User-Generated Content in Education/Curriki

Bazaar
Bazaar is community portal for people who want to use, exchange and share Open Source Software and resources to support learning.

It is a space where you can find information, network with others and share your views and experience, and develop your skills.

Services

1. The provision of information and services for teachers and trainers in the development, creation, exchange and use of e-learning materials. 2. The facilitation of social networking and the development of social networks. 3. The provision of opportunities to test and use different Open Source Software tools and applications. 4. The provision of opportunities to explore and share experience and practice. 5. The provision of opportunities to share learning materials. 6. Research and dissemination into emergent issues and practice. 7. Networking of projects and initiatives. 8. The provision of peer group advice and guidance and access to expertise and help. 9. Opportunities for discourse and communication between developers and users of e-learning applications. (Bazaar, 2010)

Curriki
Curriki is a combination of the words 'curriculum' and 'wiki' and its mission is to make learning possible for everyone, anywhere in the world. It focuses on a comprehensive course of instruction and assessment, it is developed through community contributors and delivered throughout the world. Anyone with access to the internet can contribute to and use the material.

Services

-      As of July 2010, Curriki.org contained 515 social networking groups and 36,216 learning objects in its repository including open access lesson plans, units, videos, simulations and other educational resources. (Curriki, 2010)

-      Curriki has been recognized by a number of organizations for its contributions to education. In 2009 Curriki received the WISE Award for Innovation in Education from the Qatar Foundation.(WISE, 2010)

Intute
Intute is a free online guide to help find web resources for different topics of research. Started in 1996, this site has evaluated thousands of resources to show what sites are most useful. Intute also provides a Virtual Training Suite to help you perfect your internet searching skills. The site offers over 60 free online tutorials. However, due to funding cuts in July 2010 some of the Intute services require membership fees.

Services 

-	There are a number of ways to search for web resources using Intute. -	You can browse by subject or you can use the search box. -	Free teaching resources to fine tune critical thinking skills as well as searching strategies. -	Informs, which lets university employees share and create their own web tutorials. -	You can create your own Intute account to save your searches and resources. -	Offers refined support for students, teaching staff, librarians, and technical staff.

MERLOT
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Online Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials.

Their goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.

Services -      The MERLOT repository contains learning materials, comments, personal collections and Content Builder web pages. The learning materials are categorized into 18 different learning material types. A large selection of materials in MERLOT also have assignments and comments attached to them. It is also possible to add any material to a personal collection, to make organizing your teaching materials for each of your courses. - These 18 Learning material types are: Animation, Assessment Tool, Assignment, Case Study, Collection, Development Tool, Drill and Practice, Learning Object Repository, Online Course, Open Journal - Article, Open Textbook, Presentation, Quiz/Test, Reference Material, Simulation, Social Networking Tool, Tutorial, Workshop and Training Material (MERLOT, 2010)

Open Courseware Consortium
The Website Open Courseware Consortium is a free and open digital publication of high quality university‐level educational materials. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. These resources are free, openly licensed and accessible to anyone, anytime via the internet.

Services

-      International colleges contribute to this site -      Some included universities are: Tufts University, Paris Tech, Korea University, Universidad de Sevilla, University of Capetown and the University of Notre Dame. -      Includes video links for all lectures and all content falls under the Creative Commons umbrella.

Open Learn
The website OpenLearn grants free access to anyone interested in Open University course materials. Here you can study at your own pace or in a group. Started in 2006, OpenLearn provides over 8000 hours of learning materials categorized for your convenience. Some topics are Education, Body & Mind, Languages, Environment, and Money & Management.

Services

-	Offers hundreds of free study units. -	Each study unit has its own discussion board. -	Quickstart guides -	Frequently Asked Questions section -	Glossary -	Labspace – which offers free access to different learning materials where you can edit, collaborate, and publish. -	Newsletters and feedback sections.

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare is a website that contains free MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

Services

-    Please view the video for information and a site tour of OpenCourseWare (OCW)

MIT OpenCourseWare Site Tour

Scribd
Scribd is a website where millions of people share original compositions that they have created. Launched in 2007, Scribed has millions of writings from fiction to business presentations. This site has about 10 million readers monthly.

Services

-	Over 100 Billion words. -	90 different languages supported. -	Large variety of original writings of fiction to research papers to business reports. -	Easily convert PDF files, word documents, and power point presentations into web documents. -	User friendly sharing features. -	You can choose how you read (Scribd.com, mobile devices, downloads, and print.) -	Connected with Facebook and Twitter.

Digital Universe Directory
Digital Universe Directory is a non – profit organization that makes the top educational, scientific and cultural information on the internet. Topics include everything from sports to the universe. Also offers “The Encyclopedia of Earth: Our World” which was written by various experts.

Services

-	Provides tools for users to build and publish content online. -	Uses internet portals and sub-portals to organize expert reviewed data. -	Wide variety of topics. -	News articles -	Blog posts -	Different multimedia options.

Instructables
Instructables is a platform that lets people share different things that they do. People learn and collaborate to solve a wide variety of projects. Here one can search through a variety of topics such as: Food, Living, Outside, Play, and Technology. Instructables serves a massive amount of people who want to share everything from recipes to how to guides to video game scores. This site is for the do-it-yourselfer.

Services

-	Offers a large amount of different things. -      Step by step guides to build and fix common household items. -      Step by step recipes. -	Site is organized into categories. -	Different forums for different topics. -	Offers advanced membership. -	Several different types of contests.