding for the first year of the project coming to an end, ‘the major hurdle is how to make it sustainable. We have to prove there are enough advantages and support’.
The scheme was funded by UK bodies JISC, specialists in educational digital technologies, and the Higher Education Academy Open Educational Resources Programme.
Project Manager Adam Mannis at Liverpool adds, ‘We will gather information on patterns of use so that business opportunities can arise’. He believes firms and academic institutions will see the benefits, for example, when information is reused and accredited back to the original company or academic source, promoting the work to a worldwide audience.
The launch event is on 21 April at the Institute’s London headquarters. For more information, visit www.core.materials.ac.uk, or to contribute to the database, contact Diane Taktak.
Materials World Magazine, 01 Apr 2010
Since the project began last May, over 1,000 items – data, images, videos, animations, articles, presentations – commonly used in academia teaching and industrial training have been collated, referenced and uploaded to the CORE-Materials database. They are accompanied by a tailored search facility. Files are also being disseminated to websites such as YouTube and Flickr.
The team leading the work is based at the UK Centre for Materials Education at Liverpool University, with support from 20 partners including IOM3.
The purpose is to get agreement for proprietary resources to be re-released, so that students and academics can use and adapt them without fear of copyright infringement. There are six license agreements for organisations to choose from, according to how accessible they want their material to be.
Gordon Stewart, Head of Education at IOM3, says, ‘It opens up the store of available resources for not just students, but members of staff so that they can access information on technical matters’.
However, he adds, that with funding for the first year of the project coming to an end, ‘the major hurdle is how to make it sustainable. We have to prove there are enough advantages and support’.
The scheme was funded by UK bodies JISC, specialists in educational digital technologies, and the Higher Education Academy Open Educational Resources Programme.
Project Manager Adam Mannis at Liverpool adds, ‘We will gather information on patterns of use so that business opportunities can arise’. He believes firms and academic institutions will see the benefits, for example, when information is reused and accredited back to the original company or academic source, promoting the work to a worldwide audience.
The launch event is on 21 April at the Institute’s London headquarters. For more information, visit www.core.materials.ac.uk, or to contribute to the database, contact Diane Taktak.
Materials World Magazine, 01 Apr 2010
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