Details of the 'Skills for Scientists' project. Part of the Academy/JISC OER Programme.

1. Physics Skills
Chemistry
Astronomy
for
Forensic Science Scientists
Aim: What are OER?
Promote awareness and active
involvement in OER in the physical Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning
sciences community materials typified by having an open licence (one that means no
fee or royalty will be due for use of the material.) Resources are
Project Lead:
already being shared between academics. The advantage to
UK Physical Sciences Centre offering your resources for reuse as OER is that you can stipulate
Project Partners: how they should be reused (e.g. if changes are permissible). The
University of Edinburgh advantages to reusing OER is that you can avoid ‘reinventing the 1
University of Hull wheel’ but still be sure that you are not infringing copyright when
University of Leeds you reuse someone else’s work.
University of Leicester
University of Liverpool What is the Skills for Scientists project?
Loughborough University
University of Manchester This project has been supporting academics at a range of HEIs to
Newcastle University develop the necessary knowledge to release their physical
Open University
sciences educational resources as OER.
University of Plymouth
University of Reading
Sheffield Hallam University
What did Project Members do to produce OER?
2
University of Southampton
Each Project Member, usually the author of the resource, had to
Staffordshire University
Universidade de A Coruña go through four key steps:
The Institute of Physics
The Royal Society of Chemistry
check the resource for accessibility (content and format)
ensure the copyright holder(s) agree to the release
OER Released: add metadata (data about the resource e.g. author) to the
To date, material equivalent to over 600 resource
credits has been released through this share the resources using open repositories and/or Web 2.0
project. Links to these OER can be found tools
on our website
www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/ What are the results of the Skills for Scientists project?
home/projects/skillsforscientists
3
Further Information: This project has meant that, to date, the equivalent of 600+
credits of teaching and learning material across the physical
Full details of this project can be found
on our website sciences has been released as OER. Not only this, involvement in
www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/ the project has meant that the issue of open release has been
home/projects/skillsforscientists raised and discussed in many institutions and staff are now able
to produce and release OER in the future and support their
Funding:
colleagues in doing the same.
Skills for Scientists was funded by HEFCE
through the Academy/JISC OER
Programme
OER released by the Skills for Scientists project
The 70+ OER released through the project cover a range of skills in 4
the physical sciences. Some examples are pictured on the right:
1. Mathematics for Chemistry Workbook (University of
Manchester)
2. Interactive Screen Experiments - How to Use a Vernier Scale
(Open University)
3. Interdisciplinary Science - Habitable Worlds (University of
Leicester)
UK Physical Sciences Centre
4. ChemTube3D (University of Liverpool)
Department of Chemistry 5. Law-Forensic Science Crime Scenario (Staffordshire
University of Hull University)
Hull HU6 7RX
The OER can be found on JorumOpen (http://open.jorum.ac.uk) 5
Tel: 01482 465418
Fax: 01482 465418 – type sfsoer into the Search box for a complete list.
Email: psc@hull.ac.uk
www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci