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Subject Portals

What is a Subject Portal?

A “subject portal” is an online gateway that helps users to quickly and efficiently find reliable, scholarly subject-based information in one place.
To go to a specific subject portal click on the portals listed on the right.
The following is a general portal for all departments:

Directories

Encyclopedias

Currency Converters

  • FX Converter: Converts over 164 currencies
  • XE.com: Converts 180 currencies in over 250 locations

Job Sites

Career Development

Subject Directories/Gateways

Citation Guides

Copyright, Plagiarism, Intellectual Property and Patent Issues

Publishers` Catalogues and websites

Institutions

National Qualifications Authorities

  • NQA (Namibia Qualifications Authority)
  • SAQA (South african Qualifications Authority)
  • NQAI (National Qualifications Authority Ireland)
  • NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority)
  • QCA (Qualifications and curriculum Authority) - UK
  • SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority)

Regional Edtech Organisations

Education Technology News

Tools: Video Production

  • Audacity (Open Source – Sound recording/editing)
  • Blender (Open Source – video editing)
  • Lightworks (Free Version – video editing)
  • Shotcut (Open Source – video editing)
  • Avidemux (Open Source and good for beginners of video editing)
  • Freemake (Free Video Converter)
  • Splice (Free iOS App for iPhone and iPad)
  • Quik (Free iOS and Android App)
  • Adobe Premier Clip (Free iOS and Android App)

EdTech Tools

  • Edmodo – a social network for students and teachers
  • Socrative – teachers create educational exercises and games
  • Thinglink – for creating interactive images
  • TEDEd – collaborative platform for creating online lessons
  • Kahoot – educational platform based on games and questions
  • Edpuzzle – customize regular videos with engaging interactive learning tools
  • edX – Online courses from top universities
  • WolframAlpha – AI driven electronic genius for answering calculations or research

EdTech Experts

Go to the Open Access and Scholarly Communication webpage to find similar initiatives.

What Are OER?

Open Educational Resources are educational materials and resources that are publicly accessible, meaning that they are openly available for anyone to use and, under some licenses, to re-mix, improve and redistribute.

Why Use OER?

OER is a movement in education that seeks to counter costly, commercially produced learning content, typically textbooks, with publicly accessible content that is licensed so that it can be freely distributed and shared.

Here is an official definition from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD):

Digital materials offered freely and openly for educators, students, and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning, and research. OER includes learning content, software tools to develop, use, and distribute content, and implementation resources such as open licenses.

 

Educators and learners as well as learning institutions are driving its development. OER provides an alternative to the rising costs of education. It alleviates the burden of student debt while providing opportunities to students who might not otherwise be able to afford or access materials. In response to the effectiveness of OER compared to traditional commercial textbooks, research now indicates that OER are equally or more effective.

OER provides an opportunity to try new ways of teaching and learning, many of which are more collaborative and participatory.

Who Uses OER?

Educators are taking advantage of OER to (1) move away from traditional textbooks and (2) improve learning by introducing students to more varied and current learning content. In higher education, faculty are adopting OER as a way to save their students money but also increase the likelihood that students will acquire and read learning content.

 

OER Resources

  • OER World Map - shares information on behalf of the worldwide OER community, using local knowledge to describe the OER ecosystem. Built with cutting edge linked open data technology, OER World Map visualizes the world of OER and supports a range of widgets and tools through powerful statistical analysis.
  • OpenStax College Textbooks - provides access to dozens of textbooks with an emphasis on large enrollment courses.
  • Open SUNY Textbooks - offers a limited number of textbooks but a good example of a university run open textbook project.
  • Open Textbooks Toolkit - the BCcampus Open Textbook Toolkit is your starting point on how to change education with just one textbook. It provides a list of our open textbooks, information and guidelines for adopting and assigning an open textbook.
  • Open Book Publishers - source of open scholarly monographs.
  • Open Culture - hundreds of free books, movies and courses.
  • Project CORA: Community of Online Research Assignments - particularly good for assignments that cover information literacy topics such as evaluation, ethics, etc.
  • 1,000+ Open Textbooks - duplicates resources found on other sites, such as the Open Textbook Library, but may lead to some additional open textbooks.
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst - OER Guide - this resource guide will lead to many additional sources of information and other textbook programs.

FACULTY SUBJECT PORTALS

A subject portal is an online gateway that helps users to quickly and efficiently find reliable information.

Faculty of Computing and Informatics

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