Open education and course modules

Many colleges and universities are presenting their course offerings freely online, with the stipulations that no credit shall be granted and faculty are unavailable to comment on the coursework or assist learners. Examples of use: lifelong learning, comparing curricula, supporting concept-based learning or instructional design. Courses range from full academic term offerings, to learning modules, lectures, study guides, and notes. Starting with complete courses:

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) makes freely available online course materials that are used in the teaching of more than 1,800 Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate and graduate courses. Likely the model for many other institutions with open education materials.

As mentioned yesterday, Open Yale Courses
Free introductory undergraduate level courses from Yale University in astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, and religious studies. Courses include syllabi, lecture notes, exams, video and audio lectures.

Tufts OpenCourseWare
This OpenCourseWare site provided by Tufts University includes lecture notes, syllabi, extensive bibliographies, and various media presentations. Emphasis on courses in the life sciences.

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Courses on medicine, public health, and life science.

Openlearn : The Open University
Free college-level online courses and educational materials in the arts, humanities, business, education, health, computing, math, language, science, study skills, and technology. Course level and estimated completion time are given for each unit. A feature called LabSpace offers the ability to download and "remix" course materials.

The following offer lectures, learning modules, and/or other course materials:

MIT Lecture Browser
Searchable database of MIT lectures. Keyword search or browse by category. There may be problems with the interface in some browsers.

UC Berkeley on Google Video
Course lectures, events and symposia from UC Berkeley. Topics include the sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, technology, government and public policy.

Connexions
"Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our Content Commons contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals — organized in small modules that are easily connected into larger collections or courses."

OER Commons : Open Educational Resources
Database of free online educational resources for all levels. Includes complete courses, syllabi, demonstrations, tutorials, texts, lesson plans, lectures, and more. Free registration allows site users to save entries and add or share their own descriptive tags.

Also worth a look are the units available at Fathom, provided by Columbia University and iTunes U, a section of the Apple iTunes store with free educational content from many institutions.

Search for OCW
OpenCourseWare Finder
Search hundreds of OpenCourseWare offerings provided by universities or browse OCW courses by subject.

Metasearch, user-friendly government documents and free online education

Happy New Year!

As our editors return from holiday breaks, we're once again adding resources to INFOMINE.

LOUIS : The Library Of Unified Information Sources
Searchable government documents, including Congressional Reports, Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Federal Register, Presidential Documents, GAO Reports, Congressional Bills and Resolutions. Several search options, both within and across categories. Also see GovernmentDocs.org .

Executive Pay Finder
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offers 500 filings of executive compensation disclosures and other financial data. Search by ticker symbol or company name, industry, or valuation. Datasets are also provided in the form of XBRL files.

Zuula Search
Web, image, video, news, blog, and job metasearch. View results by search engine source or customize preferences by choosing which primary search engine results to include. Link spotted on ResearchBuzz.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
"The ISFDB is a community effort to catalog works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It links together various types of bibliographic data: author bibliographies, publication bibliographies, award listings, magazine content listings, anthology and collection content listings, and forthcoming books."

Tomorrow's entry will feature a selection of places for free college-level learning. Until then, have a look at what Yale is doing at Open Yale Courses, with free introductory undergraduate level courses from Yale University in astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, and religious studies. Courses include syllabi, lecture notes, exams, video and audio lectures.

Writing help

Before taking a week off for the holidays, we'd like to offer a selection of writing resources; guides, tutorials, and other websites designed to help improve writing, style, or usage. We will resume regular posting the first week of January.

The OWL at Purdue : Free Writing Help and Teaching Resources
Purdue University offers teaching and learning resources for better writing. Covers professional, academic, technical, and job search writing, as well as grammar, research, citing sources, creative writing, internet literacy and much more.

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Tutorials and quick facts on academic writing, with a detailed site index offering solutions for commonly-encountered problems and questions.

Writing Center at Colorado State University
Very well-designed and interesting site for writing problem solving, tutorials and guides. Offers 150 guides on the writing process, types of writing, and how to research. Also provides interactive activities (these require a free registration with email address).

A+ : Research and Writing for High School and College Students
A basic guide to selecting a research topic, researching, and writing a paper.

Citation Style Guides / Citing Sources
Links to resources on citations and citing. Major categories include: APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), Turabian, Chicago Manual of Style , CBE (Council of Biology Editors), Government Publications, Legal Citations, Medical Citations, and Film Resources.

OttoBib
Enter a book's ISBN to generate a bibliographic citation in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian style. Best used with some knowledge of said citation formats to ensure correct formatting.

From the University of California Riverside Libraries:

Cite Your Sources : Social Sciences and Humanities

Creating a Reference List : Sciences

Citing Government Publications and Websites

More What's New highlights

There have been many additions to the What's New page recently, so once again we'll highlight some of the interesting ones here. Subscribing to the INFOMINE What's New RSS Feed will let you see all new additions as they are cataloged.

USA.gov Tutorials : Help Finding Government Information Online
Tutorials for finding government information and services online using USA.gov, including government auctions, grants, and jobs. Referred by ResourceShelf.

Financial Aid Letter.com
An explanation and guide to costs of attending college and loans available. Sections include a glossary of financial aid terms, samples and explanations of financial aid award letters, how to estimate college costs and how to make college affordable.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics : Digital Video Library
Digital video library supporting K-12 science and math education. Videos are organized by American Association for the Advancement of Science benchmarks, National Science Education Standards, the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, state standards, and instructional methods. More than 1,000 videos.

