Submitting to Digital Learning Repositories
From ElateWiki
Submitting work to digital learning repositories is one way to broadly share the findings of research work and digital learning objects. While repositories do not have the same cachet as a peer-reviewed publication, many such repositories now have put quality vetting into place through tools for peer review. Sharing works through repositories and referatories (those that point to persistent links with digital resources instead of hosting and maintaining the digital contents on their own servers) is one way to raise university and college profiles.
Repositories also make contents more searchable for "open access."
Various grant funding agencies seem to support archival of contents in various designated repositories. Before receipt of some grant funds, recipients often have to agree to archive their work for a public audience. This is an acknowledgment of accountability to a broader public to share information funded by public tax dollars.
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Types of Digital Learning Repositories
A brief search of the WWW and Internet has surfaced university-based, subject-based, and project-based digital repositories. Some are openly accessible. Others require some level of authentication first.
Digital File Types in Repositories
Many repositories contain a range of multimedia: audio, video, animated slideshows, screen captures, and other types of information. Those that deliver to desktop machines are limited in terms of the size of the files that may be maintained and delivered, however.
Repositories that handle large datasets and geographical information apparently need more robust machines for their user interface and access.
Generally, repositories in e-learning have either de facto copyright to the various authors, or they have a broad-based copyright release like Creative Commons' Attribution, Non-Commercial and Share Alike license. Repositories take on various responsibilities for the informational contents: They strive to maintain data integrity. They may offer user privacy in terms of searches. They may deal with file versioning as contents get updated. They may also strive to update file types as different technologies "age out" in the "slow fires" of technological obsolescence.
What repositories don't currently address seems to be the security of "downstream uses" of digital archived contents.
Metadata Labeling
Various repositories require the submittal of metadata (information about information) about the various contents to make them more searchable and defined for user searches and uses.
User Created Value
Various repositories have built in wikis and blogs for contributors and users to share information and digital contents. The interactions between community members may add value to the shared learning and content creation as well. The Web 2.0 concept of a reading / writing Web and of a peopled social Web also contributes to this phenomena.
When Not to Submit to Open Digital Repositories
Common sense would suggest that anything that has research and development (R&D) value, anything with shared intellectual property, work submitted to formal journals and formal conferences, and partially completed works should not be submitted to open digital repositories.
See Also
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching): http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
National Science Digital Library: http://nsdl.org/
Project Gutenberg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg
Ibiblio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiblio
Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Learning Object Repository: http://www.col.org/lor
References
Hai-Jew, S. (2009, Jan.) "Submitting to Digital Learning Repositories (and Copyright Releases)." Presentation. IDT Roundtable. Kansas State University.