Developing skills for searching the patent literature is an essential element of chemical information literacy programs at the university level. The present article creates awareness of patents as a rich source of chemical information. Patent classification is introduced as a key-component in comprehensive search strategies. The free Espacenet…

The purpose of this study is to discuss the ethical issues in education in terms of teachers, students, schools, and software companies. Recent growth of the internet and World Wide Web allows new developments in the way instructors transfer knowledge to their students. Technology is a new tool in education that constantly changes and offers new…

The need for public health knowledge is ever increasing, but the educational options have been limited to coursework delivered by academics to individuals who can afford the cost of tuition at public health institutions. To overcome this disparity, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) has joined the Massachusetts Institute of…

Over the period 2006-2008, the Dutch Open Universiteit Nederland conducted an experiment in which Open Educational Resources (OER) were offered in an effort to bridge the gap between informal and formal learning and to establish a new style of entry portal to higher education with no barriers at all. OpenER received considerable attention both in…

Free and Open Educational Resources at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) are deeply rooted in our institutional culture, stemming from the role we played in the struggle for political freedom in South Africa. The successful development of a strategy has been influenced by this history, as well as the role of a champion in the main…

Policy formulation and implementation is a highly contested domain within the South African Higher Education landscape. This contestation can be attributed to the lack of wide stakeholder involvement and the architecture of the policy-making process. The contestation is also born of an absence of a systemic monitoring and evaluation mechanism to…

In the United Kingdom over the past few years there has been a dramatic growth of national and regional repositories to collect and disseminate resources related to teaching and learning. Most notable of these are the Joint Information Systems Committee's Online Repository for [Learning and Teaching] Materials as well as the Higher Education…

Open educational resources (OER) include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to either support access to knowledge, or have an impact on teaching, learning, and research. At the heart of the OER movement is the simple and powerful idea that the…

Educational institutions are increasingly adopting "closed" learning environments that hide learning materials in password-protected areas. While this may be a logical solution to a range of problems, much is lost in this mode of course delivery. Although there are logical reasons for moving toward closed environments, we may be erring…

Growing from a 1988 conference on educational technology, the Ocotillo Action/Research Groups of the Maricopa Community Colleges in Tempe (Arizona) have continued to explore ways of enhancing and developing the use of instructional technologies in the community colleges. This report presents the following annual reports of the groups, which…

In this article, the author cites the many questions familiar to all who ponder the role of the university in the modern world. Among them are the following: (1) What is the appropriate use of "educational technology" in teaching, learning, and scholarship?; (2) What will be the nature of globalization of higher education?; (3) Will the Internet…

As background for its fifth meeting, Ocotillo, the faculty-driven think tank for instructional technology issues of the Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona), presents reports from its working groups for 1991-92. The groups explore the uses and development of educational technology, particularly in the community college setting. The reports are:…

The development of digital content raises new issues as rapid technological developments challenge existing business models and government policies. This OECD study identifies and discusses six groups of business and public policy issues and illustrates these with existing and potential OECD Digital Content Strategies and Policies: (1) Innovation…