British Museum : Collection Database Search
Search the catalog of the British Museum's pictorial art collections. More than 260,000 records with 98,000 images as of November 2007.

Sports-Reference.com
Sports statistics and resources on teams, leagues, players, coaches, records, and awards. Covers baseball, basketball, and football.

PDRhealth
Consumer web resource of the Physicians' Desk Reference offers information on drugs (prescription and OTC), dietary supplements, alternative medicine, diseases, health conditions, treatment options, and clinical trials.

Luminaries of the Chemical Sciences
PDF publications with overviews of the lives and scientific achievements of 20th century chemists.

K-12 educational resources

Today's miniguide is a selection of educational resources for K-12 instruction, including lesson plans, curriculum development, standards-based instruction, and more. This is a very small sample of the resources that can be found in INFOMINE. When searching, either browse the Teaching and Study Resources resource type, or try limiting the search to "subject" in the advanced search form and using terms study and teaching together with a Library of Congress heading like science, mathematics, or history. Alternatively, use study and teaching with an educational level: elementary, secondary, or higher. No special formatting is required to run a subject search, you can enter words just as if you were performing a keyword search. Check out the Library of Congress Authorities or the Wikipedia article on Library of Congress Classification to learn more about the LCSH.

The Science House
Materials for K-12 science teachers: suggested lab activities, professional development directories, online science news and teaching resources.

National Science Resources Center
The NSRC collects and disseminates information about exemplary teaching resources, develops and disseminates curriculum materials, and sponsors outreach activities, specifically in the areas of leadership development and technical assistance, to help school districts develop and sustain hands-on science programs.

GEM : Gateway to 21st Century Skills
"The Gateway to Educational Materials is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit and commercial Internet sites."

learningscience.org
Science learning tools and interactive multimedia for K-12 students and their teachers, based on the National Science Education Standards. Includes the scientific method, life sciences, physical sciences, space, Earth, and technology.

Lesson Plans Library
Hundreds of lesson plans written by teachers in life science, physical science, social studies, mathematics, history, literature, and economics. As part of a commercial site, some plans are based on specific Discovery Channel products, however each plan offers links to free electronic resources that can be integrated into lessons.

Teachers' Domain
Lesson plans and multimedia resources (documents, images, video, audio, and interactive presentations) for K-12 teachers. Free registration required.

Educator's Reference Desk
Guide to more than 3,000 educational web resources, 2,000 lesson plans, and archived AskERIC questions and answers from 1992-2003.

USGS Learning Web
The U.S. Geological Service Learning Web explains topics in earth sciences, geology, hydrology, geography, biology, and maps for K-12 students, K-12 teachers, and lifelong learners. Basic explanations of earth sciences topics (such as volcanoes, plate tectonics, earthquakes, water use), teachers guides and lesson plans for science units at the elementary and secondary levels, science project ideas for school students, and links to science education websites are offered.

NASA Education
NASA Education programs presents web resources for educators, for students, and for the informal education community. There are links to web pages, curriculum materials, lesson plans, classroom activities in these areas: aerospace technology; human exploration and development of space; earth science; and space science. In addition there are links to the education and outreach pages of individual NASA laboratories and centers.

Advanced Placement Digital Library
The APDL offers resources for teachers and students in Advanced Placement English, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Resources are reviewed (on content, graphics, format, ease of use) and annotated by a panel of AP teachers and College Board consultants.

Law blogs and law schools

Recently added to INFOMINE were several resources on law schools, the LSAT, law school admissions, and legal blogs. The next administration dates for the LSAT are on December 1, 2007 and February 2, 2008. More information about the LSAT.

The Princeton Review : Law Schools and Careers
A starting point for for preparing for a career in law; offers law school rankings, school search by location, cost, specialization, and selectivity, career advice, information on the LSAT, and the law school application process.

Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools
Directory of American Bar Association approved law schools, searchable by location, tuition cost, bar passage rate, curriculum, financial aid, and more. Also presents guides to legal education: prelaw, the LSAT, applying to law school, fields of law, the bar exam, being a lawyer, and post-JD programs.

Law School Admission Council
Administrator of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the Law School Admission Council offers information on the law school application process; test dates, locations, registration (with fee) for the LSAT; sample tests and forms; financial aid information; and links to law schools and legal education resources.

Blawg Directory : ABA Journal
Directory of law blogs (blawgs), organized by subject, author, location, and law school. Each section contains an annotated list of the most popular blogs and an alphabetical list.

Law Weblogs - Blawgs : A Pathfinder
A guide to finding law blogs (blawgs) online, with select lists of legal blogs and links to blog search engines and directories.

NASA images and multimedia

Websites from NASA are consistently well-designed and offer interesting information for people interested in astronomy, space exploration, and science. Here are some examples of NASA image and multimedia collections, taken from the INFOMINE database. NASA is well-represented in INFOMINE, with more than 200 records tagged with NASA in the author field.

NASA Multimedia Search
Guide to NASA image, video, and multimedia collections.

Planetary Photojournal
Images from various NASA solar system exploration programs with images of planets, small bodies, the sun, and the universe.

Visible Earth
100,000 animations and images of Earth organized by collection, geographic region, and topic.

Johnson Space Center Digital Image Collection
Press release photos from manned spaceflight missions.

Astronomy Picture of the Day
Daily astronomy image with description and an archive of past images.

NASA Education
Links to NASA web resources for kids, students, and educators.