OER Publishing Client Project

Sep 132011
 

We recently announced one of the clients that the SWORD v2 project has been able to fund (the ‘right-click deposit‘ project).  This blog post describes the other project that was funded: “A SWORD-V2 Client for Publishing Open Education Resources (OER) to Connexions”.

Kathi Fletcher is a Shuttleworth Fellow who is focusing on how to foster an ecosystem of innovative tools and services around an education highway (metaphorically) made of open education resources (OER).  Part of this involves implementing a SWORD v2 deposit interface for the Connexions repository of OERs.  Connexions (cnx.org) is a globally available repository of educational materials that can be freely shared, reused, and adapted.

In order to make the deposit of new OERs into the repository even easier this project has been funded to create a deposit tool that will load and convert word document files into CNX-compatible packages, and then deposit them using SWORD v2.  The SWORD interface will then be able to be used to update, augment, and make new versions of the OER modules contained within the repository.

This project will be a good showcase of the applicability of SWORD for all types of content repositories, not just traditional ‘Institutional Repositories’.

We’ll post updates on this blog as the project develops.

Right-Click deposit project

Sep 092011
 

The SWORD project recently published a call for project proposals to create new SWORD v2 clients.  We are happy to announce that two projects have been funded which we’ll introduce in some blog posts.

This blog post introduces the first of the two: Right-click deposit by Kim Shepherd.  The project proposal aims to:

Create a configurable Windows SWORD v2 client which offers quick access to repository deposit via the Windows right-click context menu.

It would be developed with a focus on easy and non-intrusive installation to allow easy large-scale deployments. It will be designed to take advantage of the familiarity most Windows users have with right-click menus and actions, so that users do not have to learn how to use “yet another app”.

Some usage examples include:

  • Pre-configure repository/collection settings and deposit any file with one click
  • Configure repository settings and select collection at time of deposit
  • No configuration, select all options at time of deposit
  • Configure a range of deposit profiles which can be selected via the context menu

We’ll post updates on this blog as the project develops.