Hands-on experiences in biomechanics and biomaterials courses are an important part of biomedical engineering education. Curricula of those courses often include laboratory modules on material testing and characterization. Unfortunately, large and expensive mechanical testing equipment may not be available to all students, thus limiting students'…

While digital products have made significant inroads into the educational resources market, textbooks and other print materials still command about 60 percent of sales. But whether print or digital, all of these commercial offerings now face threats from a burgeoning effort to promote "open" resources for education--that is, materials…

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials with an open license so that they can be freely copied, modified, and reused. While the rising cost of textbooks is a concern in higher education, over 50% of the surveyed educators stated that they are unaware of the OER and how they could replace the traditional textbooks. In addition,…

The Government of Kenya has in the recent past been on a serious footing to put in place ICT initiatives and projects aimed at realizing the potential within its recognition of ICT as a foundation for a knowledge economy as per vision 2030. The tempo has risen several notches higher with the current intention and initiative of making available…

The use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), a subset of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), can reduce the cost of purchasing software. Despite the benefit in the initial purchase price of software, deploying software requires total cost that goes beyond the initial purchase price. Total cost is a silent issue of FOSS and can only…

Learning object repositories are a shared, open and public space; however, the possibility and ability of personal expression in an open, global, public space is crucial. The aim of this study is to explore personal spaces in a big learning object repository as a facilitator for adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) into teaching practices…

In recent years, with the rapid development of communication and network technologies, distance learning has been popularized and it became one of the most well-known teaching methods, due to its practicability. Over the Internet, learners are free to access new knowledge without restrictions on time or location. However, current distance learning…