Science and Technology Free Open Educational Resources

In previous posts the availability on the JISC Jorum repository of six Open Education Resources (OERs) from the former School of Science and Technology (now part of the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology) at the University of Northampton was discussed. After 13 years the Jorum repository was discontinued.

Three of the OERs though were migrated across to the JISC Apps and resource store and available for reuse.

1. C Programming

Now available at https://store.jisc.ac.uk/#/resource/8395.


















2. Summary of Evolutionary Algorithms

Now available at https://store.jisc.ac.uk/#/resource/8405























3. Properties of Ultrasonic Waves

Now available at https://store.jisc.ac.uk/#/resource/8232 













All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruonAll views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

opinion: Use of free mindmapping tools

Figure. 1

As part of the two modules involving research methods I have been 'playing' with mindmaps in the class to capture the discussion. Figure 1 above was taken from a classroom discussion around some of the issues within a project idea that the group was working on. The tool used is the free on-line tool https://bubbl.us/ .

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the tool. Is it the best mindmapping tool out there? I think it is fair to say it isn't, I have some paid ones installed that offer a greater range of features. It was selected as it is-

• Online;
• Free;
• Simple to use;

At the end of the session I wanted to the students to have the final map we had produced together so only having an image of the map was fine.




All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

Opinion: Screencast-o-matic video capture

Apart from it's name (Screencast-o-matic) I really like this piece of video screen capture software (so thank you to Amir Minai for telling me about it). Even though (or especially as) it is a  free bit of software it has some very nice features:

- you choose capture the screen either through a downloaded app or through a link on the site (i.e. no download needed)
- When the cursor is moving you get a large yellow circle surrounding it and it clear where it is. Which is great for demonstrating software in a video.
- When you left click the mouse you get a brief blue blob on the screen next to the cursor to show a click has occurred. Again, great when demonstrating software.
- you get up to 15 minutes per recording.
- several videos formats are possible.
- it is easy to use.
- last and certainly not least it is free.

On the free version you get Screencast-O-Matic.com across the bottom of the screen, but in my view that is easy to live with and doesn't really distract from the content.

As a complementary tool to use alongside software such as Panopto this is a very nice tool.

The software can be found at: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

I would be interested in receiving comments from others on other similar pieces of software.




All views are the author's and therefore do not necessarily reflected the views of any organisations the author is employed by or is affiliated with.